Rachel walked alone to the elevator, head down and clutching her backpack filled with study materials. A man stared at her for a bit as she passed by. His name tag read Dr. Foreman.
So he's the current Dean of Medicine, then, Rachel realized. He must have been in that position for almost as long as my life!
Rachel hit the elevator button for up. As she waited, someone snuck up behind her and breathed on her neck. It was warm. It tickled, but it also made her hairs stand on end. Rachel jumped and hit the elevator door, smacking her skull. Ow, dammit. She rubbed her head and turned.
"Holy f- Jacob, you scared me!"
Jacob was chuckling so hard, he had to put his hands on his knees. His laugh was kinda sweet, actually.
"What- what were you going to say?" Jacob wheezed.
"N-nothing." Rachel was beaming. "L-Lets just go."
The place he described wasn't really in the Witherspoon Wing, but right outside of it. There was a large communal room with glass walls, like most of the hospital, with a derelicted table and five seats. Connected to it was a smaller office with a desk. Compared to the large room, it was very decorated. There was a large red and gray tennis ball sitting on the desk, and a multitude of medical books on the shelf behind it. Rachel went closer and grabbed the ball. It was a bit worn, and she tossed it around a bit. Jacob decided to investigate as well, and opened up a drawer inside the desk. There was a mortar and pestle, with some white powder residue in it.
"Hey, do you know which doctor this office belongs to? I think there's drugs in here," Jacob said when he touched it.
Just then, a blonde doctor opened the door to the office, wearing a white coat, and well dressed. He was maybe forty-something.
"Hey guys. Aren't you guys residents?" He had a kind of accent. Australian, probably.
"Umm… yes?" Rachel's answer turned into a question.
"Okay… well, you shouldn't be in here."
"Why? Is it because this doctor has drugs?"
"What?" The doctor exclaimed. "No. The big room is my department. This office was the former head's office. He's not here anymore."
"What do you mean by that? Is he dead?"
"What's your department name?"
Jacob and Rachel asked at the same time. The blonde doctor sighed and combed his hair back. "I'm the head of Diagnostic Medicine, and…the doctor… is gone." He spoke the last few words differently.
"Oh. Well, can we study here?" Rachel finally blonde doctor paused for a few seconds, and gave a slight nod of approval. Then, he left, the door slowly closing behind him. Rachel stared at it for a bit.
"Let's just get started already. So many distractions," Jacob mumbled as he pulled out a textbook and a water bottle.
The two had probably been studying autoimmune diseases for an hour when Jacob suddenly rushed out the room.
"Huh? Where are you going?" Rachel called out the glass doorway.
"Bathroom!"
As soon as he was out of sight, Rachel went back to reading the textbook. She kept on reading the same paragraph over and over again. It was about Lupus, and it just couldn't stick in her head. She was getting more and more anxious about it, since she would have to do rounds with the immunologist and rheumatologist, Dr. Cameron and Dr. Hunter, tomorrow. Lupus! Immunofluorescence! Testing! God, why is this so hard? Rachel smacked the wall with her fist, which creaked. Did I just… break the wall? What's that sound?
It kept on creaking. Rachel noticed it was coming from the right, not the left, which was the wall she hit. Somehow, she never noticed the door there. Why is everything scaring me today?
I'm probably just tired.
Or this hospital is haunted. Nope, my brain is just trying to play tricks on me.
And that's when a six foot tall guy, holding a cane, burst into the room through the door she just noticed.