Tales of Aegiceras: Cave in

22. The Little Boy (3)

Translator: Superbomb

After work, the hospital was emptying away. Late in the night, the lights went out layer by layer. Although the opposite Inpatient Department was still bright, aside from the emergency room and the nurse station on the first floor, the rest of the main building was enveloped in darkness, and only the sound of raindrops hitting the shed could be heard.

It was so quiet. I sat alone in the emergency room, eating chips boringly. I felt a hint of vitality only when I heard the occasional laughter from the nurse station.

The ticking of the clock on the wall made the emergency room even quieter. Outside the window, it was pitch-dark too. A gust of chilly wind came in through the half-open window, sounded like someone was whispering. This was really the best time to tell ghost stories. No, this was the best time for ghosts to appear!

I suddenly thought of the chilly wind from nowhere blowing in the dark corridor of Aegiceras Hospital. It was said that the doctor who was on a night shift would suddenly hear a rush of footsteps ringing in the empty corridor when he or she sat alone in the office, reading a book, but the sound of footsteps would disappear a moment later. Those nurses said that they were ghosts who just died in the hospital, chasing after something.

Sometimes, they would find that a closed-door had been quietly opened. As no one had heard anything, they couldn’t tell how long it had been open like this, nor did they know what had come in when the darkness sneaked into the room silently. Perhaps “it” had been standing by your side for a long time but you didn’t notice it at all…

As I thought about this, I felt a chill all over my body. I looked back at the door and took a gulp of milk to relieve my tension. At most, I would stare at the door all night! It was not a big deal!

Right at this moment, the phone call from the nurse station let me breathe a sigh of relief.

The phone rang a few times but no one picked it up. Weren’t they there? I thought curiously.

Then the phone suddenly stopped ringing.

Could it be some emergency call? Could it be that someone who dialed 120 with a glimmer of hope in a life or death situation, but the nurses in the hospital were doing nothing except for counting? If it rang more than three times, it wouldn’t be a nuisance call and they would pick the phone up. Unfortunately, that person might be able to hold on until the bell rang three times at most… What were those nurses doing?!

At this point, the phone rang again.

Ring… Ring…

Ring… Ring…

‘Alright, three times! Pick it up, come on!’ Listening to the phone ringing, I somehow felt restless in an instant.

With a thump, the door was opened. I was so scared that I dropped all the chips in my hand onto the floor.

Nurse Liu stood at the door, her face still pale. ” Yan… this call is from your office, the No. 3 Clinic of the General Surgery Department…”

“Wha… what?” I followed Nurse Liu to the nurse station, confused.

All the other nurses looked at me as if they had seen a ghost. They surrounded the phone and didn’t dare move.

Ring… Ring…

The phone was still ringing.

I walked over and looked at the phone in confusion. The next second, I suddenly felt my heart skip a beat!

The caller ID on the phone was the internal number of the No. 3 Clinic of the General Surgery Department.

In other words, someone was calling from our office? But at this time, No. 3 Clinic must have been completely dark!

I looked at those nurses around me. They were so scared that they couldn’t help but tremble as if they would let out a scream at any moment.

Alright, in order to show my masculinity, I picked up the phone and pressed it against my ear.

“Hello?”

Nobody answered on the other end of the line.

“You know what? It suddenly reminded me of the movie ‘Ring’!” I joked, trying to ease the atmosphere.

A few years ago when the movie “Ring” made a hit, I also watched it with a few friends in college.

Sizzle… Sizzle…

Sizzle… Sizzle…

A noise rang through the phone, which made me get goosebumps all over. However, I couldn’t show fear in front of these nurses.

“Who is it?” I asked again.

Sizzle… Sizzle…

Sizzle… Sizzle…

It sounded like a blank tape.

This sound made me very uneasy, so I immediately put down the phone.

I turned around and smiled at them. “Seems someone is trying to make a prank? It’s too old-fashioned. I’ll go up and take a look!”

In spite of what I said, I really didn’t have the guts to go up to find out.

“By the way, didn’t the night watchmen find anything during their inspection?” Nurse Liu asked.

The other nurses shook their heads.

“Where’s the head nurse?” I asked.

“I am the head nurse!” Nurse Liu stepped forward. “I will accompany you to take a look.”

I forced a smile. How hapless! Now I had no choice but to go upstairs with her. Glancing at the dark staircase beside the nurse station, I felt very depressed.

“Let’s go!” she said in a resolute tone. Then she turned around and said something to those nurses before walking over to the staircase.

As soon as I reached the foot of the staircase and saw the dense darkness in front of me, I felt suffocated, which was even worse than when I woke up at midnight in college. I turned on the torch and started chatting with Nurse Liu to relieve my tension.

“Uh… sorry, I’m a newcomer, and I just knew you were the head nurse. May I have your name?” In the empty building, our footsteps sounded particularly loud, accompanied by the echo.

“Me? My name is Liu Qunfang. Yan, you just graduated from college, right? I’m actually only a few years older than you. You don’t need to be so polite. Just call me Qunfang,” she laughed and the atmosphere became much more relaxed in an instant.

“Wow, you became the head nurse at such a young age! I’d better call you Sister Qunfang, as those nurses do.” I said while looking around the stairs.

“Yan, do you find this hospital a little strange?”

“Huh?” I was trying to adapt to the darkness nervously when I heard this. “What… What makes you think this way?” I asked in shock.

“Don’t you think the footprints you saw today are strange?” As if she had expected what I was going to say, she turned to look at me, her eyes shining brightly in the darkness.

I didn’t respond to her.

“Do you believe that there are ghosts in the world?” she asked again.

Me?

“Mmm… As a doctor, I don’t buy it,” I answered honestly, but for the first time, I felt guilty.

If there were no ghosts, how come I always felt an oppressive and chilling aura when I walked upstairs?

She lowered her head as if she was saying something in a low voice.

It sounded like she was muttering, “I wish there are…”