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 Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 10:09 am
Prompt 10 You're visiting a friend or family member in the hospital and while walking down the hall, the fluorescent lights flicker, long enough for you to notice an eerie figure standing at the end of the empty hallway. Another flicker and the shadow grows closer - it's a deranged looking person, hair unkempt and eyes sunken into their sockets. A third flicker and the being is only yards away from you now, more grotesque in appearance than ever. A fourth flicker and…the lights return to normal, the hallway just as empty as it was when you originally turned to walk down it. Was it all an illusion? Maybe you're a little extra exhausted? Whatever the case may be, walking down the hallway you can't help but notice a putrid smell stinging your nostrils until you manage to turn the corner… Hands clutched tightly to the tin of cookies as Sophia Thomas found herself wandering around the concourse level of Destiny City General Hospital. She'd reluctantly agreed to run an quick errand for her mother; visiting hospitals were never Sophie's particular cup of tea but her mother had been so busy trying to bake things for the neighborhood community center's Halloween party that the young woman felt guilty telling her mom no. Halloween cookies had been distributed to the neighbors but their elderly companion across the street had fallen ill and been hospitalized the week prior, diagnosed with complications of pneumonia. While Sophie would much rather leave the cookies to grow stale for her return, she knew she couldn't do that to sweet Miss Bonnie. Miss Bonnie had always been the kind, doting type that looked after the kids in the neighborhood as though they were her own grandchildren. Sophie always received a card for her birthday - and still did, in fact - with a crisp ten dollar bill resting at the crease of the envelope. She couldn't not visit Miss Bonnie if her mother couldn't, sigh. So that's how she found herself, eyes wandering in search of legible signs to hopefully point the direction towards the elderly patient's room number.
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Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:53 pm
Pythia Adler hated hospitals. She hated everything about them, from the creepy old-people smell mixed with that strange scent that lurked where nurses followed, that weird soap they used, and the way her heels clicked on the tile floor with this sharp click-squeak rhythm.They were bland, and sterile, and disgustingly full of germs, all at once. She hated the morgue, with its creepy dead bodies and bad zombie horror setting, and the nursing wards with the shrill, screeching shrieks of new life.
So why she was here was as much a mystery to herself as it would be to anyone who could see her aversion written clear across her face in sharpie. Yet here she had come, for two reasons. The first, because she'd heard there was a Communications Coordinator position open, and Pythia was only a semester or two from her degree in PoliSci, and while a hospital was in the wrong direction from politics, any experience would be good experience when you were starting at 0. She didn't have the luxury of waiting for a job more specifically in her field- she needed income now, and experience now.
As for the second reason... Pythia peered down at the paper in her hand- a room number. Ophira had a connection (not a friend, Ophira didn't have friends) Upon hearing that her daughter was going to that most hated of places for a job interview, Ophira had tasked her with a 'delivery girl' task- put these flowers on the bedside table of some guy in a coma.
"Ugh," she muttered, peering at the doors again, "I feel like I'm in the completely wring area. Come on..."
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Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2018 8:46 pm
Large white letters overhead successfully aided the honorary cookie deliverer in giving her direction but before she started making her way down the hallway, she couldn't help but overhear the nearby girl's comment as she passed her. Paired with her perplexed, agitated expression, it was clear that the young woman was lost. And, being the annoyingly helpful girl that she was, Sophie's first impulse was to offer to help. "Are you trying to find a particular room?" Her trip was paused, momentarily forgotten in lieu of making sure the stranger wasn't left wandering the hallways. A bright smile offered, eyes curiously trying to peak at the numbers scribbled onto the piece of paper clutched in the girl's hand. The moment she leaned over, however, was the precise moment that the fluorescent lights above them decided to flicker. Glancing up at the strange phenomenon, Sophie let out a small squeak when a dark shadow caught the corner of her eye --- there was someone standing at the end of the hallway that hadn't been there moments earlier? And they didn't look... Well, quite frankly, they looked terrifying. " Do you see that?"
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Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 4:43 pm
Was she even on the right floor? Pythia wasn't even looking at anyone else in the hallway as she wandered, instead focused too much on her mother's scribbles, and that weird hospital smell. The other woman's question startled her, and Pythia's head swiveled, peering at the other woman. "Well," she said, electing to make use of the other woman, "I rather think I am." Any other day she might have been snippier. Any other day, she wasn't mostly alone in a long, sterile hellhole hospital corridor, with every damn room looking the same to her.
"I know I'm on the right floor-" She turned the paper to the other woman, just as the lights flickered. Startled, she glanced upwards- and her head jerked, at the sound of the other girl's squeak. It was- alarm, perhaps, and it made the redhead's hackles go up, her stance firming, shoulders dropping. "I didn't see anything," she said, but then the lights flickered again, and her teal eyes shot down the corridor to where the other woman was looking- and she did.
And she most definitely wished she hadn't.
Still, she smiled, glancing to the other woman. "Halloween practice," she said cheerfully. "Haunted Hospital. Very cool." It sure as heck better be practice, or she'd be punching a ghost-demon and screaming.
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Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 4:59 pm
The other girl claimed to have not seen anything, which almost came as a relief to Sophie -- except soon, the lights flickered a second time and the stranger beside her confirmed that she too now saw the horrifying person at the end of the hallway. It looked like some sort of... escaped patient from one of those old horror movies where people died in psych wards. Sophie didn't make a habit out of watching spooky stuff like that, but she'd come across a show or two on television from time to time that had ghost hunters delving into the depths of abandoned buildings, looking for spooks of former patients and whatnot. Sophie definitely did not want to look for any spooks, not today, not any day. "I-I didn't know hospitals did t-this sort of thing for Halloween..." If that was really a prank, it was a darn good one and Sophie would have to make a point to put in a complaint to the hospital staff because something this real shouldn't be there to scare poor old people or young children. Only, a third flicker happened and the human-creature- thing was suddenly only yards away, looking as terrifying and putrid as ever. She could almost see the detail of the flesh rotting off from the woman (man's?) arm, bony limbs reaching out for both her and the redheaded stranger. Their mouth was gaped open, their finger pointed straight at them. Prank or not, Sophie found herself grabbing hold of the other girl's arm and letting out a scared scream.
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Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 6:36 am
"I- wasn't aware that they were either," she agreed, eyes narrowing, "But I suppose there's a first time for-" For the lights to flicker again, and he figure to come even closer, pointing, gnarly teeth probably in that gaping, mouth, and Pythia balled up her fist, not planning on tolerating this Halloween bullshit without a fight. "I'll pop that bony fake arm off and beat them with it if they comes one step closer to me without saying hello." Her voice went from almost-friendly to very sharp, especially when the other woman grabbed at her arm, giving a cry of fear. Oh hells to that.
The person was rotting, and- she'd fought zombies, last year, but that had been as Imbrium, not a thing prowling the hospital floor. She stepped between it and the other girl though, because dammit, you don't scream like that when faced with danger, you make the danger work for it. But then the lights began to flicker again, and Pythia braced herself...
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Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 3:41 pm
The stranger was certainly braver than Sophie was, which should have put the young girl to shame (being a sailor scout and all) but gut instinct had her cowering as the civilian she appeared as. As the lights flickered one more time and the other woman stood between her and the monster, Sophie took a deep breath, closed her eyes and waited. And waited. When she heard nothing more, amethyst eyes slowly peeked open and glanced over the redhead's shoulder to see... nothing. There was nothing in the hallway. A shiver ran down her spine as she clutched the cookie container, the plastic shaking from the way her body trembled. "I think... I think I should go," she rasped hoarsely, eyes cutting over to the stranger before falling back down on the hallway. "Thank you, sorry, goodluckfindingyourroom." With that, she dashed her way down the hallway towards the stairwell (because she was not waiting on an elevator with all this spooky nonsense going on), holding her breath and trying not to retch as a sudden, horrific smell invaded her nostrils.
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Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 5:41 am
The other girl was behind her, cowering and shaking, and Pythia balled her fists like a bulldog, bracing-- for nothing. As she stared at the empty hallway ahead of her, she could feel that same tremor of fear as the other woman clearly felt, curl and settle at her spine and in her gut. Adrenaline faded as quick as it had come, combined with a strong sense of what the actual fu--
The scent that hit her nostrils with her next deep inhale was not the sterile scent she hated- it was putrid, and thick, clinging to her nostrils and trying to clamber its was in, and she replied by coughing, trying not to choke. Thank you, sorry, goodluckfindingyourroom. Pythia's eyes widened a bit, and she shifted her weight to watch the other girl run for the stairs.
Had this girl never watched The Grudge? People died in stairwells, when you were in a horror movie. But they also died by getting left alone at the site of the.... yeah... so Pythia took her well-wishes, settled her shoulders, and made her way to the end of the hall, turning the corner-- and finding her room, right there.
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