Nosocomephobia

Nosocomephobia Chapter 1

Thank you to FlamingReaperComic on DeviantArt for the awesome cover art. 

This is my first story uploaded to Wattpad, though you can find this story on Archive of Our Own as well. I'm not entirely sure what to say or warn for on this site, so feedback is very much appreciated. If you'd like to see more, I've got a lot of information on my Tumblr blog at world-of-horrors-au.

Content warnings: Gore, death/murder, violence

Have a great day and I hope you enjoy.

"I don't know why hospitals scare me so much," Tiffany Fleischer admitted about thirty minutes away from their destination. "I've always been scared of them. When I went into labor the first time, I was so scared they had to knock me out and do a c-section, because I couldn't listen to any instructions."

Beside her, Briar, the young woman driving, nodded in silent sympathy.

"Even now I can't go into hospitals alone," the middle aged woman continued. "If it weren't for you I wouldn't be able to pick up my husband today." Tiffany grumbled and rubbed her nails on the front of her shirt. "That man, he has to wait until the last minute for everything..."

While her face was calm, inside, Briar sighed. Tiffany was her coworker at the veterinarian clinic they worked at. It was Friday afternoon, the beginning of her week off, and while helping Tiffany wasn't at the top of her list, she didn't have the heart to tell the older woman no. Tiffany was an anxious ball of love and faith, born and raised in the lowlands of South Carolina. She brought homemade brownies at the end of her work week and held the other nurses if a shift hit particularly hard. When it came to coworkers, Tiffany was one Briar wanted alive. Sometimes, she wanted the rest to burn.

With the radio set to the oldies station, chipper 80s pop echoing through the truck, it almost seemed like a normal afternoon. Like there weren't cops walking down the sidewalks, and cameras scanning traffic. Fast food joints were lit up with neon and LEDs, dented stop signs, poles with pictures in black and white reading "Have you seen me?" Briar's frown deepened.

"They're looking for someone," she mumbled.

Tiffany looked at her, quick and alarmed. "What?"

She smiled. "It's nothing."

The older woman stared. "No, really. What is it?"

Briar gestured to the signs on the poles.

"This town isn't safe anymore," she said.

Tiffany bit her lip, the wrinkles darkening with stress. "It can't happen here," the older woman insisted. "Those beasts can't get in here."

The young woman smiled bitterly, and said no more no matter what her companion said.

Our Lady of Salvation Hospital was one of the better ones in the region. The floors were clean, the doctors well trained, and the cafeteria cheap. They had three floors for surgeries, a mental health ward, an always busy ER. No maternity ward, only government funded hospitals had those anymore. But that gave the hospital more room for patients. Plenty of those these days, Briar thought as they entered the elevator to the first surgery floor.

The ride was smooth, but slow. Briar had vague memories of faster elevators, with tile floors and light up buttons, but that would've been when she was under ten, before the security elevators became mandatory. The soft buzz of the scanner hid just a breath under the calming music that filled the hospital halls. The light by the door flashed blue, once.

A bell chimed. Briar pulled her phone from her pocket. The kitten on her animated lock screen yawned, the name on the text message window read "GF", with a winking, raspberry blowing emoji on the end.