The Wound
I walked down the stairs which headed for the basement, softly singing songs to break the eerie silence of the surrounding. I easily spotted the door to the storeroom, and sauntered towards it.
The doctors and the other people in the hospital warned me about this store room, which was deemed to be creepy and spooky, full of ghouls, phantoms of all kinds and apparitions.
"Hey. Kate. Beware of the storeroom. You're the newbie here. Bet you too will have a heck of an experience like mine..."
Hence, this room was seldom used. Until now, I scoffed at the people narrating their spine-chilling stories, but i secretly feared this place as I came closer to it.
As soon as I opened the door of the storeroom, my nose was filled with an obnoxious odour. My singing was curbed just at the sight of the abhorrent and repugnant room. The stench of muck was making me lightheaded. I kept hearing faint sounds from behind me but they were forgotten the time I got off to finding things I needed. It was a strenuous job to be done in the stygian darkness, but in no time, I had half the things I needed to take back to the senior doctor.
Suddenly, I heard a chain-rattling noise. I jumped at the blare and screamed. I went to the origin of the clamour and found myself in rubble of carton boxes. I heard footsteps from behind me. They were drawing in towards me and even spotted drops of blood on the floor.
Shivers of fear were moving through my body like electric currents in a wire. I feared I were to encounter a major panic attack, but calmed myself.
I yelled with all the courage I could muster up, "Who are you?" I was quite flabbergasted at the boldness of my voice.
For a moment, it was peculiarly silent with no movement. Then unexpectedly a man emerged from the tenebrific shadows of the storeroom. I could barely keep myself from shrieking and darting out of the room, but I forced myself to stay put.
The man, who was gazing down and scrutinizing me, flitted towards and then I could see him clearly. His black hair complimented his pale skin, but those bottomless black eyes dominated my view the most. Wearing black clothes and shoes, he looked like a goth turned into a monstrous vampire. My assumption of the handsome man being a vampire strengthened when I saw his bleeding hand with a ghastly wound. What if he received the wound while fighting his rival vampires? My hands trembled even more. But i compelled myself to the push the lurid judgments out of my mind.
"Who are you?" I demanded again.
A smirk appeared on his flawless, striking face and he whispered, "Easy, easy. I didn't mean to frighten you, just wanted to grab your attention."
"Is dropping stuff and making footstep sounds your idea of grabbing attention?" Resentment crept over me and for a moment I stopped trembling.
"Hey! I told you I didn't want to scare you. Besides, I am quite innocuous and harmless."
"Yes, I can see that." I said, eyeing his bleeding hand.
"By the way, are you a doctor or nurse or anything like that?" He said, half smiling.
"Y...Y...Yes...," I stammered, "I am a doctor. But what do you want from me?"
"You see, I need a little help out here." He gestured to his hand.
I readily got to work to help him. I immediately staunched the blood and put a band-aid around the deep cut. Then I asked for an explanation.
When he began narrating his story and by the end of it, I'd come out my apprehensive chimeras and delusions of a vampire wanting to bleed me to death.
Apparently, this person (or whoever, or should I say 'whatever', he was), Stephan was an infamous scientist who accidentally invented a potion. This potion could make him invisible by will. He used his invisibility potion to fight off some bad people and in that process, got a deep cut on his hand. He came into this deserted and desolate room, hoping someone would help him. Stephan came in his invisible form as he did not want anyone but one person to know about him.
After he told me the story, he dissipated into the air like he was a part of it. I went back upstairs, to the hospital, after collecting all the necessary things.
This clandestine visit of Stephan shook me hard but I would never forget this rendezvous.