~Cruor~

Vamptember day 6 ~ Langsuyar

Getting injured was probably the worst part of your hiking trip.

You stared up at the ceiling in the Malaysian hospital. Your arm was in a cast and your legs were patched up. The clock showed you it was roughly eight in the evening. Nurses and doctors were in disarray, moving around the hospital. A week back a lady had died in childbirth, and the hospital had felt weird ever since. It wasn't weird, you had heard horror stories about this place. The doctors never truly seemed to care about their patients, you had seen with your very own eyes. There was nobody that could pick you up, and so you were left here until you properly recovered. The buzzing lights weren't the problem, neither was the pain.

It was the nightmares.

The woman looming by your bedside, long black hair over her eyes. She always sat by your bedside, her cold clammy and bleeding hands on your injured ankles.  You could see the pair of dark eyes come out from her black hair. She whispered to you, begging and pleading. Night after night she woke up in a cold sweat. This night was the same. In the middle of the night you were woken by a baby crying all the way in the maternity ward next to the wing you were staying at. Normally you would have ignored it, but something about the situation had your hairs standing up straight. You felt like you had to undertake action. Not sure what exactly had come over you, you forced yourself out of your hospital bed. There were less doctors around, and you stumbled outside of your room.

Carefully and quietly making your way down the hall, you followed the noise of the increasingly stressed crying. Slowly opening the door, you saw nothing at first. Creeping through, you finally reached the crib of the baby.

And you froze in shock.

That woman from your dreams loomed over the crib, blood dripping down her claws as the baby cried and shrieked. It was truly the most beautiful woman you had ever seen, her hair reaching down to her ankles. She wore a green gown, and was looking at you with a curious expression, but no fear or annoyance. A smile appeared on her face as she looked at you, yet she never spoke to you. She stood straight, turning her body towards you. You covered your mouth with your healthy hand to suppress a yell. The woman's hands reached down to her feet and she had long nails. It looked creepy to say the very least.

You could see blood come from the baby's crib, and the crying subsided. You felt dizzy, you knew you had to get out of there, but part of you hoped you could save the newborn. The woman had fully refocused her attention on you, blood pouring down her mouth and onto the floor and her gown. You bolted past any makeshift beds, the injuries on your legs splitting open as you silently prayed you had stayed in bed instead. The woman seemed in less of a hurry, slowly walking after you. You even heard her hum a tune. You ran back around a set of beds, scooping the newborn up with your working arm. To your luck the baby squirmed in your arm, and you felt a bit of relief.

Looking over your shoulder, you saw the woman look more irritated before she spoke in broken English. "Get back here.."

Shaking your head, you begged for the woman to just go away. You ran out into the hall, bolting towards one of the stations the doctors stayed at during the night shift.  One of the nurses saw you coming with the bleeding child, and you could see the understanding in her eyes. She took the baby from your hands and some of the doctors restrained you in a desperate attempt to calm you. The woman stood at the end of the hall, shrouded in the dark. She smiled at you.

Clearly this wasn't the end of it.

[A langsuyar is a type of vampire which is the ghost of a woman who died while pregnant or giving birth. Langsuyars are different from the pontianak, which is the ghost of the child who has died at or before birth. They take the form of a beautiful woman, with long black hair that reaches her ankles, although they may also take the form of a floating woman's head, from which entrails and a spinal column hang—thus, similar in appearance to the penanggalan, although different in nature. Langsuyars have also been described as having incredibly long nails, hands extending down to her feet, and wearing green robes. They prey on humans, preferring the blood of newborn male children, but also consuming newborn female children]