Ocean View Hospital, CA.
10:00 PM. Hour Two.
Here's the little piggy, see his snout
Slit him open, and the guts fall out.
Josh's bottom lip quivered as he crawled away from the grotesque scene in front of him. The palms of his hands slid against the cold tile until his back was pressed against the hard, concrete wall. The nurse's body hung, swaying slightly from the air condition's breeze, taunting him from the other side of the room. The pig's dead eyes pierced through him; its snout was slashed and its left ear was torn. The nurse's mouth was agape, frozen in time calling out a scream that no one had heard.
None of this could be real. This was a hallucination or a horrible dream. Did he… Did he kill the nurse? He couldn't remember. No, no he didn't. This was something else. This was something out of his control. His control.
He rolled the sleeve of his white shirt up, revealing the skin of his forearm. His body was shaking and freezing, waiting for the adrenaline to set in. As he closed his eyes, he grabbed a bit of his skin, watching as the area turned white from the lack of blood flow.
"Fuck," He hissed as he let the back of his head collide against the wall, his dark hairs scratching against the cool plaster. Looking down at his arm, he watched the skin turning red, contorted by his self-inflicted injury. He wasn't sure if he had felt any pain or not - his entire body was numb. It could still be a dream. This didn't have to be real.
Josh took a deep breath and braced himself for the sharp sensation that stung his cheek. "Shit!" He cursed as he could feel his handprint burning into his skin. He opened his eyes only to find himself staring at the nurse's dead body. He wasn't waking up.
If he wasn't going to wake up or snap out of it, he had to just keep going. The reality was beginning to set in that he was going to have to fend for himself in a strange environment, in a place where no one could be trusted. But, there had to be other people still left in the hospital - finding them would be his first priority.
Keeping his gaze away from the nurse, he lifted himself up from the ground, brushing the dust from his all-white outfit. Outside, the storm raged on, bright flashes of light cracking against the blackened sky. The thunder was intense; each boom caused the building to shake. The lights were still flickering, threatening at any moment to shut off, leaving him wandering about the large institution in the darkness.
Down the corridor, a door labelled "Supply Closet" caught his attention. As he wandered closer, he said a silent prayer that it would be unlocked, granting him access to whatever supplies he was going to need. He extended his arm to reach for the metal door handle and gave it a turn. Much to his surprise, it opened, revealing a small, dark closet lined with shelves. He reached out for the golden chain that was hanging from the ceiling, pulling it to fill the area with a limited amount of light.
A few boxes of medical supplies, batteries, and emergency food cases lined the shelves, filling the room from floor to ceiling. Josh stepped into the room, his eyes darting between the shelves until he found a few spare flashlights. He grabbed two of them, keeping a smaller one in his free pocket in case of an emergency. He backed out of the closet, closing the door behind him, and hoped that the storm would clear out soon.
He began to walk down the abandoned hallways, the only sound coming from the soles of his white slippers shuffling against the floor. At the end of the corridor, an emergency exit door was blocked off, separating him from the outside world by just a few pieces of wood. Using all of his strength, he grabbed at the planks, grunting as he pried them away from the sides of the door. The wood was rotten; the foul smell that emitted from the pieces confirmed they had been there for a while. When the door was free, he reached for the handle, frustrated when he discovered it was locked from the other side. He jolted the metal handle, jumping when it separated from the door and crashed against the ground.
There had to be another way; this was a hospital and not a prison, after all (or so he once thought). Before turning back down the long corridor, he forced his body against the door, banging on it multiple times before giving up. As he followed his original path back toward the waiting center, he listened for the sounds of other patients or staff. Surely someone had to have heard the screams from the visitation room. And, beyond that, there was still the mysterious person that killed the nurse. He wasn't alone.
How the hell did all this happen? How long ago had it been since he was laying in his lumpy bed flipping through the stale pages of a book he had read many times before? It felt like an eternity had passed since his walk from his room to the visitation center. Maybe this was all some sort of sick, twisted test to see if he was actually ready to be discharged. Maybe there was no dischargement. The -
"Shit!" He cursed as an intense clap of thunder roared from the outside. The lights flickered fiercely until, finally, the power shut off, leaving him alone in the darkness of the hospital. He couldn't see anything that was in front of him, not even the flashes of lightning from the outside. The world stilled for a moment, but only for a moment.
He remembered the flashlight he had taken from the supply closet and slid it out of his pocket, fumbling around in the dark before he flicked the switch on. The light was dim at first, but it grew, illuminating the emptiness of the hallway. There were various piles of debris scattered across the empty floor; one of the windows had busted from the harsh storm outside, which resulted in shards of glass lining the ground. Carefully, he stepped over the sharp pieces, cautious not to let his thin slippers get caught on one.
Down the end of the hall, another emergency exit door was boarded. As he travelled his way past the discarded wreckage, he suddenly became quite weary of the fact he was wandering the hospital alone. There was a potential madman in the building, and he was defenseless and utterly alone.
Instead of making it to the end of the corridor, a dim light in the downstairs common room caught his attention. His heart began to race as he wondered if someone else had been trapped inside the building, too. A static noise began to fill the area, growing louder with each step that he took. The vibration from whatever was making the sound began to hurt his ears, haunting him with a ringing sound he couldn't differentiate from the real thing.
With his flashlight powered off and clenched close to his chest, he held his breath as he pressed his back against the wall just outside the common room archway. For a moment, he listened, trying to distinguish any possible footsteps or words, but all that filled the silence was the awful static. His throat was beginning to tighten as his palms perspired, barely able to grasp onto the flashlight. Beneath the static, a strange noise began, something similar to a cheery melody.
The tune continued, echoing throughout the room as it increased in volume. The light that illuminated from somewhere inside was brighter and flickering as different shaped shadows decorated the floor and walls. With his entire body shaking, he closed his eyes and braced himself for whatever he was about to see - for whatever was about to happen.
He turned the corner, his breath caught in his chest as he opened his eyes. In the common room, there was no one, and absolutely nothing, except for a small TV that had been placed on the wooden coffee table in the center of the room. The television had been turned to face the back of the room, and as Josh walked closer to examine it, the static and melodic tune grew louder. The screen flickered against the opposite wall, and he listened to his heartbeat increase as he approached the box.
As he stood in front of it, he watched the rolling static on the black and white screen. The lines were different shapes, ranging from rectangles from large widths to small. The colors varied from dark grays to lighter shades, and they wound about the screen in a rhythmic loop. He was such an idiot, someone had just left the TV on from earlier and the storm caused it to mess up. But, how come…
"Hello there," A deep, static voice emitted from the television. Josh jumped, dropping the flashlight on the ground as he kept his eyes glued to the screen.
"Oh, fuck!" He exclaimed as he watched the TV transition from the lines of gray to a gritty outline of a man. Josh leaned forward, squinting his eyes as he hovered in front of the box, trying to decipher what was happening in front of him.
Suddenly, the picture became a bit clearer, but was still dusty and scratched. In the center of the screen, a man's head had been replaced by a pig's head, but the human eyes were still showing from the gouged out sockets of the pig's. The snout had been sliced, just like the one that had been placed on the nurse's head, and Josh could make out the grainy outline of a mouth from underneath. He started shaking his head as his entire body shook. What the hell was happening?
"If you're hearing this, I feel bad for you!" The man on the screen chuckled as his voice came out distorted. In his hand, he held a large knife, which was drenched in a dark liquid that dripped to the ground beneath him. He tilted his head to the side, the pig's head moving with him. From under the snout, he grinned as he held up a bloody foot in his opposite hand, "This little piggy went to the market -"
He paused for a moment to slice through the big toe of the foot. Josh gagged as he watched the appendage fall to the floor, followed by a soft thud. The man started up again with a chuckle, "This little piggy stayed home - smart one, that is," He laughed manically as he continued to cut through the remaining toes, "This little piggy had roast beef; this little piggy had none! And, this little piggy," He held onto the pinky of the foot, wiggling it around in the air for a moment, "Well, this little piggy went wee, wee, wee, all the way home!"
After the rhyme ended, the television shut off, the static and tune finally ending. "Oh, God," Josh cried out as he held onto his stomach, feeling ill for the second time that night. This was a nightmare - a horrible fucking nightmare. No, it was worse because it felt so… real. The twins, the nurse, the man on the television, it was all so real. But, how? How did he become trapped in the world of something he'd watch in one of his favorite films?
He couldn't stay here any longer. Forget all the rest of the patients, forget the staff and the doctors who were watching his every move throughout his stay. Forget his family and his friends who never cared enough to visit him. Hell, forget his fucking sisters who haunted him while he was awake. Every part of his being was screaming at him, telling him this was just another hallucination he needed to wade through, but he couldn't believe it. This was real. This was real, and he had to find a way to survive.
The door at the end of the corridor had the potential of leading him to the outside. Disregarding the television in the center of the room, he collected his flashlight and headed out of the common room, back toward where he was originally headed. He shone the light down the hallway, pointing it toward the boarded up doorway. When he approached, he noticed red letters painted across the planks, oozing down to the tile below.
"Wee, wee, wee," Josh mumbled under his breath as he read what had been scribbled on the wood. With a slight shake of the head, he placed his light on the floor and curled his fingers around the boards, grunting as he pulled them apart and tossed them to the side. He reached to wipe a bead of sweat from his hairline as he felt for the last piece of wood, almost prying it away from the door when a noise from behind stopped him.
"Boy, there ain't no use wastin' your time on that - every door in this building's locked or missin' its knobs."
Josh twirled around as he felt his heart stop. He pointed his flashlight in the direction of the voice and took in the sight of an older man standing behind him. The other man was wearing similar clothes to Josh; the all-white uniform was familiar to those who were registered patients at the hospital. The man took a step back and held his hands up in the air, eyeing Josh suspiciously. "Now, don't do anythin' rash, my boy. You need my help."
"Get the fuck away from me," Josh shook his head violently, "I'm getting out of here without anyone's help."
The man chuckled, rather inappropriately, and took a step forward, which caused Josh to take a defensive stance. "What's your name, boy?" Josh stood silent, which caused the other man to frown, "C'mon, you can trust me; we're in this together… Did you see the message on the TV?"
Josh nodded, keeping his body tight. Who the hell was this guy? "Yes."
"Alright," The man said calmly, "I saw it, and I saw the nurse back there in the waitin' center. Young man, if you wanna get out of here - alive - we need to work together. It's not gonna be easy with all these damn doors bein' locked. I'm not sure what kind of psycho put this mess together, but it's bad. Now, my name's Dade Risset. Dade's just my nickname, but you can call me Risset. Now, what's your name, boy?"
"J-Josh," His throat was suddenly dry as he croaked out his own name. The word sounded unfamiliar to him and made him sick to his stomach. It felt sour in his mouth. He didn't even recognize the sound of his own voice; he felt like a robot trapped inside human flesh with mechanical parts grinding against his organs. Josh. Sounds like a bastard.
Risset nodded, "Alright, Josh, I'm gonna need ya to trust me, okay?" He waited for him to register his words before he began, "Let's get goin'."
He turned and headed back down the corridor, but Josh remained frozen in place, his flashlight still tight in his grasp. "Wait," Risset turned around to face him, an annoyed look plastered on his aging face. "What about any survivors?"
"Yeah," He nodded, bringing his fingers to his chin to scratch the area for a moment, "If we see any along the way, we'll grab 'em - no one deserves to be in this hell. Oh, and don't call 'em survivors no more; there ain't no such thing."
Josh scrunched up his face, "What?"
Risset gestured as he shook his head, "Survivors? Sure, some of us live and some of us die, but you ain't the same. You spend the rest of your nights thinkin' about it, wonderin' what could have gone differently to stop it. It haunts you. It follows you everywhere. It's your personal ghost and you can't escape it. Hell, you start thinkin' that maybe you'd be better off dead. And, the hard truth is: you would be… You would be…" He nodded to himself, lost somewhere within his own thoughts, before he brought himself back to the twisted reality they were living in, "I think you understand what I'm sayin', don't ya? Shame since you're so young, but you got that look in your eyes. That look that says you've been through somethin' you ain't comin' back from… If we make it out of this, Josh, just remember: there ain't no such thing as martyrdom - just a whole lot of pain."
Finally, chapter two! I've finally gone through and edited so there should be a ton less typos (lmao) but I'm still not too thrilled with the meeting between Josh and Risset. This evening I may work on it and fix it up, so if I do, I'll mention it in the next chapter for anyone who might be interested. Anyway, shout out to TheCarnivalAct and Sapphire Sunsets for your kind reviews!