Raccoon General, mid-spring on the morning of the twenty-seventh, carried an eerie silence that hung in the air like a thick fog. Something about this particular morning unnerved Aria, a gut feeling that made her uneasy.
Perhaps it was because of the murders. Or maybe because the police department found one of the victims on the same side of the river where Aria lived.
And he wasn't a local; neither of the two bodies found was.
The first reported murder occurred on Wednesday the previous week. A pedestrian found a Jane Doe in Cedar, a settlement on the outskirts of Raccoon City, mauled to death. The RPD ruled her death as an apparent dog attack due to the bite marks; then, a second victim floated down the river almost a day later; the same M.O., a dog attack.
Aria couldn't fathom it. What sort of dog could tear a person apart like that? And would it venture into the city limits? The beast didn't seem to be afraid of humans.
I'm paranoid, she thought with a laugh.
Albert would chastise her for being so ridiculous.
Aria went back to work. As she sat behind the computer at the nurse's station, reviewing patient charts and waiting for her coworker to return from the bathroom, she bounced her pen up and down on the desktop in unease. The hairs on her arms stood straight; her thoughts lingered on the murders.
She needed to find something to do to immerse her mind.
Caught up from the rush of the previous switch, Aria had some time to spare. She had refilled her thermos and done her rounds for the hour, giving her some time to rest as her last four hours dragged on. A few times, she considered messaging her husband, but she doubted that he was awake; work came early for him.
Besides, Albert wasn't much into texting. He preferred to speak directly to her; to gauge her tone, she recalled him once saying.
Aria snorted at the memory and leaned back in her seat. She couldn't wait for the weekend. Ethan, the hospital director, had her scheduled to work four on three off, and her last shift was tomorrow. She wasn't sure what to do on her break, but perhaps Albert would take her to dinner as he had promised; if he didn't have to work.
Irons, his perverted boss, barely gave him time, and Aria hated it.
If he wasn't free, then she reckoned she'd have to spend her time off alone. Aria was sure there was some housework she could do. Perhaps she'd visit the zoo; she hadn't gone to the zoo since she and Kathy – her sister – were kids.
Maybe Kathy and the girls will come with me, she thought.
At least she wouldn't be alone.
A sudden sharp clang made Aria jump, drawing her away from the computer and her thoughts. The noise sounded like it came from down the hall to her right towards the Emergency Room entrance. Aria stood up and leaned over the desk of the station, peering down the stark white corridor. She saw a movable workstation and an empty gurney parked against the wall, but the hall was otherwise bare.
What made the sound then?
Aria came around to the side of the station and looked down the hall, but there was nothing there. She considered checking the rooms - the doctor assigned at least two patients to this hall - in case one of the patients had woke up, but someone grabbed her arm. She yelped in fear and leaped around to see Elena behind her.
"I'm so sorry," she squeaked.
Aria covered her heart and sighed with ease.
"You scared the hell out of me," she declared.
The blond apologized again. "I don't think there was a way I could have gotten your attention without scaring you."
She glanced past Aria towards the bare hall and puckered her brow.
"What were you doing?"
Aria hummed. "I thought I heard a noise."
Perhaps one of the patients is awake, Elena stated. "Let me check; then I'll be back."
She walked around Aria and down the corridor, disappearing into one of the rooms. Aria herself returned to the station and retook her seat with a grunt.
Elena returned moments later.
"I tucked the patients away," she mentioned, sitting in the seat beside Aria. "Mr. Davis got up to use the bathroom and knocked the lid of his food tray into the floor."
Aria hummed with ease. There was no reason to fear then. She made a note for the nurse on the next shift regarding Mr. Davis's bathroom break and sat back with a sigh.
"It's been a slow night," Elena mentioned as she glanced at her watch.
Aria brought her finger to her lips and hushed the blond.
"Don't say that word," she whispered teasingly.
Elena laughed and drew an x across her chest.
The nurses on the night shift made it a rule not to say the word. Strange things tended to happen when they assumed the night was going too slow; accidents mostly.
Nevertheless, Aria agreed.
"I don't mind, though," she mentioned.
The quiet could sometimes be a good thing.
"But it's eerie tonight," she admitted.
Elena gave her a frown. "Those murders have everyone in a panic. But you have no reason to worry; wild dogs seldom come into crowded areas, and you live in a suburb."
"You sound like Albert," Aria snorted.
He said something similar to her when she expressed her concern about it.
Elena said nothing else. She and Aria sat in silence, looking over their charts to pass the time; the hospital was dead, not a call or noise – besides their humming computers – for what felt like hours.
Taking a drink from her thermos, Aria noticed that she was low on coffee and stood up to get more. As she rounded the corner of the station, heading towards the break room, the Emergency Room doors busted open, and a group of people raced in – two paramedics and a doctor – pushing someone on a gurney down the hall towards the station.
Dr. Hersh, a man of Indian descent, led them.
"Aria, grab Elena and assist me in the OR. It's urgent," he announced.
As the paramedics rushed past her, Aria gasped in horror.
Blood spurted from a grotesque chunk torn from the person's neck. Something mauled them to pieces beyond identification.
But Aria noticed something, a faded tattoo on the person's arm, a tattoo of a naked woman riding a missile.
This person was Mr. Webber. Aria knew him because she waved to him yesterday morning as she returned home from work.
He lived on Wallace, across the river, and near the forest, a street from her house.