The storm had been raging for hours, thunder rumbling across the isolated town and rattling the hospital’s thin windows. Inside, the dim emergency lights cast eerie shadows, each hallway leading to a murky unknown. Mira, disoriented and weak, lay motionless in her hospital bed, struggling to remember anything beyond collapsing at the grocery store earlier that day.
A small cluster had formed around her bed. Dr. Lewis, steady as ever, flipped through her chart, noting the details of her unexplained symptoms. Nurse Casey stood close by, a sympathetic smile softening her face as she adjusted Mira’s IV drip. Mira’s “aunt” and “uncle” had arrived minutes before, and Dr. Lewis was already fielding their worried questions.
“We came as soon as we heard,” Sarah cooed, smoothing Mira’s hair with an oddly possessive tenderness. Her eyes flitted between Dr. Lewis and Nurse Casey. “We’ve been worried sick about her.”
Hank, the supposed uncle, nodded, his hand resting on Mira’s bedframe with a strange sense of ownership. His gaze never left the doctor and nurse, calculating and cold.
As the evening wore on, Dr. Lewis grew increasingly uneasy. Every few minutes, he’d catch Hank’s eyes watching him, a silent tension building in the room that felt more intense with each flicker of the lights.
But he wasn’t alone in his discomfort. Nurse Casey noticed it too—the way the supposed relatives took mental notes of the hospital’s layout, doors, and exits, whispering to each other when they thought no one was looking.
“Dr. Lewis,” Casey murmured as they stepped out to check Mira’s latest test results. “There’s something…strange about them. Are we sure they’re really family?”
Dr. Lewis glanced back at the room, his expression unreadable. “Perhaps they’re just anxious,” he replied. But there was a tightness in his voice. “Keep an eye on them, just in case.”
Hours passed, and the storm outside showed no signs of letting up. The small town hospital was silent, almost empty, and the stillness became increasingly oppressive. Mira had dozed off, leaving the nurse and doctor alone with Hank and Sarah. As the thunder echoed in the distance, Sarah leaned forward, a polite smile stretched too thin.
“You know, Dr. Lewis,” she began, her voice barely a whisper, “we appreciate everything you’re doing for our niece. I suppose it’s hard to trust strangers, isn’t it?”
Before he could answer, Hank produced a knife from his jacket, his eyes glinting in the dim light. “How do you think we felt, sending our dear Mira here?” he whispered, an edge of menace in his voice. “Hospitals can be such dangerous places…”
The air grew thick with unspoken threats. But Dr. Lewis’s expression didn’t change. Instead, he shared a look with Nurse Casey, who gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod.
“Oh, believe me,” Dr. Lewis replied, his voice even. “We’re very aware of how dangerous they can be.”
Hank’s confident smirk faltered. “What are you saying?”
Dr. Lewis stepped closer, his eyes cold. “I’m saying that we know exactly who you are, Hank. You and Sarah, making your way from hospital to hospital. I don’t need to see your records to know that you’re killers. But you chose the wrong hospital this time.”
At that moment, Nurse Casey pressed a hidden button on the wall, locking the doors. The lights flickered, leaving the room bathed in the sickly glow of the emergency bulbs. Hank and Sarah exchanged wary glances, the first hints of fear entering their expressions.
“You see,” Dr. Lewis continued, his tone clinical, “we prefer our patients to have… limited family members. It simplifies things.” He moved toward a cabinet, retrieving a set of sterile tools. “Organ harvesting, after all, is a messy business, and it’s best handled quietly.”
A shiver passed through Hank and Sarah, their confidence unraveling as Dr. Lewis and Nurse Casey exchanged a knowing look. The two psycho killers realized, too late, that they were not the predators here. They were prey.
A scream echoed down the hall, swallowed by the relentless storm outside. But the town was too far and too isolated to hear it. As dawn approached, the hospital lay still, the only sounds the steady beeps of the medical equipment and the quiet murmurs of Dr. Lewis and Nurse Casey as they cleaned up the “mess.”
In a locked storage room, hidden from prying eyes, new organs were meticulously labeled and stored.
Later, Mira awoke alone, groggy but alive. Her memory still hazy, she had no recollection of the strange couple who had claimed to be her relatives, nor the quiet, practiced hands that had ensured their silence. She only remembered the flickering lights, the shadows, and an odd sense of dread.
As she prepared to be discharged, Dr. Lewis and Nurse Casey exchanged a subtle, conspiratorial glance.
Outside, the storm had finally passed, but inside the hospital, Dr. Lewis and Nurse Casey knew their work was far from over.
As Mira left, a subtle hint of a missing-person report on the evening news caught her attention: a couple matching the descriptions of her “aunt” and “uncle” had been reported missing from the previous hospital they visited.
Feeling an inexplicable chill, Mira looked back at the hospital, wondering if she’d ever truly be free of what happened within its walls.
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