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“Someone yelled my name, it woke me up,” I argued. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have, I sleep like the dead here!”
“Don’t leave again,” he warned before pushing his shadows at me. I tried to fight the darkness overtaking me but was powerless to fight as it pulled me under.
The eerie silence that filled the halls of the third floor had me unsettled. At first, I worried my meds were still adjusting since I’d had the strangest dreams all night. There was usually some movement around. It took everything in me to convince myself I was overreacting and to go through my morning routine without panicking.
My body felt grimy with sweat so before anything, I had to shower. As I grabbed my designated shower caddy from the desk, I noticed Nurse Drew and the night nurse were nowhere to be found.
By the time I’d taken a full shower and changed, it was still quiet. After depositing my caddy back at the nurses’ desk, I went through the hall, knocking on doors.
Every room was silent and locked, which in itself was strange. They never left me alone now.
“Hiro? Roman?” I called to be sure before moving on to Layne’s. “Layne? Crew?” Again, nothing. Holding onto hope, I called out the last member of this floor. “Drake?” I was still met with overwhelming silence.
Every footstep seemed booming in the quiet, and I realized the floor was lacking its usual noises I’d taken for granted, the buzz of the air conditioning, the washer running, everyday noises.
My heart pounded against my chest and dread settled in.
Something was wrong.
Not looking back, I ran for the elevator and slammed the button for the basement, hoping they simply went to breakfast without me and this was a vast overreaction.
The elevator wasn’t stopped once on the way down, but when it opened at the bottom I was met with a wall of shadows. A scream escaped and I fell to my ass, scrambling away from it as they pushed forward.
These weren’t demons, they were my panic come to life. I hunched in on myself and took measured breaths, counting them down.
One.
Two.
Three.
Forcing my eyes open, I sagged in relief at the empty hallway. It was short lived, though, knowing I still hadn’t found a single person so far.
With my panic at bay, I raced to the doors and threw them open, shocked to find bored cooks behind the line and not a single patient. Even the high-security section was empty, not a patient, nurse, orderly, or security guard in sight.
“Where is everyone?” I called out. One of the workers poked her head through the line so she could see me.
“You’re the first down here, and breakfast ends in fifteen minutes. Grab you some to go, honey.” She disappeared, then popped back through with a few Styrofoam boxes and a paper bag. I loaded them up with breakfast, just in case.
“Thanks!” I called out as I tucked a few bottles of orange juice in the bag and headed out the way I came.
Monty was waiting for me on the elevator, and I picked up the pace at the sight of him.
“There you are. What the fuck is going on?” I demanded.
“I told the demons to feed last night, to prepare. This is the after-effect. They’ll all be awake in a few hours,” he drawled as if he were bored by my questions.
“Monty! What the actual fuck?! You can’t use them like this! What about Drake?” He was one of them they couldn't feed from him, right?
Monty let out a chuckle as he stared down at me. “He was causing a scene with that human you like, so I took care of them.”
Ice ran through my veins, and it took everything in me not to punch him right in his skeletal face.
“Where are they? If you hurt them then that’s the end for us, Monty,” I promised him with enough venom he took notice.
“It seems you found your fire today. You could fucking say thank you as I’m the reason you went untouched at night,” he bit out.
My nightmare from last night had included him, and I narrowed my eyes, his smirk telling me everything I needed to know. It wasn’t just a fucking nightmare.
