uncured

The room sounded of low buzzing, choking, and my slow paced breathing. But it sped up the moment I realized who the choking could’ve been coming from.

Without thinking, I shot towards the cracked door. Carefully opening it, I peeked my head back into the main lobby and shined my flashlight on her previous standing point, but no sign of her.

“Hazel?” I called her name. And instead of repeating it, I listened for someone fighting for breath, but still, nothing. I slowly switched the on button back to off on my flashlight which was clasped in my left hand, just for safety. Just in case someone was here that could potentially get us in trouble.

After seconds of listening to the repeating noise of the buzzing, I decided I had to move.

So I deliberately stepped into the main lobby where I’d left Hazel standing, still no apparent sight of her. I clicked the flashlight back on for what seemed like the tenth time and shined it around the room.

“Hazel..?” I repeated. She couldn’t have gone far, she was scared of her own shadow. What concerned me more than her disappearing was the choking. Was she hurt? What could she have possibly been choking on? Hazel did seem accident prone, she’s always been the scared one. But she never spoke up for herself. It’s beyond me how they convinced her to do this in the first place. I raised my eyebrows and took a few steps forward, until a smell began to fill the air. A bad smell. I gagged before sucking it up and continuing to take small steps, the smell getting worse with each one.

I don’t really know what I expected from an abandoned hospital, I guess I should’ve known it would smell. But not this bad.

Another buzzing noise joined in, but it sounded more like a bug. Flies. As all the other sounds, it was faint but hearable.

I took a deep breath before stepping even closer to the smell, hoping that somehow I'd be stepping closer to Hazel. I shined the flashlight to the front desk, but quickly moved the glow over to one of the pillars beside it when I saw a slight movement coming from that area. Once I could clearly see, there was someone leaning on the pillar. I squinted my eyes.

“Hazel? What are you doing?” I asked. But no response.

The smell was worse near the pillar, but I tried to ignore it.

There was still no response, just the uncomfortable silence complemented by the low buzzing. I stood there for seconds, not knowing what the hell she was doing or what the hell i should be doing about it.

After a few seconds, the stillness of the room was interrupted by Hazel, her body slipping off of the pillar and collapsing to the ground with no halt and a small thump. I stepped back so she wouldn’t hit me. The only thing I could think of was her passing out, it has happened before.

But when I got a good look at her face, she wasn’t passed out.

She was dead.

Pools of thick blood covered her lips and all around them. A mix of blood and saliva continuously drooled out of her mouth. But that wasn’t the worst of it.

Her head had been bashed in – or ripped open, I couldn't decide which it looked like more.

The squirming contents of her brain showed as the upper part of her face seemed floppy, almost as if it could be pulled right off like a mask. Chunky blood covered her head as flies buzzed around it, landing on various parts of her brain. I froze, and breathing properly started to become a difficult task. My heart rate rapidly increased as I took slow steps backwards. I could feel everything I’d eaten today come back up and, dropping the flashlight, I spun around and vomited. A lot.