Quote:
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…
Word count: 1075
Dessie strode down the halls of the hospital like she was walking through her home because in some sense the place was ‘home’. Xander worked here, spent so much of his time here, that Dessie had become somewhat of an expected figure in the sterile halls of Destiny City Hospital. She barley needed to give her name at the visitor’s desk anymore, most of the times one of the staff just waved her through or told her where Xander currently was. Sometimes she was asked to wait in a particular staff room if he was busy but that didn’t normally happen. This time she was here to get dinner with her ‘father’ and in the meantime she was planning on working on her school work.
Most of the classes she had signed up for were the prerequisite classes and felt more like an extension of high school then real college classes. Even with the stupidly simple classes Dessie didn’t dare let her grades slip since she wanted to prove to herself that she belonged there. She was meant to be part of the mass of young adults looking to further their education. A small part of her still didn’t believe it. It still thought that she should be coasting from city to city, avoiding any lasting connections. That she didn’t deserve or belong with a family, especially one like the Jacobs.
Mentally shaking off the slight funk she had slipped into Dessie continued on her trek. She was heading towards her normal hiding spot, a doctor’s lounge that was rarely used… except for work hour liaison. Those things stopped once she started to frequent that particular room pretty damn fast, thank god. The blonde focused on the homework she needed to get done as her shoes barely made any sound on the clean linoleum. She was so into her own thoughts that she turned a corner and didn’t even notice the fluorescent lights flicker at first.
At the second flicker she glanced up and saw a eerie figure standing at the end of the empty hall. Almost immediately Dessie felt like she was back in that clinic from a few days ago. Once more plunged in a haunted house type of nightmare where she just wanted to punch the ******** out of someone. The lights flickered again and the shadow was closer, much closer than anything human could move in that split second of darkness. It appeared to be a deranged looking person, their hair unkempt and greasy, eyes sunken into their face, cheeks hollow. A addict or a crazy person, or both. Who the hell let this guy wander around unattended.
Dessie tensed, worried that the guy… if it was a guy, would try something with her at which point she would have to restrain him. It would take a balance of skill and strength not to hurt the man, a balance she didn’t really have. The lights flicker again and once more the ‘man’ jumped closer. He was only a few yards away, more ghastly and skeletal then he did just seconds before. Had she been a weaker willed person Dessie might have screamed in fear but the blonde wasn’t about to show such a weakness, she squashed the desire to run, the desire to cry, the desire to act like a child, and instead tensed herself. She was preparing for a fight because as far as she could tell the person in front of her was no person at all… no human could move that fast nor could they change so drastically. Something was in that hall with her and it wasn’t alive. Not the way a person was at least.
The lights flicker for a fourth time and… return to normal. Empty. The hall was empty, just as it was when she first turned to walk down it. No skeletal youma there, no shadow figure, no ghostly apparition. Nothing. Was it all an illusion? A masterful trick of some screwed up negaverser? Was she just tired and spooked from the clinic? Could it be after effects from that night? Honestly, it didn’t matter to Dessie. She didn’t give a ******** about the why, only about the how… and the who. Particularly the who. The whole incident made her skin crawl and she really wanted to punch someone. A desire that had been building since the clinic really. A desire that hadn’t been fulfilled by sparing with others, or swimming, or even patrolling. And it definitely wouldn’t happen here in the hospital. Not right now at least.
Pissed and annoyed the blonde stomped her way down the hall, her nose wrinkling absently at the putrid smell that lingered in the area. A smell that magically disappeared as soon as she turned the corner once more. Maybe ghosts were real and she just encountered one… and maybe she was a purple elephant! Who ever was playing such a crappy trick needed to get their asses handed to them, preferably after Dessie kicked them first… hard… repeatedly.
She shoved her way into the empty lounge and began to pace, slinging her backpack onto the cot that was situated in the corner. The urge to go out and patrol was rather strong but she had things she needed to get done and Xander was expecting her. He knew she would be coming today after her classes got out. Dessie mentally played around with the idea of texting him, telling Xander that she was going to go patrolling, but ultimately she knew it wasn’t going to happen. She wasn’t going to do that, no matter how much she wanted to at that moment. “God ******** damn it,” the blonde lashed out at a chair and watched as the plastic material bounced and skittered across the small space.
The display of anger didn’t do much to quell her emotions but the noise did to some extent. It had been loud and echoed slightly in the confined space, it reminded her of where exactly she was. She was in a hospital. She was in Xander’s hospital. She already made his life difficult, Dessie didn’t want to make it worse by being a nuisance in his workplace. Grumbling to herself the blonde picked up the chair and fished out her text book, an expensive a** time that wasn’t worth the price she paid for it. She could at least do her homework while she waited… or attempt to anyway.
