Hauntings

-The Fall-

Handong looked at Yoohyeon’s hand closely after the situation was over and carefully held an ice pack on the now forming bruise. It was, in fact, a handprint, and from what Yoohyeon said, it stung like crazy.

Handong pouted as she iced the bruise and looked into Yoohyeon’s eyes. The doctor didn’t like seeing Yoohyeon in pain as she pouted cutely.

“stop that. You know it drives me crazy!” Yoohyeon teased as she leaned in and kissed Handong’s still pouting lips. Doing so caused the ice pack to shift as Yoohyeon cried out in pain.

“ouch!” Yoohyeon shouted as the ice shifted uncomfortably on the bruise. Handong couldn’t help but whisper softly to Yoohyeon as she tried to help, but the taller girl just smiled.

“it's ok. It was my fault.” Yoohyeon said as she smiled happily. The two had been dating for almost two years, but besides Minji, no one knew.

The couple never tried to hide it. Just no one was looking whenever they would kiss or do anything affectionate. It was like they were invisible at those moments, and this was no different. As Handong was taking care of Yoohyeon, the others were quickly trying to clean up the explosion of gloves while not getting close to the door and whatever was beyond it.

Siyeon was a bit shaken as she walked into the storage room, followed by Dami. They went there to grab a replacement box of gloves after the last one exploded, but neither of them wanted to go into the room to replace it. As they walked by the couple, they were oblivious to Handong and Yoohyeon, who were still having a moment.

“you ok?” Dami asked as Siyeon leaned against the wall inside the storage room nervously. It was one thing for them to hear about the weird things that happened in this unit, but it was a whole different thing to experience it in person.

“Yeah, I'm ok. I'm just a bit shaken. I cant imagine how Yoohyeon feels. She must be terrified…” Siyeon said as Dami nodded. The two were worried about their new friend and couldn’t imagine the trauma that she just experienced.

“well, we can just make sure to be there for her while she needs it,” Dami said as Siyeon nodded and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm her nerves, and soon, the two walked out of the storage room just as Handong and Yoohyeon finished their moment.

“did you see that glove box get smacked out of my hand? It was so cool!” Yoohyeon said as Handong shook her head and laughed at her girlfriend. She was always like this. When Yoohyeon should be scared, instead she found the situation cool or amazing.

“you know… that’s not how I would describe it…” Handong said as she rolled her eyes before smiling again at Yoohyeon.

“but it was just like BAM! And then the next thing I knew the box was on the floor! Whatever that thing was, it must be powerful!” Yoohyeon said as Handong felt a cold chill run down her spine. These things didn’t scare Yoohyeon, but Handong was a bit different.

Though she was known as a cool and collected woman, Handong panicked if anything remotely dangerous happened to Yoohyeon, and this was something that she couldn’t protect her against. It made Handong feel weak and helpless.

Siyeon and Dami had just exited the storage room and walked over to the couple when they heard a familiar voice.

“Hello!” a voice said from down the hall, causing Siyeon to freeze. She recognized that sweet voice anywhere. A soft blush covered Siyeon’s cheeks as she looked up into Minji’s smiling eyes with a startled expression.

Minji was giving Siyeon the smile that was just for her, and Siyeon couldn’t help but feel herself smile shyly back. Minji’s smile was infectious, so she couldn’t help but return it.

“hey! You are here!” Yoohyeon shouted as she and Handong walked up. The two had finished treating Yoohyeon’s hand and now were starving. Handong eyed the many bags that Minji was carrying and smiled.

“food! Just what we needed after what we experienced!” Handong said as she dragged Siyeon over to Minji and had the shy girl help Minji take the food to the break room.

“nice one!” Dami whispered to Handong, who only winked back before going to find Bora and Gahyeon.

The group was now gathered in the break room as Minji started setting out the food when Handong couldn’t help but snort at the pale expressions on the others. They were thinking that it was going to be the same outcome as in the cafeteria, and Handong couldn’t wait to see their expressions when they finally had something that Minji cooked well.

“you really shouldn’t have!” Bora said with a slightly worried look as she stared at all of the food in front of her. It was a lot of food, and with the scare that she just had, she really didn’t feel like throwing up all afternoon too.

“relax… I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Minji is a better cook than you think when she isn’t working…” Handong whispered to the girls in earshot.

It was slightly reassuring to Bora, but not much. She still remembered Siyeon being trapped in a bathroom for half her shift, and who was the one that had to cover her shift? Bora. For half the shift, she was watching double the patients that she was supposed to. She was just lucky that nothing bad happened.

“I doubt that…” Bora whispered to herself softly as she leaned over the food to examine it. Everything looked amazing and smelled even better, but everyone hesitated until they watched Yoohyeon and Handong grab some food and eat happily.

They seemed to truly enjoy the food, and it made Siyeon curious. Carefully Siyeon leaned over and picked up one of her favorite foods, and when she popped it in her mouth, her eyes went wide. It was delicious. The difference between Minji’s cooking at work and at home is like night and day.

Dami watched Siyeon carefully as she took the bite of food, but unlike what she normally looked like after taking a bite of Minji’s food, she seemed to truly love it.

 Curiosity finally got the better of her as Dami picked up some food while ignoring Gahyeon’s silent protests as she clung to her arm and popped it in her mouth. Just like Siyeon, she was completely surprised. It was some of the best food that Dami has ever tasted.

“How did you learn to cook like this?” Siyeon asked with a happy smile as she popped another bite of food in her mouth. Minji was beaming as she watched Siyeon eating happily and quickly responded.

“I like taking care of people. It makes me happy when someone enjoys what I cook, so I decided to cook for a living.” Minji said happily as Handong laughed.

“But you really need to cook like this for work! Many more people will eat your food if you do!” Handong said as Minji stuck her tongue out at her friend.

“but it's not healthy. The people at work are patients nurses and doctors. It's not like only patients need healthy food. So do the staff so that they don’t get sick.” Minji said as Yoohyeon smiled.

“yes, but because of that, I'm pretty sure that your boss gives you iffy food to cook with. Last time I ate something, I got sick. I know it's not that you are a bad cook, so it makes me wonder If you used good ingredients.” Yoohyeon said as Minji shook her head.

“no, we found out one of the staff had been forgetting to put the supplies that needed to be refrigerated up until morning. Everyone has a refrigerator for the specific meal, and most of it was shoved into mine. Sadly a lot of people got sick…” Minji said with a frown. She didn’t like finding out what happened, and the lazy staff member was fired.

There was a rumor that it wasn’t an accident. The staff member was mad at someone in the cooking staff and tried to ruin them, but luckily the security cameras caught it all on camera.

Everyone looked at her skeptically but said nothing. Minji was the kind of person to always try to see the best in people, and they knew that this was one of those times.

Bora finally took a bite of food and was pleasantly surprised. The food was amazing. It was a complete opposite of how she cooks at the hospital. Several bites of food later and Bora finally decided to go over to her office to do some quick paperwork before her first meeting as their boss.

Everyone said goodbye and were enjoying the food happily while making small talk when Bora stormed back into the breakroom a couple of minutes later, fuming.

“Alright, who did it?!? This isn't funny, and I expect EVERYONE to clean my wall!” Bora said loudly as everyone looked at her with a confused and startled expression. She sighed angrily before continuing.

“who the hell wrote a message on my wall in fake blood?!” Bora asked as everyone's eyes went wide as they looked at each other.

No one looked like they had any idea of who could have done it, and it infuriated Bora. It HAD to be one of them. If it wasn’t them, then someone or something wrote a message on the wall right behind her desk in what looked like blood.

Bora explained it, and quickly everyone jumped up and ran into Bora’s office. There on the wall right behind Bora’s chair read “welcome to hell” in what looked like fake blood.

Minji instantly smelled something and quickly walked over to the wall and smelled the ‘blood.’

“it smells sweet like berries… the desserts for today are supposed to be strawberry, razzberry, and different types of cakes and tarts. I think that is what this is… but who would do this? And do they know that some of our ingredients are missing? Does anyone of you have a phone?” Minji asked as Siyeon took out her work phone and quickly handed it to Minji.

Their hands touched briefly as both blushed and acted like they didn’t notice as Minji quickly dialed the number. When someone answered the phone, Minji quickly explained the situation, and they found that some of the supplies for the desserts were missing, as Minji expected.

Minji quickly took a photo and sent it to her boss. She was worried that this was some prank done by the kitchen staff.

Once she got off the phone, Minji shyly returned Siyeon’s phone before turning to Bora. Her expression said it all. She believed that the kitchen staff was responsible.

“I'm so sorry. Some of our strawberry and razzberry fillings went missing. I think it was used here…” Minji said apologetically as she went to go talk to her boss about the situation.

“well, at least that is explained. Though it will be a pain to clean up… and very sticky…” Dami said with a frown as she looked at the wall. Well, it was better to take care of it now instead of waiting until later when it all drys.

Dami went to turn around and get something to clean the mess when Bora’s chair spun around and suddenly slammed into the wall right below the writing.

Everyone jumped as they looked over at the wall and quickly fled the room. Gahyeon was clinging to Siyeon while Handong held Yoohyeon protectively though no one noticed.

Dami looked at the door as Bora looked at her purse on the desk with a sigh. Bora knew that she needed to grab it and leave for the meeting soon, but she didn’t want to go back in there with whatever just did that.

As she went to take a step forward, the door slammed in her face, just barely missing her nose as she froze in fear.

Dami quickly ran up to her and pulled her away while checking that she was alright as everyone stared at Bora’s door.

“Bora, don’t you have to go to a meeting soon?” Siyeon asked worriedly as she looked at the door. No one wanted to go back in there.

“yep…” Bora said as she looked at the door with a worried expression.

“don’t you need to get your things so that you can leave?” Siyeon asked as Bora shook her head.

“Nope…” Bora said as she held up her cell phone.

“but your car keys…” Dami said as Bora shook her head again.

“I will call a cab…” she said as she took a step back from the door.

“but what about your wallet?” Gahyeon asked as Bora held up her phone again.

“I will pay with my phone… I have to go… bye!” Bora said as she fled the hallway and rushed off to her meeting. It was supposed to be held at a restaurant that wasn’t far away, and if she couldn’t find a cab, she would just run for it. Anything was better than going into that room right now.

Once that was over, and Bora made it to the meeting just in time, the others went back to the breakroom to finish the food and clean up. Yoohyeon voted Siyeon to bring Minji’s lunch boxes back as the nurse paled, but Yoohyeon wouldn’t take no for an answer.

The girl shyly walked into the back of the cafeteria to see Minji and everyone looking at a laptop set on a counter with a confused expression.

“so… It just vanished from the tape… how could that happen?” Minji asked as she looked at her boss, who looked as confused as she was.

“I don’t know. But they checked and said that the video wasn’t tampered with, but is that even possible?” her boss asked himself as he hit play one more time.

Siyeon walked behind them and watched two bowls of dessert fillings there one moment only to vanish the next.

Siyeon gasped as everyone jumped in terror. They didn’t notice her approaching. Everyone clutched their chests as Minji’s face flushed red.

She let out an adorable squeak when she was startled and hoped that Siyeon didn’t hear it. But judging from her shy smile, Minji wasn’t so lucky.

“Siyeon. sorry… you startled us. I guess we were too focused…” Minji said as Siyeon smiled and shyly held out the bag with her containers.

Minji shyly grabbed the bag from Siyeon, and again their hands brushed against one another as they felt an exciting jolt.

The two tried to ignore it, but everyone around knew about the girls' huge crush on each other and just smirked and quickly busied themselves with other things.

Minji and Siyeon stood there shyly as they thought of what to say. The silence finally came to an end when Minji thanked Siyeon for returning her for returning the dishes as Siyeon shyly looked at the floor.

“no problem…thank you for the food. It was amazing.” Siyeon said as she looked up and smiled sweetly.

Minji felt her heart ache at the cute expression as she returned a happy smile.

After a couple more minutes of shyly chatting, Siyeon had to say goodbye as she went back to her floor. They had decided to go clean Bora’s office and wanted everyone to be there just in case something happened.

Luckily the cleaning went well though Siyeon swore someone was touching her hair. She knew it had to be all in her head. After all, they were all still spooked from what they saw earlier.

Once that was over, everyone regrouped in the breakroom while they waited for Bora to return. They chatted for a bit until the conversation went back to the spooky things that had happened recently.

“seriously… it takes a lot of strength for this thing to do what it has been doing. While you went downstairs, I was doing some research…” Yoohyeon said as Handong groaned. She knew where this was leading. It was soon going to become another new obsession for Yoohyeon.

“research about what?” Gahyeon asked as Yoohyeon pulled out her phone and started showing everyone what she found.

“if they can do things this strong, then this thing is powerful. They say things like this can gain strength from places where a lot of deaths happen. Well, we are in a hospital, and our morgue is in the basement right below us. Its several floors down, but we are still right above the morgue.” Yoohyeon said as she pulled up another website.

“it also says here that construction can aggravate spirits or demons that are attached to the location. So I think that is why this thing is acting up like it is.” Yoohyeon said as Dami looked at her in shock.

“wait… do you think it’s a spirit or a demon?” Dami asked as she looked at Yoohyeon. The taller girl thought to herself before speaking.

“well, I thought about it, and everything is pointing to either a poltergeist or a demon. But with the bruise on my hand, I'm leaning towards demon…” Yoohyeon said as she pulled up information and showed the girls.

All of it was about three-fingered marks on people that were either bruises or scratch marks on people's skin. It gave the girls the creeps as they looked at the site that was playing creepy music.

“well… what do we do now? And why did they make that room that number? Usually, they avoid unlucky numbers, and this one has two unlucky numbers together…” Dami said as Bora walked in.

“It isn’t supposed to be like that. If you notice, all of our rooms are listed as 401 402… but it was supposed to be numbered differently. Somehow someone deviated from the plans, and once it was done, it was too late to redo it per the higher-ups. So now we are stuck with that room.” Bora said as everyone wondered how that could even happen.

“so what about that room? Do we have to use it?” Dami asked, but Bora shook her head.

“for right now, we are going to be a Med Surg floor. I talked my bosses into leaving that room vacant until the ICU overflows, and we need to start taking critical patients.” Bora said as everyone sighed. It was nice to know that they wouldn’t have to go into that room for a while.

The next day was their official first day as a working unit, so they quickly made every room, but that one was stocked properly and went out for a work dinner and soon went home. Tomorrow was going to be a long day, and they needed to prepare themselves for it.

Everything went smoothly that first week and even the second week went by peacefully. But on the third week, the ICU ended up overflowing onto their floor, and that was when Siyeon started noticing strange things happening.

Patients would suddenly crash as they would run in there and try to save them. Sometimes they were successful, but other times they weren’t.

With every death, stranger things started happening that everyone tried to ignore. They would hear scraping noises like claws on metal or feel breathing on their neck only to turn around to find no one there.

Siyeon was unsure what to do, but one thing was for sure. That thing in room 413 was starting to become active again, and she was worried that it was starting to harm their patients.

Dami was talking with Yoohyeon and Handong about how Siyeon’s relationship with Minji had progressed, and by that, they meant it had gotten nowhere at all.

“I just wish that we could give them a little push. Help them come together. They are perfect for each other. They just need to take the first step…” Dami said with a groan as the two nodded in agreement.

“you must be talking about Siyeon and Minji,” Gahyeon said as she sat on Dami’s lap. The three nodded as Gahyeon laughed.

“Someone really does need to help them, or they will continue to be like this forever…” Gahyeon said as she grabbed Dami’s arms and put them around herself. The older girl held her waist as Gahyeon smiled happily.

“Just look at you two. Someone took a step, and now you two look adorable!” Yoohyeon said as Dami and Gahyeon looked at each other with a confused expression.

“what do you mean?” Gahyeon asked as both Handong and Yoohyeon groaned.

“oh god… not two more…” Handong said as Yoohyeon laughed and shook her head with a sad expression.

While this conversation was going on, Siyeon went downstairs to go grab something that was delivered to the wrong floor on accident when she spotted Minji walking up the steps in the stairwell.

Their eyes met as Siyeon smiled when suddenly she felt a shove from behind. Whatever the creature was, it had listened to Dami and pushed her down the stairs towards minji.

Siyeon’s expression changed from one of happiness to one of panic as she went flying down the stairs. She tried to grab the railing, but it was just out of reach as she looked at minji in horror.

Minji dropped what she was carrying and lunged forward as Siyeon collided with her. Minji broke her fall, but they soon rolled down another flight of stairs as they were tangled together.

They finally came to a stop with a thump. Both girls were lying there unconscious as Minji looked over at Siyeon to see a black wetness flowing from her head onto the grey floor.

Bora heard a shriek and went to the stairwell and saw food scattered along the stairs and went running down them to see Siyeon bleeding profusely as Minji struggled to reach for her.

“HANDONG! DAMI! GAHYEON! COME QUICK AND BRING A STRETCHER. TWO! TWO STRETCHERS!” Bora shouted in her loudest voice as everyone came running. It was a terrifying sight as they saw the two lying there unconscious as Bora was quickly trying to stop Siyeon’s bleeding. Her white jacket was painted red in Siyeon’s blood, and you could see the panic rising as the blood continued to flow.

Siyeon and Minji were both ran to the OR and were rushed in quickly. Bora and the others stood there as they waited with worried expressions.

They should have gone back to their floor, but Bora’s boss told her that they would pull some staff from other floors to help. He knew that they would have a hard time concentrating while the two were still in surgery.

It was several hours later when Handong walked out of the OR. She had gone in to get information and instead had to help. Siyeon was bleeding quickly and needed blood, and Handong was soon offering to donate, and soon, she had a needle in her arm. They had already used several bags of blood and were running low, so Handong’s blood was truly her lifesaver.

Handong quickly gave them the news. Minji was alright, but it was Siyeon that they were worried about. The surgery was successful, but with so much blood loss, they worried how long it would take for her to wake up.

The two were put in the same room, and like expected, Minji was the first one to wake up. For days she would stare at Siyeon, who was sleeping silently. She wouldn’t move or make a sound. The only thing that told Minji she was alive was the soft rise and fall of her chest.

Minji would watch the sleeping girl as she worried. She prayed that when Siyeon wakes up, she would be alright.

It was one full month before Siyeon started to wake. Minji was the first one to notice when she realized that Siyeon’s eyes started to move.

Minji cried out as she hit the call button, and soon nurses and doctors came running into the room as Minji called Yoohyeon and the others.

When Siyeon finally started opening her eyes, everything was blurry. As her vision cleared, she started hearing muffled voices as a bright light was shined into her eyes.

The light hurt as she flinched away from it and looked around as her vision slowly returned. Everyone was there. Gahyeon and Dami were to her right as Bora and Yoohyeon stood to her left. Handong was the one with the penlight as she asked Siyeon questions.

But what distracted Siyeon was the black shadow that was in the corner of the room. It was hard to tell what it was, but she watched it slowly leave the room before Handong got her attention again.