The Invalids Wing

As the hours grow late and the shadows grow far longer here in my bed I lie in wait for what surely must be my last night alive on this earth.

I lie in wait as I always have for the last ten years since having lost the use of my legs. And my arms are all but useless to me as I can do little more than grasp a nearby bell cord to summon assistance should I need it. The assistance, if it could be called that, is nothing more than a group of owl eyed, slack-jawed gawkers attempting to look their busiest as they endlessly fuss over this or that. All the while insisting my 'babble' incoherent should one or another draw near enough to bother hearing my faint voice. Never seeming to have a second thought as one stoops to retrieve the toppled over venillation grate from the floor and places it back into the empty hole in the wall. And mutters of... "This ought to be fixed." are overheard on thier way out once all had been determined to be "well".

Oughtn't it? I can only wonder before once again being cast into a semi-darkness of the Invalids wing. To either look at nineteen empty beds or gaze out the window to my right and contemplate that my fate will be very much the same as the others who had formerly occupied the room not so very long ago. I cannot distinctly recall when it began, only to say that every few days or so one by one the others had been found dead by the staff on their early morning rounds.

One by one each hastily wrapped in their bedsheets, hoisted and carried out by the wordless staff. No explanation to the rest of us regarding what had happened or why in spite of our questions. We were unheard or ignored and could only speculate the too numerous possibilities of what was going on. At least until possibly a week ago and only three of us left. I had been awakened by a somewhat noisy slurping sound to my left. And barely managing to cast a glance over in the direction. From the illumination cast by the moonlight filtering in through the dingy window above his bed, I saw a horrendous black human torso aloft Gene Blevins' motionless body. My gasp alerted the thing that it was being watched and upon detatching its face from Blevins' chest and raising itself on its arms, I can only describe seeing two huge black insectinoidal eyes and a great gaping round mouth filled with hundreds of rows of razor sharp teeth!

The sight was more than enough to cause a fright in me and as I began screaming I pulled the nearby cord and sounded the bell for help. It was most unfortunate in my doing so the thing attacking Blevins hastily skittered away and more unfortunate I could not stop screaming until well after help had come and I having been sedated. All I can recollect from that night was the horrible sight of that thing atop Blevins and once one of the staff carrying a lantern had passed by his bed I could see many rows of circular puncture wounds embedded deep within his chest and not a trace of blood on his body. I had no doubts in my mind that the thing which attacked Blevins was the same thing responsible for the deaths of the seventeen before him. Had I not lost my voice as a result from the screaming I would have been able to tell someone and were I literate, I surely would have written it down to let them know what had been the fate of Harold Windsor who had been the man in the bed across from me.

It was the night before last and I had hardly been able to sleep since witnessing what happened to Blevins. Staring up at the empty space above my bed and wondering what that thing was aside from trying to imagine a way to let someone know what was happening. A light metallic scraping sound and then a soft thud as if something had been gently placed on the floor, had stirred me from my thoughts. Raising myself on my elbows and looking over at the far wall I could see little more than black shadows before spying something blacker still, pulling itself from the open ventillation shaft. Frozen in my terror I helplessly watched as the thing which had attacked Blevins quickly began to pull itself forward in the room. As it made its way between the rows of beds with even more frightening speed, its nails or claws, made sharp clicking sounds on the floor whilst dragging its leggless body across the floor with a light swishing noise.

My racing heart seemed to stop the moment it halted between the beds of Windsor and myself. I almost hoped I would die of a heart attack before that thing decided I would be its next victim. I recall uttering a silent prayer in my mind... "Take Windsor, not me." Whether or not my prayer had truly been answered is beside the point. With a nearly feline grace the thing which had paused between our beds had silently 'leapt' atop Windsor's bed. Before he could even be aroused to wake to the horror before him, it suddenly darted its head forward. I heard a sickening crunching and tearing sound and vomited on myself the instant I heard that slurping noise. It wasn't until much later that I discovered I did much else. It wasn't until after the thing had finished 'feeding' on Windsor that I was able to overcome the terror which had frozen me to my very core and I could sound the bell to call for help as my screams were silenced with the loss of my voice.

And since then I have waited amidst what very little activity has gone on here in the room I alone occupy. The staff had brought no one else in here since the 'attacks' had begun. I may only speculate if they truly know anything or what could have possibly happened to anyone who had been in the Invalids Wing before my group and I had occupied it. I can only wonder what may happen to the next group of wretched souls who may find themselves in here. I only know what had happened to the group with whom I found myself in here. I only know what will most probably be my fate and within the very near future.

I can hear a light metallic scraping sound and a soft thud as if something, like a metal grating from the rooms ventillation shaft, is being gently placed on the floor...