Category : Books-Fiction

Sub Category : Fantasy

Lightning struck outside the barred window, casting shadows across the
quiet room. The occupant wasn’t awoken by the thunder that accompanied the
lightening, instead he had been awake. The nightmares he had on almost a daily
basis was the culprit, he was jolted awake in a cold sweat. He stared at the
shadows that danced across the ceiling, he wouldn’t fall asleep again. Once he
had a nightmare, it would be a few days until he was able to fall sleep again.
He could hear the unlocking of the door, he paid it no mind as he closed his
eyes.

The room had become filled with the scent of vanilla; it was sweet to
his nose. He took in a deep inhalation of it.

“You are not the usual nurse who checks on me.” He said breaking the
silence.

He heard her gasp like she didn’t expect him to be awake. This caused
him to chuckle lightly at scaring her.

“You scared me.” Came a gentle sweet voice.

“I know, I heard you gasp. Like I said you are not the usual nurse that
checks on me.”

“How do you know that when the lights are off?” asked the nurse.

He heard her gentle steps as she moved closer to him, he really didn’t
want her to be here. He has an issue with trusting people. Maybe if he is mean
to her she will leave? Or maybe he could scare her. He was curious if she had
looked at his file, if she hadn’t than he would be in luck.

“You could say I’m a unique person, I can smell the lotion you use and
hear your heart. You smell delicious by the way.”

He hoped that this was enough to scare her, most of what he said is
true. She did smell amazing. Her steps had stopped and with his eyes closed, he
didn’t know how far she was away. She was close enough for her smell to smother
him.

“Are you trying to scare me, you will have to better than that. Why are
you restrained anyway, I haven’t had time to read your file yet?” Said the
nurse.

She was closer than he thought, he felt the heat of her breath on his
ear. This sent alarms throughout his body, he fought the urge to move. Due to
the restrains, he couldn’t turn his head. The heat of her breath faded; he
slowly opened his eyes. All he saw was the dancing of shadows on the ceiling,
then he felt the loosening of the strap that held his head in place. He turned
his head slowly and saw her, the nurse was beyond beautiful. Even though the
room was still dark, his sight pierced the darkness. She had long auburn red
hair that fell to both sides of her soft face. Her eyes were a beautiful
grayish blue. They seemed to just bore through him. She had a gentle smile on
her face.

“Your appearance matches your voice; you are unbelievably attractive.”
He said.

“Thank you.” She said sweetly. “are you able to see in the dark?”

“Yes, it is one of the things that makes me unique. Will you come
closer?” he said.

He could see the hesitation in her face and body.

“I am restrained and once you look in my file, you will see I have never
attacked anyone here.”

She seemed to resolve herself and moved closer to him. She sat down
right beside his left hand and looked down at him. Lightning struck again and
this cause her to be able to see a brief glimpse of his face. Her smile
returned as she sat there.

“You are not so bad yourself, but the bandage that covers your eye is
concerning. Did you get hurt?” she said.

“You can say that it is the reason I am restrained. You can remove it
and see.” He replied.

“It isn’t going to turn me to stone or something, is it?” she asked.

He couldn’t help but to laugh. “nothing of the sort. Just remove it.”

He laid there as she leaned forward and started to loosen the bandage;
he lifted his head slightly so that she could remove it. Her scent of vanilla
was engulfing him, he couldn’t help but to take in another deep breath of it.
He heard her giggle.

“Do I really smell that good to you?”

“Unimaginably so, do you mind leaning in closer?” he said.

“You are starting to sound like a vampire, do you want to drink my
blood?”

“Would you trust me if I said yes? I won’t drink much.” He said with a
laugh.

She leaned in closer and her neck came to his nose. He lifted his head
and took in her scent again. Vanilla was the base of the smell, but he could
smell her natural scent too. He could not find the words to describe this
smell, but he was intoxicated by it. He wasn’t a vampire, but he did like to
mess with people. He opened his mouth in an attempt to bite her, but he just
licked her neck. He felt her twitch and pull back.

“Did you just lick me?” she asked.

“Were you expecting me to actually bite you? I’m not a vampire, I just
have heighten senses.” He said.

She wiped her neck where he licked her. He could see the anger in her
eyes, maybe he messed up and pissed her off. Well he did want her to leave. The
bandage was still over his eye, but it was loosened. She leaned forward and took
it off all the way. Her eyes must have adjusted to the darkness, because the
look of anger left and was replaced with her covering her mouth. Her eyes went
wide.

“What happened to your eye?” she asked in a muffled voice.

“This is why I am restrained; I clawed my own eye out while I was having
a nightmare. After that I requested to be restrained when I slept. The request
was immediately fulfilled because all the damage I did to myself.” Said the
man.

The nurse's expression changed to sympathy. He did not want her
sympathy, he deep down felt he deserved what happened to him. That he shouldn’t
even be here, that he should be dead. He closed his eye, while the damaged one
had no eye lid for him to close. He felt the bed shift slightly, and a hand
come to his cheek.

“It will be best if you restrain me again and leave.” Said the man

“Do you not want me here?” the nurse replied.

“I don’t like people pitying me, I am already a broken man.” Said the man.

“I don’t pity you; I find you interesting. You don’t seem like you
belong here, this hospital is for the mentally deranged and crazy. You don’t
seem like either.” Said the nurse.

“Well that is where you are wrong, I belong here more than anyone knows.
If I told you my story, you would think I lost my mind.” Said the man moving
his face away from her hand. “I want you to leave.”

“Very well, I’ll come check on you again tomorrow.” Said the nurse as
she got up.

He repositioned his head so she could tighten the restraint and bandage
before she left. Her smell lingered in the room for a time after she left, he remained
silent as he laid in the darkness. He didn’t know how long it was till dawn and
he really didn’t care. He closed his eye and slipped into a meditative trance.
The nurse had thrown him off his center, he started meditating after one of the
shrinks had him do it during a session. It helped him clear his head of all the
noise.

He didn’t sleep that night like always after a nightmare, but he was
able to center himself again and feel at peace. He wasn’t bound to his room,
but he rarely ever left it. On the few occasions he did leave, he would go to
the hospital’s library for some new books. He had already read all the books he
took out last time and he knew he had to leave his room to get some new ones. He
was surprised the new nurse wasn’t the one who came to release him this
morning, maybe he did scare her off. He heard the door unlock and open, he
looked over at it. Standing in the doorway was a detective, the same detective
that visited him every few days.

“Go away.” Said the man.

“I thought we had become friends, I come see you all the time.” Replied
the detective.

“I don’t need friends and you only come here to ask about what happened
that night. There are some things better left unknown, I’m saving you from the nightmare
I live every day.” The man got up off his bed and moved over to a table with
some books on it.

“Duncan, your whole family died that night. You are the only one who
knows what happened. All the evidence points to you killing them all, if you
didn’t then I need to know what happened.” Said the detective.

Duncan picked up the books on the table, he didn’t want to talk about
this. He has tried his best to push what happened to the back off his mind. He
had kept his mind off of it until he saw the detective.

“Well tell them I did it, maybe I’ll get the chair.” Duncan said as he
pushed passed the detective.

“Dammit Duncan, I’m being serious.”

“And you think I’m not.” Replied Duncan as he made his way down the hall.

The institution he resided in was on the bigger side, if he had to guess
it was an old Victorian three story mansion with over a hundred bedrooms. It
had been renovated to make it more modern and to add a cafeteria. He like the old
architecture of the building. He passed by one of the day rooms, inside there
was about 20 patients doing various things from watching tv to playing
boardgames. A few nurses were interacting with them, he moved passed the day
room. Due to his demeanor and the bandage that covered his eye, most of the
patients and nurses avoided him. He was actually glad they did, it made it
easier on him.

“Oh look who we have here, eyepatch.” Came a gruff voice.

Duncan didn’t acknowledge the voice and kept walking, this cause the
books to be knocked from his hand.

“I’m fucking talking to you.” Said the voice again.

Duncan knew who’s voice it was and didn’t want to deal with him. He
knelt down to pick up the books, but was struck with a pain in his side. He
felt something warm run down across his stomach. He couldn’t help but to think
was he stabbed? Duncan didn’t move as he felt the object break in him, the
blood poured more freely now. He saw as the blood pooled around his knee and crept
closer to the books. He moved and pushed all the books away, as not to get
blood on them. The pain worsened at his movement and it grew harder to breath. He
heard footsteps and screams but they were distant in his ears. His vision
shifted as he was laid on his back, everything became blurry. There standing
over him was the person that might have stabbed him. He was a burly man in an
orderly outfit with a smirk. Even with his blurred vision, Duncan knew the man.
It was Johnson, he spends his time abusing the patients. He is never caught, he
has a few patients do all his dirty work. What are they going to do to a
patient in a psych ward when they stab people. They always chop it up to the
patient had a mental break and just lock them up until the patient is proven
safe for the general population.

The familiar scent of vanilla pulled his attention, his head shifted but
he couldn’t make out any of the word the person said. He felt lightheaded now
as his vision blurred even more. He felt it latch onto him, the palpable
sickening feeling he felt that night. He felt his body convulse as he pushed
the person he was looking at away and puked. He hadn’t eaten anything today so
what he threw up was mostly clear with red tint to it. The scent of vanilla
came to him again, this time it was stronger. The voice cut through the madness
and it was clear to him.

“What happened to you? You are covered it blood and you are puking.”
Said the gentle feminine voice.

Before Duncan could answer he puked again. This time it was almost a
solid red color. A bucket was retrieved after this round, so when he puked for
the third time it didn’t cover the floor. With the blood loss and puking, he
became weaker. This made the sickening feeling stronger, he didn’t know what to
do. He felt the warm hand on his back, the smell of vanilla mixed in with the
iron smell of blood and the vile smell of vomit. He felt more hands on him, he
assumed it was more doctors and nurses.

“Get off me.” Said Duncan.

“What the hell are you talking about, you are bleeding out and puking.”
Came the same feminine voice.

He felt it start to solidify, the abomination that took up residence in
his body that night.

“You don’t have to worry, none of them will survive.” Came the blood
curdling voice in his mind. “you have done well to suppress me, but now you are
too weak. I am still angry about what you did to my eye.”

Duncan grabbed his head. “I am the one in control, not you.”

“Who are you talking to?” said the feminine voice. 

His bandaged eye started to burn, it was taking control. He had to get
away from everyone, he grabbed the woman’s hand.

“You have to get me away from everyone or they will all die.” Said
Duncan.

“What are you talking about.” Said the woman as Duncan pulled the
bandages down to reveal what was underneath. 

The woman’s eyes went wide at what she saw. He was running out of time,
any moment now the monster would win control. He had to run, but he needed the
wound taken care of. He pushed himself up onto shaky legs, the woman got under
his shoulder and help him to stay standing.

“There is no time.” Said Duncan.

He mustered all the strength he had, he needed to get as far as he
could. He dropped to a knee, this sent pain throughout his body.

“Get on my back.” He said. 

“What?” she replied.

He removed any choice she could have had as he moved under her and
raised back to his feet. His hands came up under her thighs and raised her to where
he was giving her piggy back ride.

“Hold on.” He said.

Before she could reply he took off down the hall, he battled the pain
and with control over his body. He felt his body start to shift, was he too
late? He headed for the door to the outside, it was normally kept locked to
restrict the patients to inside. Duncan heard a click and the door opened up, he
felt his shoes rip as his speed increased. The sun poured down on them as he
left the building. He needed to get to the woods before he shifted all the way.
His hair thickened and two furry ears grew. He was still 50 yards from the edge
of the woods. He stumbled as his legs started to bend back. Once they had
shifted all the way, his speed increased even more. With the increased speed he
broke through the edge of the woods in half the time. 

“What are you?” he heard the woman say.

“I am a monster.” He growled out.

He slowed and dropped the woman to the ground.

“Ow that hurt.” She said standing back up and rubbing her ass.

What she met next made her speechless. The patient she was intrigued by
was not the same anymore. His height was about 2ft taller and he was now covered
in fur with a muzzle and ears. The bandage was gone and she could see an eye where
there shouldn’t be one.

“I am sorry for bringing you with me but I need you to pull out the
broken piece while I still have control.” Said Duncan in a deep wolf like
voice.

The beautiful auburn haired nurse didn’t say anything as she looked at
him. Duncan could see the fear in her eyes, he had made a bad choice in
bringing her. He fell to one knee as he grabbed his head and growled. This
brought the nurse back to reality. She felt like she had went insane, monsters
are not real. But standing in front of her was something not human.

“You need to hurry and pull out the metal.” Said Duncan in a deep gravelly
voice.

“I don’t have any tools to do that, you will just bleed to death if I
tried.” Replied the woman.

“I wonder if she tastes as good as she looks.” Came the voice in
Duncan’s head. “I want to hear the snapping of bones and ripping of flesh.”

Duncan was losing this battle, he will become the monster he has tried
to suppress since that day. He heard the gun shot before it hit him, he could
feel his body going numb.