AN: This wasn't the story I originally had planned for Halloween, I'm not gonna lie. The original idea I had was a bit more challenging than I thought and I kinda ran out of time. Maybe next year. SO, instead we have an adaptation of an episode of The Twilight Zone, one of my personal favourite shows, especially this time of the year. This is based off of the episode Twenty Two, a favourite of mine, and while the episode itself is a bit dated I still think it's worth a watch anyway! Please enjoy!
~Room For One More, Honey~
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Peach's eyes opened wide and she sat up abruptly in her hospital bed, pulling the sheets closer to her for comfort. Her breathing was frightened, quick, and she hesitantly reached over to her nightside table for a cup of water. Her nerves made her hand shake violently though; it slipped through her fingers and to the floor, glass and water spraying everywhere.
Her breath hitched, and suddenly loud footsteps echoed eerily in the hallway outside her room. Peach whimpered as the footsteps paused outside of her room, before continuing down the hallway. Curiosity got the better of her and she tossed the covers aside, shivering at the cold ground on her bare feet.
Opening the door she stepped out into the hallway, and at first nothing seemed amiss. It wasn't until she looked to her right did she see a nurse half-hidden in the shadows of the elevator, heading down into the basement of the hospital. Even though Peach's mind screamed at her to head back to bed, she padded down the hallway and pressed the call button for the elevator anyway, following the nurse.
The basement was so much colder than the rest of the hospital. Peach shivered as she headed down a long hallway, stopping outside of the hospitals morgue; room 04. Her heart thumped rapidly in her chest as she stared at the double doors in front of her, too terrified to even move.
Suddenly the doors flew open; the nurse from before stepping out of the room and giving Peach a sinister look with a single blue eye peeking out from her pale blonde bangs.
"Room for one more, honey." she taunted, as Peach screamed and fled towards the elevator.
/~/
Dr. Mario sighed and glanced down with pity at the patient currently shaking in her bed. Peach Toadstool, an actress who was hospitalized only a few days ago as a result of overworking and nervous fatigue. Grabbing his clipboard, he grabbed a pen and gazed at her with interest.
"Can you tell me what this dream was about?" he asked, and her head snapped towards him; eyes narrowing.
"It wasn't a dream," she argued, her voice wobbling slightly. "It really happened, I assure you it really happened! I was woken up by the clock ticking, so I reached over to grab the glass of water on my nightside table and when I did, I dropped it and it shattered."
Dr. Mario nodded as he wrote, motioning for her to continue.
"T-Then I heard footsteps outside in the hallway; they paused outside my room before continuing. Being curious, I followed her; she was heading down into the basement. When I got there she stepped out of room 04, the morgue, looked at me and said, 'Room for one more, honey.'"
"Hm," Dr. Mario looked up from his clipboard, glancing at Peach. "And what happened after that?"
"Well, I must have made it back to my room safely, because the next thing I remember is waking up in this bed."
Nodding, Dr. Mario placed the clipboard under his arm and glanced up at the ceiling deep in thought. After a long moment he responded, "And what exactly did this nurse look like?"
"Oh, she had long pale blonde hair, with blue eyes. And she had the most sinister look about her."
"Tell you what," Dr. Mario started, patting Peach's arm. "How about I go get the night nurse that attends to the morgue and we'll figure out where to go from there."
While Peach visibly tensed for a moment, she relaxed before nodding. "O-Okay..." she replied, Dr. Mario temporarily leaving the room to fetch the night nurse. Peach nervously bit her bottom lip as she waited for him to return, what was she going to say to the night nurse? Heck, what would the night nurse say to her?
A few moments later Dr. Mario returned with the woman in question in tow, and Peach's mouth dropped open. While the woman in front of her did indeed have blonde hair and blue eyes, she looked nothing like the nurse Peach had seen the night before.
"Miss Toadstool, this is Nurse Samus Aran, the night nurse for the morgue. Is she the one that you saw last night?"
"N-No, there must be some mistake, she's not the one I saw last night... it must be another one."
"I am the only nurse that has been assigned to the morgue at night," Nurse Samus stated curtly, folding her arms. Peach shook her head violently.
"T-That can't be possible..."
Dr. Mario gave a short head nod towards Nurse Samus, and she exited the room. Turning back to Peach he said in a gentle voice, "See? It was all just a dream."
As much as she wanted to deny it, Peach couldn't argue with the evidence placed in front of her. "It felt so real though..." she mumbled.
"You know, I'm going to suggest you try lucid dreaming," Dr. Mario finally stated, Peach giving him a quizzical look.
"Lucid... dreaming?"
"Yes, it's where you are aware that you are in the dream, and in some cases you can control certain things about it. Now, the next time you have this dream I want you to alter a single detail about it. Perhaps then it will undo the hold the dream has on you."
With that Dr. Mario gave a short nod and left the room, leaving Peach alone with her thoughts and a deep frown on her face.
/~/
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Peach shot bolt upright, a pang of fear stabbing her heart. She desperately tried to calm herself as she remembered Dr. Mario's words.
'It's just a dream. Just... a dream. You can control this.'
Glancing over at the nightside table she found a pack of cigarettes and a lighter next to the glass of water, and for a moment she brightened. Reaching for one, she accidentally knocked the lighter onto the ground. Reaching down for it her hand brushed against the water glass, knocking it to the floor causing it to shatter.
Peach gasped, and once again she heard the eerie footsteps outside her room; exactly the same as the night before. Gulping fearfully, Peach once again rose from her bed, padding across the floor like before and stepping into the hallway where she found the same nurse taking the elevator down into the basement. Swallowing her nervousness, Peach followed her.
Once again she was standing outside room 04, the morgue. And just like the previous night the doors swung open and the same nurse emerged, smirking at Peach.
"Room for one more, honey."
A piercing shriek filled the hallway.
/~/
Peach was in hysterics the next morning, and after words did nothing to calm her Dr. Mario had one of the nurses hold her down as he injected a sedative into her arm. Almost immediately Peach relaxed, her eyes falling shut and drifting into what looked like a peaceful sleep.
Sighing, Dr. Mario smiled at the nurse. "Thank you Nurse Zelda."
"It's nothing, Doctor. Though I can't help but be concerned about Miss Toadstools' behavior."
Frowning, Dr. Mario folded his arms and looked down. "I'm still not convinced that this dream of hers is nothing more than the result of exhaustion. Though... there is one thing that's particularly odd."
"What would that be, Doctor?"
Dr. Mario looked up at Nurse Zelda, locking eyes with her.
"Miss Toadstool has never seen the morgue, yet she knows it's room 04."
/~/
After a few more days of rest Peach was ready to be discharged from the hospital, and even though she was still unnerved from her nightmare life continued on as normal. She received a call from her agent saying that her next booking was in Skyworld, and a few days later she was at the airport purchasing her ticket with luggage in hand.
"Alright ma'am, here's your ticket. You'll be on Flight 04, leaving in around half an hour."
Peach's breath caught in her throat and her eyes widened as she robotically accepted the ticket, mumbling a 'thank you' and heading through the terminal. As she wandered through the airport she began to hear loud ticking, and glancing around found it to be coming from a wall clock. Strangely, she seemed to be the only one that could hear it, as everyone else wandered past without giving it a second look.
Heart thumping in her chest, Peach continued down the hallway, accidentally bumping into a woman carrying a vase. The woman's hold on the object loosened and it dropped to the floor, glass shards scattering everywhere.
"S-Sorry..." Peach stammered out, hurrying away as the anxiety clawed in her stomach. The footsteps around her seemed magnified as she made it to the gate, and crossed the tarmac to the plane. Climbing the boarding steps the stewardess turned to her, and Peach froze on spot.
The long, pale blonde hair with the bang that covered her right eye... those bright blue eyes...
Smiling, the woman said, "Room for one more, honey."
At that Peach screamed, stumbling back down the steps and racing back into the terminal. The stewardess blinked in shock multiple times before shrugging and heading into the plane, getting ready for takeoff.
Back in the terminal Peach was being calmed by some of the airport staff, as Flight 04 was taking off in the background. Only a moment later the frightened actress let out a terrified shriek as the plane exploded in midair, killing everyone aboard.
So I did change a few things from the episode, such as Peach being an actress instead of a dancer, and the room number being 04 instead of 22. Why did I choose the number 04? Well, there's been four Smash games, and in Japan the number four is a homonym for death, so I felt like it was fitting.
Anyway, Happy Halloween guys and remember if you're heading out tonight to stay safe! Thank you for reading, and I'll see you soon!