Day 402

You could see them outside of the hospital window and through every door.
They shouldn't be there, nobody should be here.
This place was supposed to be damn near impossible to get into and yet there they were.
People you know kept dashing past you, running away from something unseen.

You didn't have the guts to look back and didn't quite believe that you were alone.
Walking only made your fear worse, you settled for a light jog for as long as possible.
Still they passed you by, never acknowledging you and never responding to your calls.
Your mother, cousin, that guy you sat next to in maths, the taxi driver who got you here.

Where were they running to and were they even real?
You didn't quite feel alone but there was no noise beside your own light steps and heavy breath.
Wait, was it your breath? Were you out of breath already?
No, this breathing wasn't quite in time with yours, like an echo but close.

As your first crush came hurtling past you felt hot breath on the back of your neck and snapped.
You took the hospital's corridors like a slalom, left and right stopped meaning anything.
All that mattered was outrunning everyone you knew and getting away from the thing behind you.
Before you knew it you had sprinted past your first crush, you heard their scream.

It only made you run faster, passing by everyone who you'd seen before.
They screamed, all of them and it always ended with the same sickening, wet crunch.
Without realising you managed to circle back around, feet slipping and sliding on the bloody floor.
The tiles were drenched in blood, handprints smeared on windows and walls.

There were no bodies in sight though, at least this morbidly marked where you'd been.
You took the turns you hadn't before, ended up in some kind of surgical theatre.
In front of you was a trolley with a body on it, covered by a sheet.
Looking around you saw everyone who'd run by you all blood soaked and mutilated.

Their eyes (or what was left) glared at you accusingly, you had let them die by outrunning them.
You outlived them and they loathed you for it, some opened their mouths and let out silent screams.
The hot breath was at your back once more, breathing out in your voice look under the sheet.
As the damp off-white fabric was lifted, your own face stared up at you with pure hatred.