The Revenge is Calling Part I
The wailing of someone growled from the side of Doctor Aun’s bed. The young man rolled his eyes around since they were the only organ that he could move. He tried to look for the source of the sound. Then Doctor Aun's eyes grew wide, and he wished to open his mouth to scream. How could he not be shocked when the doctor saw the decapitated Nurse Pia standing beside his bed? On the other hand, there was a young ghost named Petch standing beside her. While Petch’s face was bloodless, her eyes were scarlet red, filled with hatred waiting for the revenge day.
Doctor Aun tried to get hold of himself before he carefully spoke to the ghost, like in a novel he had read. He needed to give it a try… There was nothing to lose.
“What do you want from me?”
Unbelievable... A voice from the ghost of that young woman rang in Doctor Aun's ears!
“I want you to help expose the evil people who killed me.”
“And… who killed you?”
“The one who killed me… is the one who will die soon!” she simply said before slowly vanishing into the air, as the spirit of Nurse Pia groaned in pain.
There was a soft voice calling his name... It seemed to be from far away before gradually getting louder until it thundered in his ears. Eventually awakening, he gasped for air and sweated all over his back. His eyes widened as they looked around the room in shock. So, was it a dream or reality?
“Aun, what’s wrong? You kept talking to yourself out of nowhere.”
“Uh… well… I guess I had a nightmare,” said Doctor Aun, wiping away the sweat that had crept upon his forehead. His best friend, sitting next to him, lightly touched Doctor Aun's shoulder out of sympathy.
“I feel you, Aun. Anyone will be shocked to see such a thing right before their eyes, but you're a doctor. You have many lives waiting for your care. If you remain like this, it will ruin your job. Did you forget… that the most important rule of being a doctor is to save the lives of your fellow human beings as much as possible.”
Doctor Aun agreed with everything Doctor Golf said. He could no longer be a coward because every problem needed to be addressed. The doctor had to save many more lives. He needed to let go of what had happened.
But did helping fellow human beings... include assisting non-human things too?
Doctor Aun asked himself repeatedly while lying down and entering his sleep without any more dreams.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nurse Ae had just returned from Nurse Pia's funeral this evening. It was such an abrupt departure... It was too much for her to accept in such a short period. The nurse could do nothing but try to let go. Nothing was certain. Who would have thought that the friend who just had a lunch break with her would die before dinner and never return?
A young woman went home for a shower and got dressed for the late-night shift in the OB/GYN ward with Nurse Nam. As soon as she arrived... Nurse Koi, who was on her shift early in the evening, immediately asked about the funeral of their fellow in the same ward.
“How was Pia’s funeral, Ae?”
“It was all right, but Pia's mother fainted several times, even though she hadn't seen her daughter’s body yet. Hmm... having said it and I felt sorry for her. And you? Aren’t you going to her funeral?" Nurse Ae asked as she put her handbag behind the OB/GYN ward counter.
“Of course, I will go but today was already midnight by the time I finished my shift. I'd better go tomorrow. Oh...Nam called and said that she has to run some errands so she might be late. You can clock the card for her. I will get going now," said Nurse Koi before grabbing her bag and descending from the ward.
When one person left…the other immediately felt tingling in her spine!
Although Nurse Ae had been in this profession for five years, she had never breathed freely when she had a night shift. It felt like many people were still living in this place, even though they were dead. She frequently heard the sound of a child crying, although there were no children in the ward. Or she sometimes heard a cry from the delivery room despite that there was no patient in. Many believed that the souls of the deceased still lingered in the last place they were… and that was the hospital.
Along the stretched-out corridors, her blood ran cold despite the brightness of all the lights. She couldn’t even look or stare straight because she was afraid of encountering something that she should not have seen at night. Just as she was thinking about it... the phone at the counter rang, making the nurse startled. She put her hand over her chest and let out a long breath.
“Damn it,” she cursed to herself and lifted the phone to answer. “Hello, this is the OB/GYN ward.”
“Ahh… it hurts, it hurts….” The voice on the other end of the line called out pitifully. Nurse Ae heard this and wasn't shocked at all. The cases where mothers experienced labor pains in the middle of the night often occurred to the point that they were used to it. The matter was who would be the doctor on the shift. They would be the one she needed to pluck up her courage to call for baby delivery. It was the duty that she was sick of.
“Calm down, Ma’am. Is there anyone with you? Ask them to take you to the nearest hospital. Or would you like us to send you an ambulance?”
“Ahh...it hurts, it hurts, I can't take it anymore...I can't take it anymore. Aaaah!" The caller's shriek roared out until Nurse Ae had to put the phone away from her ear before she became deaf.
A cool breeze blew past the young nurse's back...
She quickly turned around to look and only found a document shelf standing up to the wall. Next to it was a glass window that was left open. It was pitch black outside; the black shadow of the nightfall embraced the sound of the wind that blew on the leaves clattering.
“Hello, are you still here?”
Beep...beep...beep
Nurse Ae frowned as the other end of the line hung up… She put down the phone before walking to the window. As she was about to close it, she saw something on the branch of a vast tree… It was a white object fluttering in the gust of wind. Upon her careful observation, the young nurse was taken aback and stepped backward. Because what she saw was the figure of a pregnant woman standing on the tree branch. Those eyes stared straight at her as if she was in awful vengeance.
No way...Impossible. Who...who would stand on a tree in the middle of the night like this!
Another gust of wind blew... The figure of the woman over there slowly vanished away with the breeze. Only darkness and silence took her place. Nurse Ae slammed the window and pulled the curtain close. It was not true... She was mistaken. It was not a person. It was probably a bird or a bedsheet of a patient that the janitor had hung and blown away.
She consoled herself... even though she knew in her heart what it was!
She turned back and sat at the front counter. Trying to calm herself down, she thought ghosts and hospitals were typically a perfect pair. Let's just say that people and spirits stayed in different dimensions. Therefore, please mind one’s own business.
The bell from the emergency button in front of the counter rang out. Nurse Ae glanced over, seeing it coming from room 505. She strode towards the room located on the far left of the corridor. It was a VIP room too... If she was too sluggish, she might get reported.
She knocked softly on the door to announce her presence and opened the door with no delay. The patient was lying with her back facing the door. The room was relatively dark, with warm light from the bedside lamp as the only source of brightness.
"Excuse me, Ma’am, how can I help you?"