The hospital floor was full of multi-coloured lines meant to lead you to the right ward - red for radiation, green for gastronomy, blue for blood tests etcetera. The sole purpose of these lines was to stop people from wandering between wards and potentially spreading sickness and it almost worked.
But she'd been following the grey line for about an hour now, all the rooms around her were locked, the lights seemed to be getting more spaced apart and the grey was transitioning into black. She had no idea what it meant but seeing that the singular line split into dozens of branches that ran into every side room didn't inspire confidence.
Peering through the windows as she passed, she either saw swirling emptiness or hauntingly familiar shuddering shapes that all bore an unsettling resemblance to someone she knew. When she came across a door with her name on it she immediately tried the handle, only to find it locked.
The polite sound of someone clearing their throat behind her made her turn to see that the blank wall was now a reception area with an immense warm shape crammed behind the desk. Its name tag read 'Barbara' and it told her that she needed to wait to be seen. Helpless to think of a reason to leave, she sat on an uncomfortably warm chair and began her wait.
A small window behind Barbara showed the sun rising and setting about eight times before a faceless figure wearing a lab coat and holding a clipboard emerged from the door bearing her name and calling her to enter. The chair whispered a faint "goodbye" as she left and she failed to suppress a shudder.
The room she was led into looked exactly like her bedroom and a great wave of exhaustion hit her - she was out before her head could even hit the pillow, waking up fifteen hours later in her own home, car parked outside and utterly convinced that she'd dreamt it all up. Until she saw a copy of her results on the kitchen counter.
No comments:
Post a Comment