Chapter Text
It’s about 6 PM on a Tuesday. Theresa, the head nurse, is teaching me about the heart monitor in room 7.
She had shown me around this room and what you’re supposed to do yesterday, but I didn’t see anything in action with a real patient just yet.
“You just gotta press these buttons until it gets to 100%, and don’t press those little red ones, they’ll make it go down.”
Cool. I guess. But I wonder…
“Hey, if I press too many of those red things, will the patient die?”
She looked at me with a face of pure disappointment and exhaustion, “Probably. Try it and I’ll do the same to you, got that?”
Theresa elbows me in the arm, before continuing with her explanation.
“The next patient in this room is yours, so I expect it to go smoothly. It’s really easy, so you really shouldn’t have any problems.”
I’ve seen just about everyone do this without issue, maybe a few wrong buttons here and there but it seems pretty easy, probably could’ve done it all on my own without a teacher anyways.
“I’ll do fine, if I can handle room 6, I can handle room 7.”
The white cat glared at me, more so right through me. She quickly looked away.
“Good. Go back to the main room now, I’m sure that Bluey will love you over his shoulder.”
Theresa laughed, walking out to go help Rose, wherever she was now.
Ok. I’ll have to do this alone. No problem, I totally won’t kill a patient.
…
Yeah, I’m totally gonna fuck this up.
— 1 million button presses later —
I walked through the doors of the check in room, Charles was intensely watching the security cameras. I tap him on his shoulder, he jumps up and starts to scream, before realizing it’s just ‘the intern’.
“Kit! You do NOT sneak up on people like that! You look like an anomaly already, no need to scare people like one..” He holds his hand to his chest and sighs, glaring at me like I just killed a patient.
“It’s just you in here. Why? I thought security would be with you, or the psychologist, he usually never leaves the room that much.”
It was true, Victor never dared to stray far from the main room. He mainly just checked in patients and chatted with Charles.
“Talking with a visitor in room 5. Why are you here anyways? I thought Theresa was training you in the emergency rooms today.”
He pointed out.
“I’ve already been trained in room 6 and 7, she doesn’t want me in the surgical room yet. Also, she told me that the next room 7 patient is mine, so she probably just wanted me to wait in here until that came around.”
I turn my head to the next patient waiting, Charles was probably checking them when I came in.
“Is the patient good?” I ask.
“Yes..and I don’t want you to interfere with my work.” He barely even looked at me, walking away to go talk with the patient. “I’ll tell you when a patient goes to room 7.”
I sat near the coffee machine for about 30 minutes, Charles glanced at me every now and then, clearly a little unsettled.
A faint jingle of a hider disappearing along with a sigh could be heard somewhere around the halls.
CLANK
“Kit. Go get the headbanger.” Charles says, pointing to the window where the putrid creature clanked its skull on the glass. “Please do it quickly.”
CLANK
Without a word, I got up and walked out. The headbanger appeared to be a yellow cat, the poor thing didn’t smell like it was mid decomposing yet, probably hasn’t been long since it became this. Its breath was shaky.
CLANK
“Excuse me, you need to leave.” I demanded, hovering a hand around its shoulder.
The headbanger snapped its head to me, we stared without moving for at least 20 seconds before it walked out. Phew!
I turn away, walking towards the doo-
-10 Sanity
That damn stalker appeared out of nowhere! I KNEW I heard something behind me when I walked out..
Now I have to wait until the next available coffee..now that it’s near the end of most people’s shifts, everyone will have low sanity! I’ll have to conserve it for now, I guess.
The patients came and went, things seemed to be as fine as a frog hair split four ways.
There wasn’t much commotion, I lay my back to the wall, almost feeling waves against me.
I slowly felt myself slowly slipping into a calm sleep-
“Kit! Room 7, hop to it.” Charles commanded me, I already saw some green bear or whatever walking to the room.
“Aye, aye..” oughhhh…i wanted to protest for a second, but quickly remembered that I’m not a child and have a job.
“Wait! I see the stalker out there. Be careful.” He added, stretching out his arms.
Great. The stalker. Again. At least I was warned this time, right?
Still, it's weird that it happened twice in the same area.
I walk out, facing my head down.
I cannot afford to lose more sanity right now..
My arm lightly brushes against fur? Skin? Who knows.
I close my eyes tight.
I speed walk away.
I have a patient.
I managed to make it to the room, the patient just entering. That interaction was…interesting.
Oh well.
I finally have a patient I can care for by myself.
That’s all that matters.
I prepare the patient and set up the IV and all that, now the scary part.
I prick them to get some DNA, I put it through the analysis machine, and wait.
…
…
…
Oh shit they’re Canadian. I mean, they also have bruises and bleeding, but they’re CANADIAN. Ok, I need to get maple syrup, bandages, and a medkit, not that hard… right?
I gave the items to them and left them to heal so I could just go home already, it’s been a long day.
I let them recover and walked back to the check in room, seeing the others.
Theresa, Rose, and the paramedic, Nikola were talking to each other about how Harlow has been acting, the “secret” agent was watching the others, the doctor, Danica, and the surgeon, Marek, were laughing about some inside joke, and Charles and Kabir, the psychologist, were just chatting about the recent events and patients.
I was about to maybe try and talk with the agent (who refused to tell anyone his name), or maybe chat with Theresa and Rose, or-
But I was cut short when the door of the check-in room opened with a clawed blue-gray paw, revealing the security guard.
Theresa mentioned her a couple times, her name was Carmen and she stayed in her own dark little security room near Dr. Harlow's office.
Carmen is a bit taller than Theresa but a lot more visibly muscular, I guess that’s kinda obvious since she’s a security guard.
“…how’d the shift go?” Carmen crossed her arms and put her back against the wall.
I blinked and slowly looked up, intimidated by her height. “Pretty good, I learned about the heart monitor and treated the patient well.”
“That’s good, but don’t go treating any patients when we’re not around to teach you beforehand, Kit.”
“Ok, ok, I promise I won’t. Good night guys! See ya tomorrow!” I said, waving at them before walking out of the office.
The streets were dark, no streetlights in sight. Ah, this shit makes me feel like I’m gonna get kidnapped.
I ran all the way home, trying to ignore the shadows that shifted around me as if they were trying to avoid my very presence.
I finally made it home, only in a pool of my own sweat. I need to take a shower before I go to bed. I have a long day tomorrow, I’ll be working on room 8, the surgery room with Theresa and Marek.
I hopped in the shower and made sure that the water was hot, but not scorching hot, just how I like it. Huh, scorching hot? Like ScorchClan in The Clans of Yonder? I heard that there was a certain cat named Mojave in that game. I should check it out.
I got out and into some crappy pajamas and into my crappy bed, I was so exhausted I didn’t even care. I just wanted to go to sleep and forget all about tomorrow.