The Night Shift

“I think you’re just being ridiculous,” said Mrs. Jones, shifting uncomfortably in her hospital nightgown and turning slightly to look directly at her neighbor in the next bed. “If that sweet Nurse Angela is going to give me drugs to help me sleep, I am certainly going to take them. The doctor says it’s important to get enough rest, and my hip aches all night.”

Miss Henry shook her expensively styled blond hair and looked disparagingly at Mrs. Jones. It was an insult to have to be in the orthopedic ward recovering from knee surgery, and she was still angry at the temerity of the surgeon who blamed her exercise routine for the injury he had just repaired.

“I, for one, am going to protect my body,” she huffed. “I am not going to pollute it with unnecessary drugs. That’s why I eat only organic food and take all these.” She gestured at the row of antioxidants and probiotics on the bedside table.

At that moment, Nurse Angela came into the room with the women’s medication. Preempting anything the nurse might have had to say, Miss Henry announced:

“I have decided I won’t be taking any more of your drugs.”

“You know it is important to get a good night’s rest. It will take you a lot longer to get better if you don’t rest,” said the nurse, picking up Miss Henry’s chart.

“It’s my decision,” Miss Henry said belligerently. “You can’t make me!”

“No one is going to make you. It’s only a suggestion.” Nurse Angela inconspicuously checked the box marked ‘noncompliant’ on Miss Henry’s chart and turned to speak to Mrs. Jones who was unusually cheerful despite the hip replacement she had had the day before.

“I take care of my body,” Miss Henry cried, insisting that the nurse recognize this. “I don’t eat anything that isn’t healthy. I only drink alkaline water and cold pressed juice!”

“And I am sure you are delicious for it, Dear,” said Nurse Angela vaguely, making another notation on the chart.

Several hours later, Miss Henry lay awake in the half dark room. Her knee ached and was beginning to throb, but she was unable to move much due to her bandages and splint. In the next bed, Mrs. Jones was fast asleep, having taken her medication when she was supposed to.

Miss Henry heard a faint rustling. Nurse Angela must have returned to check on them. She opened her eyes, ready to complain, but it was not the nurse she saw. What seemed to be a strange greyish mass had slipped out from under Mrs. Jones’ bed and now slid up onto the blanket in defiance of gravity and belying its lack of limbs or appendages. She watched in growing horror as the monster thrust its terrifying countenance into the sleeping face of Mrs. Jones and smiled. The maneuver required it to open a surprisingly large and slug-like mouth to show row upon row of sharp, black teeth. Satisfied that Mrs. Jones was unconscious, the monster receded, gently smoothing the covers with its body before sliding back down to the floor.

Miss Henry knew it was only a matter of moments before the creature would be upon her and she was correct. She felt the monster’s soft bulk conform to the contours of her body as it made its way toward her head. When it looked into her eyes, which she now had no power to close or turn away, Miss Henry saw her own expression of terror and disgust reflected in the creature’s multifaceted insect-like orbs. Its breath was warm and smelled like human blood when it hissed at her in a strangely comprehensibly manner, “You should be asleep.”

In the morning, Mrs. Jones woke up to sunshine coming in through the window of the hospital room. A nice young orderly was mopping the floor between her bed and the bed where Miss Henry had been when she fell asleep the night before. He quickly bent down and wiped a spot in front of the bedside table with a rag when he realized Mrs. Jones was awake. Nurse Angela was just tucking in the sheets on the freshly made bed.

“Where is Miss Henry?” Mrs. Jones asked in confusion. “I hope she’s all right.”

“Don’t worry, Dear,” Nurse Angela told her brightly. “She just took a little turn for the worse.”