The Nightmare

The night air enveloped Kate like a warm blanket. Along with the uncharacteristically thick air this evening, Kate noticed that it was unusually quiet out as well. For some reason, the night air made her uneasy, and she hesitated before stepping off the front steps of the hospital. It was almost as though she could feel someone watching her as she walked to her car.

Kate looked around carefully before opening the door to her car. The moment that the door shut, she flipped the switch to lock the doors. She felt a little silly as she turned the key in her ignition but still couldn’t shake the eerie feeling that had overcome her.

Taking a deep breath, Kate put the car in gear and slowly pulled out of the parking lot. The drive home was uneventful, but she somehow couldn’t shake the strange feeling that had followed her all evening. Finally, she found herself inside her darkened apartment with her key in her hand. She stood still in the silence for several moments before finally flipping on the living room lights.

She looked around and sighed heavily. Deciding that she was being crazy, Kate turned on the TV and went to the kitchen. Dinner consisted of a left-over chicken breast from the night before and a couple of pieces of stale bread. She never was one to fix a deluxe dinner just for herself and usually found herself eating over the kitchen sink while watching the evening news through the small opening above it.

As usual, the news was nothing but troublesome stories from a world gone wrong. Kate couldn’t handle the negativity long tonight and quickly turned the channel. Again, she was left in the eerie silence and promptly felt the strange feelings swell up inside of her.

Before the feelings could take her over, Kate began stripping off her clothes and turning on the water in the shower. For several minutes she stood under the steaming faucet trying to wash away the day. Sometimes, she found it hard to leave behind the things that had happened at the hospital, and today was no different.

She quickly found her mind drifting to a particular man that had utterly uprooted her day and wondered whether she would ever be able to help him find peace. She knew that peace was something that everyone deserved. Unfortunately, peace was something that had been deprived of him for far too long due to his mental issues.

Not wanting to delay the inevitable any longer, Kate turned off the water and began drying off. After quickly dressing for bed, she flipped off the lights and climbed into the crisp sheets. Before closing her eyes for the night, Kate looked around her darkened room. Everything appeared to be in place, but she still had an uneasy feeling when she finally closed her eyes.

Surprisingly, even with the uneasy feelings, Kate was able to fall asleep quickly. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a restful sleep that she was able to have. She didn’t know how long she had been asleep when she first heard the noises. At first, she simply thought that it was something coming from one of her dreams. But that was before the sounds were loud enough to cause her to jerk out of bed.

She glanced at the alarm clock beside her bed and saw that it read midnight. Without much movement, she looked around her room. All was silent and appeared to be in order. Just as she was about to believe that the noise was a figment of her imagination, she heard it louder than ever from outside her bedroom door.

Kate gasped and grabbed the baseball bat that she kept beside her bed for protection. Slowly, she got out of bed and made her way quietly to her bedroom door. Without turning on any lights, she grabbed the doorknob with one hand and raised the bat in the other. Quickly, she swung the door open and lunged at the source of the noise outside her door. Her bat came crashing to the ground as she connected with nothing but air.

Confused, Kate finally flipped on the lights in her bedroom and saw nothing. She did the same in the hall and saw nothing again. At this point, she was beginning to think that she should return to Saint Briel’s tomorrow as a patient rather than a nurse. Then, she heard the sound again.

It sounded like a small clanking of a dish or a ringing of a bell…something familiar that Kate couldn’t quite put her finger on. This time, it sounded as though it was coming from her kitchen. As quietly as she could, Kate crept down the hallway with her bat raised. The sound continued as she reached the corner of the hall.

Slowly, she rounded the corner but left the lights off in her kitchen. Looking for the source of the sound proved to be a challenge. Kate couldn’t precisely determine where the sound was coming from. That was until she saw the shadow sitting at her kitchen table. At this point, she nearly dropped her bat.

The shadow was that of a woman. Although Kate couldn’t quite make out the features of her face, she could see that the woman was dressed in strange clothing. Her hair was down and partly obscured her face. Kate stood frozen as she stared at her image. The figure didn’t turn toward her, and it didn’t appear to move either.

Before Kate could open her mouth, she heard a strange voice whisper, “Kate.”

Surprised, Kate stumbled backward in an attempt to flee from what was in front of her. Her sudden movement alerted the figure who was suddenly standing and facing Kate. Panicked, Kate fell in a sitting position and began trying to scoot away from the figure.

Slowly, it began moving closer to her. Kate began to scream as the woman started to run toward her. Just as she was about to reach Kate, who was still trying to escape, the woman leaped at her. As the woman’s body fell into Kate’s, the woman engulfed her like a cloud of smoke. Kate felt as though the woman went through her rather than simply disappear. As the last of her presence vanished from in front of her, Kate closed her eyes and felt her head hit the floor.