Miranda Smith clocked into work at 4:30. Already dressed in her scrubs she went through the motions of working checking in on patients and setting up her little area at the station to prep for her steadily growing paperwork. God, she hated paperwork but the job was worth it, she didn't spend countless years in nursing school to quit now because of some dumb filing.
She would never regret the decision to break away her family's traditions of becoming burnouts and junkies to pursue her dream to help people. At the time she actually wanted to be a doctor but with some guidance she was on the path to bright work clothes and ugly shoes. Miranda felt a smile tugging at her lips when the door opened to dispense several of her coworkers into the break room, a quite a few of them mumbling to themselves.
A strawberry blonde head whipped up to smile at her, Anne waved slightly at Miranda and made her way over. Miranda glanced at the other nurses gossiping and asked what was going when she reached her. The usually peppy redhead seemed to deflate at the question, eyes sad. Miranda braced herself.
"Andy passed away last night," she whispered sullenly. Miranda gasped.
"I thought he called in sick?" She said unbelievingly.
"He did. Turns out the 'cold' was influenza, he practically coughed up a lung, the right one was partly collapsed," Anne said with a bitter expression "Jane found his body this morning,"
Poor Jane, must be heartbroken, her and Andy were expecting. Now she'd have to raise a child on her own.
When Miranda voice her sympathy Anne frowned, stopping to nibble on a granola bar "Shit, do you know how hard it is to get a good MLT?" Miranda scowled at the attempted humor. She patted Anne on the shoulder before making her way to the wards.
After checking the time and seeing how it was nearly midnight she sighed before jumping when the lights started flickering unexpectedly, like something out of a horror film, how cliche she thought smartly, mentally reminding herself to call maintenance before her shift was over.
Eventually she walked into a room, surprised to see an empty bed greeting her. Miranda quickly snatched up the medical clipboard and looked over the details. Alarm and concern flooded her as she realized that a child could be wandering the hospital corridors at such a late hour with injuries.
Miranda sped out of the room, darting around, checking all of the nearby rooms in vain. Just when she was about to call Anne she saw something flash in the corner of her eye. She turned to get a better look. The lights had started flickering again and this time she didn't find it funny when another bright flash of white erupted from the very end on the corridor. In fact she found it quite frightening. Endless hours of watching the fear network on her tv flitted through her head, filling her with dread and anticipation.
Humans were inherently a curious species and that is what Miranda will swear had forced her legs to work down the hall, closer and closer to what she was sure was her doom. The flashes of lights started to happen more frequently and Miranda could hear her heartbeat in her ears. Her stomach feeling light a cold stone had firmly lodged itself at the bottom. She had reached the end of the hall and the light was no longer flashing, in fact it was just blindingly there, she could hardly see the door separating her and the thing.
With a trembling hand she reached out and grasped the handle of the door.
The light immediately disappeared, leaving black spots dotting across her vision. When her sight cleared she was startled to see, sitting on the floor to the next hallway, was a small girl. She didn't look much older than ten and Miranda knew that this was Celeste Middleton. The girl was innocently blinking up at her through vividly red curls with wide eyes and Miranda noticed how she had a worn book clutched tightly in her hands.
Miranda got Celeste to stand up and started walking her back to her room, silent in confusion and slight fear. She had just gotten the tiny child back into the bed and was going to leave, inexplicably eager to get very far away from the kid, when a small voice rang through the room ominously loud.
"Where's my mom?"
The words hit Miranda hard for a reason, she was reminded that this girl had been in a car accident with her parents, her father died on impact, the mom currently in intensive care. She wasn't positive the woman would make it.
Instead Miranda changed to subject, asking about the book which now was resting on the end of the bed.
"It's the Hobbit," the girl, Celeste whispered "My friend got it from my house," even though Miranda was sure that the Middleton family had come in after visiting hours were over.
Miranda gave a noncommittal "Oh,"
"She had to leave," the girl said, fidgeting with her fingers.
"Why?"
"I dunno, something about burning your eyes out of your skull," Miranda's eyes widened in horror as the macabre words tumbled out of the little ginger girl's lips.
Miranda swallowed the big rock in her throat, the situation to entrancing to turn away from "Celeste," the girl looked up at the mention of her name "Celeste, who was your friend?"
A small grin.
"An angel,"