Midnight Sleep

by Tanesha Walker

St. Benedict Hospital was the last place anyone with a choice would find themselves. Was the patient death rate a little high? Did they hire doctors with dubious pasts? Did the higher-ups use volunteer and student residencies to keep the everyday functions going? It was an emphatic yes, and it was where Lettie Mae found herself for the summer before she started medical school. St. Benedict Hospital was the kind of facility that served around three to four rural counties. While it would never be at the top of any list, it had served their patients for better or for worse. If she wanted to have an edge over the incoming class, she needed to be on the floor, elbow deep in patient care. She wanted to see it all. And that was saying something, since she had already seen a bit of it in high school, by the time she first started volunteering at St. Benedict’s, she was completely unfazed. Ever see what a shotgun can do to a chest cavity? She had, probably much younger than any person should, and she was excited to start once more.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lettie Mae Simmons.” Dr. Montgomery offered his hand to her. The way he said her name was as if he was reading it off of a patient sheet for the first time. Dr. Montgomery was a middle-aged black man, who was a little on the pudgier side. His eyes, while connected with hers, they were distant as if he was looking through her.

“It’s great to meet you as well.” Dr. Montgomery had been hired in the last few months, therefore Lettie Mae hadn’t had a chance to work with him yet. It couldn’t be as glamorous as pediatrics because those positions were taken up by residence students. They get preferable placement to volunteers. While she was open to work in these fields, she was certain about what she wanted for her future. “I am honored to have a volunteer, people usually aren’t interested in coma patients.”

“I’m open to working with any and everyone. I need to get experience,” she said and hoped that she sounded more enthusiastic than she really was.

“What field do you want to go into?” he asked. She internally berated herself for being obvious.

“Maybe pediatrics with a specialization with natal care,” she said. From her time at this hospital, she did like interacting with the small babies, and the amount of joy she felt when they went home far outweighed the sadness when they left in tiny coffins.

“Admirable field, and I’m honored to have a young mind working with me,” his voice had notes of disappointment and Lettie Mae just nodded her head. “All of medicine is rewarding.” They fell into a silence as they boarded the elevator. It was the newest part of the hospital, even though the metal floor was stained with blood and there was an indescribable, unpleasant odor that was only in the elevator shaft. She preferred the staircases. While it too had mysterious stains, there wasn’t a smell, it was just musty. “I do hope that you’ll have no problem with my patients.” He started again as they got to the seventh floor. “This is the coma ward.” His voice was louder as it echoed through the very quiet hallway.

“Oh, is this the new intern?” They stopped at the nurse’s station, which was the only spot really illuminated on the floor.

“Lettie Mae, this is Marcus, the floor night nurse.” Dr. Montgomery gestured to the man behind the desk. Marcus looked only a bit younger than the doctor, his hairline receded and what was left was speckled with gray. His mint green uniform scrubs strained against his body and there was a stale odor that hung around him.

“Always good to have new hands around here.” Marcus had a gruff voice, like a smoker.

“Yes. Now, Ms. Simmons. Don’t think that because my patients are in deep comas, that they are useless. I need you to collect data from them.” Dr. Montgomery ushered her away by her shoulders, before she took more of Marcus in.

“I already do that, Dr. Mon,” Marcus said behind him, but it was very uncommitted.

“Lettie Mae will be taking over to get her experience for future clinicals,” he called over his shoulder at Marcus as they walked further down the hall.

“Okay, whatever.” Marcus grumbled as they entered the first room.

Into her ear, he whispered, “Marcus is very lazy, and I need a detail-oriented person to do it instead.” He straightened up as they entered a patient’s room. Most of the area was dark, the only light on was above the patient’s head. It was a gaunt, young, white man, a yellow, sickly pale, with a thick, black, coil-like beard on his chin. The angle of the light paid him no favors.

“This is Bernard Tran, my longest resident. It’s because of him that I do my research.” His tone was adoring, as if he saw heaven in this sickly man. “He is the only patient credited by name in my study.” Lettie Mae jumped when Bernard suddenly snored, his breathing was very wheezy. His nose scrunched, and she could hear the oxygen rushing into the tube in his nose. It was consistent and most likely at battle with his natural flow of air. “I need consistent, reliable vitals. All you need to do is read the monitor and record what you see every two hours. Most patients get a shot from me before I leave for the night. Tell me about any abnormal activity.” He extracted a vial and syringe from his pocket.

Lettie watched as he injected something into the IV line. After he did so, he checked his phone, typed a quick message and slid it back into his pocket. He walked her down the hall, injected several more patient’s IVs with his vial, which Lettie couldn’t quite read the print on. He did a kind of introduction for most of the patients, their name, and how long they had been there. But none had been there as long as Bernard Tran, who had been there for three years. “Alright, I’m out for the night.” He said as he walked her back towards the nurse’s station. “You will do well, I can see it in your eyes.”

“Thank you, Doctor.” She gave him a small nod as she was finally to take a seat behind the nurse’s station.

“Well Lettie, I guess we will be seeing a lot of each other,” Marcus said with a smile.

“Do you work on other wards?” She asked as she sat in her chair. It creaked loudly.

“No, this is a high demand area.” He swooped his hands above his head and rolled his eyes. “Nothing really happens. If we get lucky the patient in Room 725 might wake up. They’ve been real twitchy. Or could also be grand mal seizures.” He shrugged before popping another chip into his mouth. Crumbs covered the desk, and Lettie Mae noticed that some of them weren’t food. When she looked up, the paint on the ceiling was chipped. Large fissures ran along the ceiling, as she was looking, she turned and blinked rapidly as she felt something fall in her eye.

“Watch out for the chips, who knows what they are.”

“You don’t call them by their names?” She asked. Lettie Mae didn’t remember them all, but Dr. Montgomery had told her a few.

“No, they can’t hear us.” He shrugged and ate more chips. His obnoxious crunching filled the air in the worst way. Lettie Mae felt the tiniest bit of regret. She could be out in the world enjoying her summer. That thought was quickly squashed, all experience was good. This down time would also allow her time to study in preparation for class. As she was reaching into her backpack, Marcus cleared his throat.

“Hey Newbie, I’m going out for a smoke before you gotta run vitals. Hell, if you want to start early, do it. I don’t think it really matters.” He flashed his cigarette box and lighter before he shoved his chair back. His walk down the hall was surprisingly quick and quiet. Before she knew it, she was alone.

Once he left, the floor got even quieter. The only sound was the gentle, irregular beep of heart monitors. She started to feel on edge. The night light settings weren’t helping, creating shadows out of everything, and every other light was off. She could hear faint scratches in the ceiling above her head. The foundation shifted and made the whole building let out a faint wail. The chair she was sitting in was creaking with each of her movements.

She jumped at a sudden deep snore. “Okay Mae, you are fine. This won’t get to me,” she assured herself. Lettie Mae made herself at home, determined to start her anatomy book. The time did seem to go slow, and while she read several pages, when she looked at the clock it had only been five minutes. She wasn’t sure how she would make it the next fifty-five minutes before vitals needed to happen. The building continued to let out low moans. Who knew if the wheels moving on the floor above her were scheduled for medicine or corpse removal? Her heart started to beat faster, so many people died in this hospital.

The time crawled along, she finished several chapters, but none of it was sticking. She could hear the blood rushing through her ears. She sprang up when a paint chip fell on her head. Marcus still wasn’t back from his smoke break. It wasn’t anywhere near time for vitals, but it would give her something to do. If she went super slow, then some people she went to would be at the true two-hour mark. She grabbed a clipboard, loaded it with blank paper and decided she’d start at the end of the hall and work her way back to the nurse’s station. Her walk quickly turned into a sprint as something crashed to the floor.

“Hi.” She hastily knocked on the door. “I’m here to take vitals,” her voice tapered off, as she heard more rustling down the hall. It had to be another nurse. She took a second to calm herself. “You can’t hear me,” she sighed, then gagged a bit when she stepped further into the room. “I’ll get a CNA to change you.” She placed a hand on her chest as she retched again. Maybe that’s who she heard earlier. She just needed the numbers on the screen. She decided to push through, but two more steps and the smell became too much. She vomited in her mouth and rushed out of the room. She took several deep breaths to attempt to clear out her passages, when she heard some movement down the hall. Marcus’s smoke break took him long enough. “Where have you been?” she called down the hall. However, instead of nurse scrubs, she saw a patient’s robe walking away in the dim lighting.

“Sir?” she called out, but the patient continued to shamble away, his feet dragged loudly across the floor. Lettie Mae sped walked after him. When she was closer, she could see that it was Bernard Tran. That didn’t help her confusion as she chased after him, but every step for his long legs was three for her. He needed to stop. Maybe he was confused that he was awake? It wasn’t safe for him to be up. Even so, each turn, each stairwell, he just got further and further away. She knew this hospital very well, but his path made it seem endless. Like a maze, curled into itself with no way out. Where was she? Where were the nurses, doctors, staff, even nocturnal patients?

“Stop!” she yelled after him as he slammed through a door. She was blinded by the sudden light. After a couple blinks, she noticed she was in the ICU. She walked past several gurneys with patients covered in sheets lined along the hallway. The nurse’s station was deserted, and he was nowhere to be seen. Where was he? She walked back into the hall and uncovered several people. Only to be met with vacant eyes, slack jaws, and the depressing smell of death. What was she supposed to do? She walked back to the nurse’s station. Her head whipped down the hall when she heard medical equipment fall. Would she be able to confront him? She walked over the intercom and did the only thing she could think of to get help.

“Code Yellow, Code Yellow in ICU third floor,” she rasped out into the mic. A single nurse with sleep-heavy eyes came out of a patient’s room.

“Kid, get off the intercom,” she said as she walked closer menacingly.

“It’s—” She tried to form words as the nurse clearly got more and more annoyed with her. “A coma patient,” she started to say before an automatic Code Blue alarm went off.

“Move, kid.” The nurse shoved Lettie Mae as she walked behind the nurse’s station. “Fuck.” She grabbed a walkie off her belt. “Patient 317 is crashing,” she said with a bored tone and started to assemble a crash cart.

Lettie Mae was about to say something to the nurse, when she heard a heavy shuffle down the hall. “He’s there, the lost patient,” she said. There was a loud bang as the staircase door closed, barely heard over the Code Blue.

“Get out of here,” the nurse said as she wheeled the cart down the hall the opposite direction of Lettie Mae and where she suspected Bernard Tran went. She didn’t try to get help again from anyone as she wandered through the hospital to find the missing patient. She did several laps of the facility before she walked dejectedly to the coma ward. She was going to be dismissed because she lost a patient.

“Hey dude, you coming from the action?” Marcus asked as she got back to the coma floor’s nurse’s station, in his hands was a vintage car magazine.

“What?” she asked as she sat down, steeling herself to admit her mistake.

“Someone in the ICU crashed, which is not unusual. But still wild.” He shrugged his shoulders as he looked up with excitement in his eyes. “I do not envy those nurses. What’s with the face?” he asked.

“I lost a patient,” she said, her tone grim, as she waited to be dismissed on the spot. This was going to terribly affect her chance of getting a proper residency. Hospitals talked to each other about students.

“What?” He kind of chuckled, “You can’t lose something you don’t have.”

“I saw Bernard Tran get up and walk off.”

He stared at her for a bit, she closed her eyes and waited.

“No, he didn’t,” he finally said. “Come with me.” He ushered her into Bernard Tran’s room. There the patient laid hooked up to all his equipment, his wheezy breathing filled the space.

“Yeah, he doesn’t move, man.” Marcus poked at the patient. “You could scream in his ear or place a needle under his nail bed and nothing.” Lettie Mae was alarmed at how casual his tone was, as if he’d tried those things. “Look if you stay here long enough, you’ll see things. Could be ghosts.” Marcus left the room. Lettie Mae stared at the patient for a couple of moments, only to scurry away when his face scrunched up. In the hall, she tried to regain her composure before walking back to the nurse’s station.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, Lettie Mae tried to get acclimated to the coma floor. Gathering data wasn’t the problem. She was constantly looking over her shoulder at each sound. There was always something just out of the corner of her eye. She did keep a closer eye on Bernard Tran, but he just didn’t seem to move. She wanted to be relaxed. However, every other night she heard the Code Blue alarm. Surely it had to be normal, but they mainly seemed to be when she was finishing up her rounds. Then when she checked everyone’s room, every patient was in place.

“The Code Blue alarm is going off around the same time every couple of days,” she brought up to Dr. Montgomery as he flipped through patient charts. It was his turn in the doctor rotation to work the night shift.

“Well Ms. Mae, it’s a hospital and most people die at night.” He patted her shoulder as he walked off to his office, and she just felt her unease grow. A lot of people die here, that was the hospital's reputation. She just needed to calm down.

There was a new patient introduced to the coma floor. It was an older woman who was rural rich, in a medically-induced coma. She was scheduled to wake up within a week. Lettie Mae felt very paranoid about her being there. What if she was next? Because of the increase of deaths, the morgue was too full, so the hospital staff was leaving the bodies in the hallway of whichever unit. So far, the coma floor had been spared of the gruesome fate. Lettie Mae really didn’t want to see that every night she came in. When she did her rounds, she made sure to check the older woman’s vitals. The round she was currently on was about to be finished when the strong urge to go to the bathroom hit.

In the stall she sat there, and suddenly her eyes started to feel quite heavy. This job was so, so boring. Would it be so bad if she napped here? It was slow and Marcus went on hour-long smoke breaks, which she learned against her will that he was flirting with nurses in other units. Her exhaustion was so deep that the sudden flickering lights didn’t set her on edge. It was probably mice chewing on the cords. Her head drooped onto the toilet paper holder and soon her eyes were closed.

She was jolted awake when the automatic Code Blue alarm went off. She was back in the main hall before she was aware of her body moving. Marcus sprinted down the hall to the room of the older rich woman. Lettie Mae wanted to run towards the action, but she found her throat tight. This couldn’t be happening, she stumbled back and tripped into a room. She caught herself on her hands. How was she going to deal with the sight of a body in the hallway? When she finally collected herself, she stood only to scream in fright.

She found herself in Bernard Tran’s room. He laid in his bed, with his eyes wide open. His sclera’s were a deep yellow which made his dark irises seem sunken. The dark eyes were looking at her directly, they were slowly looking around the room. He wasn’t hooked up to any machinery, the tube for his nose was beside his head. Hands gripped her shoulder, and she collapsed in on herself still screaming.

“Lettie calm down,” the deep voice of Dr. Montgomery cut through her panic. He hushed her as he picked her up. When she looked over, she screamed again. His eyes were still open and looking straight through her soul. “It’s okay.” He rubbed her back. “He’s still asleep.”

“No, no, he’s looking at me,” she cried while gripping the doctor's coat tightly. He pried himself free. She scrambled after him.

“He’s asleep.” Dr. Montgomery rummaged through his pockets to pull out a roll of tape. “He’s in REM, probably had a nightmare.” He closed Bernard’s eyes and gently taped them shut. “He gets nightmares.” He then hooked him back to the oxygen, Lettie Mae was sure she saw his hand linger on the man’s face. The tubes made Bernard’s breathing wheezy once more. “It’s all good, go back to the nurse’s station while I go fill out a death certificate.” She was guided from the room back to the desk. Marcus was there with a magazine back in his hands. As she sat, she could not get herself settled.

Lettie Mae was really hopeful that as the weeks went on that she would be able to relax again. But she couldn’t, as patients kept dying. The coma ward had two deceased patients in the hallway. She kept seeing movement just out of her line of vision. Bernard Tran’s eyes haunted her dreams. She had to be losing it, maybe she was more sensitive to the lead paint in the walls than the other people who worked here. It had to be paranoia, until she did vitals after a Code Blue and Bernard Tran’s eyes were wide open again and he wasn’t hooked to his machinery. It couldn’t be a coincidence, right? The next night, she came back with a piece of charcoal and slipped it into his socks. They didn’t clean the floors, so if he moved, then it would show.

For a couple of nights nothing happened, and only one patient passed away in a different unit. Just as she was sure it was just lead absorption, after her rounds, there were dark footprints on the ground. She didn’t even bother to peek into Bernard Tran’s room. What was she going to do? Was he pretending to be a coma patient? Why was he doing this? She wanted to talk to Dr. Montgomery, but something in her told her it wasn’t a good idea. The doctor had a weird fondness for that patient. As she thought about it, she didn’t really know much about what Dr. Montgomery researched.

When she left at dawn, the pit in her stomach developed into an ulcer. She needed to look into him. As she did, her already wavering support of the doctor crumbled more. The last hospital he worked at was another institution that paired with a university. His published research was on coma patients. The first was about body manipulation to retain muscles and limit atrophy. It was already built upon previously understood principles. The other was more perturbing, titled “The Mind During States of Perpetual Unconsciousness.” The data collection was much like he asked her to do, track vitals of patients, but twice a day he’d inject either adrenaline or cortisol. Then he studied their reactions and tracked motor functions. The study found that while patients will move slightly, when they wake up from the coma they don't retain memory of their movement.

She was unable to find more, because it seems there was a problem with a sharp increase in patient deaths in the previous hospital. The news articles detailed that the hospital had a change of staff and that seemed to end their morbid streak. Lettie Mae was tempted to call the previous hospital, but she was unable to bring herself to do it. She knew how these systems worked. Tragedies covered by changing staff to keep doors open and patients flowing in and leaving in body bags. She sat back and started to think. What could she do? There was no way people would believe her, and she could not stop a grown man who killed people. As sleep crawled through her body, she got an idea.

It took a few days to build up her nerve to implement her plan. She was going to film Bernard Tran in action. When she looked back on the record of death, there was one about every three days. The last death had been two days ago. Tonight, she was going to forego her data collection. Once Marcus left to go on his smoke break/flirt tour, she went to sit in Bernard Tran’s room. She sat in the visitor's chair in the corner and waited. Her phone was gripped tight in her hands. What if he woke up and looked at her? What if she was next? Would anyone investigate? As more questions swirled in her mind, she almost missed when sheets started to shift.

When she looked up, Bernard Tran sat up. As he unhooked his vital monitors, it was like watching an automaton. She was so enraptured that she almost forgot to hit the record button. He didn’t seem to have an awareness of her. The first stop was a medical supply closet. He punched in the keycode. She crouched low and angled her phone into the room. Bernard filled a syringe, it was fast. She was almost hit by the door as he left in a hurry. They made their way to the Oncology ward. While they walked down the hall, Lettie Mae was tempted to call out for help. Guilt took over more as he got closer to his destination. She was going to film a murder. Would she be to blame as well? Would her evidence even put an end to anything? Bernard slipped into one of the rooms. She waited by the door and focused her camera. He injected something into the IV bag. The effect was instantaneous, the patient's vitals crashed. He moved the fastest he moved all night to the point that he almost ran over her. She barely caught up to him as he went back into his room. He laid in his bed, his wide-open eyes were pointed at the ceiling.

She crept out of the room. However, she couldn’t bring herself to finish out her shift. She walked past the nurse’s station and out the door. She didn’t even leave the parking lot before she sent the video segments to the police. Doubt clouded her mind that the police would even investigate. The feeling grew as the week went on. She didn’t want to be suspicious, though she doubted anyone even cared to notice that she jumped at every sound. What if Bernard Tran came after her? What would she even do? The nights where the stress was too much, she would shelter herself in the bathroom stall. Every noise set her off, because it could mean that the coma patient was coming after her. One evening when she left, her fear was alleviated because at the nurse’s station were a pair of cops.

They had a lot of questions about the video and the hospital’s dealings. Lettie Mae was more than happy to share. She hadn't been allowed to leave until she gave a statement anyway. The rest of the night was a blur. Dr. Montgomery was brought to the hospital. He was forced to open up his office. They found a whole chemistry set, and books of notes. There were so many untitled vials. The cops were not short on evidence. Which should have given Lettie Mae hope, but she knew that Dr. Montgomery would be free to do this again to other patients. This would all get swept under the rug and his research would continue until he killed the wrong patient.

In the days following, Lettie Mae was offered volunteer positions in different units. She declined each one, even the NICU. They could have offered her a residency position and she would have said no. This whole event left a bad taste in her mouth, and her future career path uncertain.

YOU HAVE REACHED THE END OF THE CHAIN.

Come back every Tuesday… if you dare.

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About the author

Born in Richmond, VA to a single mom, early life for Tanesha was hard, and her main escape was reading. She had always been attracted to horror, from ghost stories, to dark mysteries, and the like. Since middle school she knew that she wanted to be an author, which led her to study at Hollins University where she earned a Bachelors of Arts in Creative Writing. She met many great writers who inspired her like Karen Bender, Pauline Kaldus, Cathryn Hankla, and Richard H. W. Dillard, all of whom encouraged her to develop her unique voice. When she writes it’s to make not only herself, but also her family,
friends, mentors, and anyone who has supported her proud. Her only work as of now is Horror Stories to Titillate the Senses, a self published collection of her short stories from her time at Hollins University.

When she's not writing, she usually cuddles with her cat Berry while playing video games. If she's not, she might be watching horror movies with her best buddy. Or listening to her eclectic music playlist.