“Nina! Shh,” the empty face implored in a soft rasp. It was her roommate, standing by her bed in his white hospital gown. The tubes had been removed from his arms, leaving trails of oozing crimson wiped away carelessly on the barren white skin around it.
“W-what the hell?” she frowned. “Seriously?”
“Listen, Nina. Just keep very quiet and listen to me,” he whispered, sinking to his haunches a little so that his body was obscured from the entrance of the room by Nina’s bed. Only his head was elevated above so that he could speak in her ear. “The man I told you about is going to come looking for me. I have to find a hiding place until he is gone.”
But he was out of luck. Nina was drugged into delirium and did not care much for his fate. She just nodded until her free floating eyes disappeared under the cover of heavy lids again. He sighed in despair and looked around, his breath increasing with every passing moment. Yes, there was the police presence protecting the patients, but honestly, armed protection hadn’t even saved the men who were employed by it, let alone those who were unarmed!
It would be best, Sam the patient thought, if he hid instead of risking an escape. If he were to be discovered, he could then deal with the assailant accordingly and hopefully Dr. Gould would not be harmed by any ensuing violence. Nina’s ears had improved vastly since she had begun losing her sight; this allowed her to she stayed tuned-in to the shuffling feet of her paranoid roommate. One after the other, his footsteps withered away from her, but not towards his bed. She kept drifting in and out of sleep, but her eyes remained shut.
Soon after, deep behind Nina’s ocular cavities a numbing pain had blossomed, bleeding out in a flower of hurt through her brain. Nerve connections quickly introduced her receptors to the splitting migraine it was causing, and Nina yelped out loud in her sleep. Suddenly, the gradually growing headache filled her eyeballs and set her brow on fire with fever.
“Oh my God!” she shouted. “My head! My head is killing me!”
Her cries echoed through the practical silence of the dead of night in the ward, promptly summoning the medical staff to her side. Nina’s shivering thumbs finally fumbled their way to the emergency button and she pressed it repeatedly to illicit help from the night nurse. A new nurse, fresh from the academy, came rushing in.
“Dr. Gould? Dr. Gould, are you alright? What is the matter, dear?” she asked.
“M-my…,” Nina stuttered through her drug-induced disorientation, “head is exploding with pain! It sits right behind my eyes now and it is killing me. My God! It feels as if my skull is cracking open.”
“I’ll go and get Dr. Hilt quickly. He just came out of surgery. Just relax. He’ll be by just now, Dr. Gould.” The nurse turned and hastened out for help.
“Thank you,” Nina sighed, exhausted from the hideous pain, no doubt courtesy of her eyes. Briefly, she lifted her head to check on Sam the patient’s, but he was absent. Nina frowned. I could have sworn he spoke to me while I was sleeping. She thought about it further. No. I must have been dreaming.
“Dr. Gould?”
“Aye? Sorry, I can hardly see,” she apologized.
“Dr. Hilt is with me.” Turning to the doctor she said, “Excuse me, I just have to run next door for a moment to help Frau Mittag with her bed pan.”
“Of course, Nurse. Please take your time,” the doctor replied. Nina heard the nurse’s feet patter out lightly. She looked at Dr. Hilt and informed him of her exact complaint. Unlike Dr. Fritz, who was very active and liked to diagnose swiftly, Dr. Hilt was a better listener. He waited for Nina to explain precisely how the headache settled behind her eyes before responding.
“Dr. Gould? Can you at least see me properly?” he asked. “The headaches usually are directly connoted with the impending blindness, you see?”
“Not at all,” she said morosely. “This blindness seems to be getting worse every day and Dr. Fritz has not done anything constructive about it. Can you please just give me something for the pain? It’s almost unbearable.”
He removed his surgical mask to speak clearly. “Of course, my dear.”
She saw him tilt his head, looking over to Sam’s bed. “Where is the other patient?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “Maybe he went to the toilet. I remember he told Nurse Marx that he had no intention of using a bed pan.”
“Why would he not use the toilet here?” the doctor asked, but Nina was quite frankly becoming really sick of reporting on her roommate when she needed help to alleviate her splitting headache.
“I don’t know!” she snapped at him. “Look, can you please just give me something for the pain?”
He was not impressed with her tone at all, but inhaled deeply and sighed. “Dr. Gould, are you hiding your roommate?”
The question was both absurd and unprofessional. Utter annoyance coursed through Nina at his ridiculous question. “Aye. He is somewhere in the room. Twenty points if you can give me a painkiller before you find him!”
“You have to tell me where he is, Dr. Gould, or you will die tonight,” he said plainly.
“Are you absolutely daft?” she shrieked. “Are you seriously threatening me?” Nina felt that something was very wrong, but she could not cry out. With blinking eyes she watched him, her fingers furtively seeking the red button that was still on her bed next to her while she kept her eyes on his missing face. His blurry shadow lifted the call button for her to discern. “Are you looking for this?”
“Oh Christ,” Nina wept at once, burying her nose and mouth behind her palms as she realized that she recalled that voice now. Her head was pounding and her skin burning wet, but she dared not move.
“Where is he?” he whispered evenly. “Tell me, or you will die.”
“I don’t know, alright?” her voice quivered softly behind her hands. “I really don’t know. I’ve been sleeping all this time. My God, am I his keeper?”
The tall man replied, “You are quoting Cain, straight out of the Bible. Tell me, Dr. Gould, are you religious?”
“Fuck you!” she yelled.
“Ah, an Atheist,” he remarked speculatively. “There are no atheists in fox holes. That is another quote — perhaps one more suited for you in this moment of final restitution, where you will meet your death at the hands of something you will wish you had a god for.”
“You are not Dr. Hilt,” the nurse said behind him. Her words came like a question dipped in disbelief and realization. Then he struck her down with such elegant speed that Nina did not even have time to register the brevity of his act. As the nurse fell, her hands released the bedpan. It went sliding along the polished floor in a deafening clatter that immediately drew the attention of night staff at the nurses’ station.
From nowhere, police officers started shouting down the hall. Nina waited for them to seize the imposter in her room, but instead they darted right past her door.
“Go! Go! Go! He is on the Second Floor! Corner him in the Dispensary! Quick!” the commanding officer was shouting.
“What?” Nina scowled. She could not believe it. All she could distinguish was the figure of the charlatan rapidly moving towards her and, just like the fate of the poor nurse, he landed a mighty blow on her head. She felt immense pain for a moment before dissolving into the black river of oblivion.Nina came to only moments later, still uncomfortably contorted on her bed. Her headache now had company. The blow on her temple taught her a new level of pain. It was now swollen so that her right eye felt smaller. On the floor beside her, the night nurse was still lying sprawled, but Nina had no time. She had to get out before the eerie stranger made his way back to her, especially now that he knew her better.