"You're imagining things, Candace," her mother told her again, as she continued the drive to Hels Memorial Children's Hospital. "You've been feverish for the past week. You'll feel better when your tonsils are out."
"No, mom. You don't understand," Candace hoarsely tried, one more time, to convince her mother. "There's a monster at that hospital."
"There's a monster." She hugged herself. "He's got eight arms and a tail like a kangaroo. He comes into the surgical rooms and sucks the life out of children while they are helpless."
"Have you been talking to Grandma again?" her mother almost swerved into the next lane, glaring at her daughter. "You know she is half crazy with her dementia! Did she tell you this?"
"No." Candace shuddered. "I had a dream. I was in the hospital, and it came into my room. It looked at me and smiled. It had lots of pointy teeth!"
"Don't make me go there, mom!" She wailed. "Please! I am begging you! We can go to any other hospital, I don't care. Just not that one!"
"Nonsense! Hels is the best children's hospital in the state, and you are ten years old--no longer a baby." her mother responded as she parked. "What an odd imagination you have, Candace."
Candace just cried. Her mother refused to listen to her! She cried all the way into the hospital, through Admitting, and into the Pre-Op. When she was prepped and ready to be wheeled into the operating room, Candace hugged her mother groggily and told her goodbye. Bemused, Candace's mother stood in the hallway and watched as her daughter was rolled passed the double doors leading to the OR. As the doors were closing, she caught a glimpse of something that looked suspiciously like a kangaroos tail. She froze.
It was a long day at the office, is all I'll say.
The prompt is the third definition of WEAK.
The prompts are kangaroos and midnight oil
Ack! I knew that child knew what she was talking about. You definitely have the creep factor down and I like it.
ReplyDeleteOh man, that is terrifying. I love it!
ReplyDeleteOh the places prompts and long days at the office will take us! It reads like a Twilight Zone episode. I can hear Rod Serling's voice narrating. Imaginative and creative.
ReplyDeleteDude. That ending was perfectly terrifying.
ReplyDeleteIt may have been a long day at the office, but it was creative. I liked the story, even if it was a little creepy.
ReplyDeletePERFECT ending.
ReplyDeleteCreepy!! My parents had friends whose little girl needed some simple procedure done at the hospital. She was terrified to go in, screamed, begged, pleaded. She wound up dying on the table. This, obviously, reminds me of that. Scary!! Thanks for linking up.
ReplyDeleteTime to bust her out of there! I have a child with an over-active imagination and I could totally see myself as the parent convincing the child there was nothing to be afraid of.
ReplyDeleteHa! I knew it!! The turning point for me was that Candace was willing to go to another hospital, just not that one. I hope Candace taps into previously hidden power and kicks that killer Roo's butt. Great job with both prompts, WOE stumped me this week.
ReplyDeleteYikes! I hope those monsters in my kids closet don't appear tonight. Scary! LOL.
ReplyDeleteI was so sure she was gonna die, and I'm so happy she didn't.
ReplyDeleteI have had many, many dreams like that.
Without the kangaroo tails, though. hahaha
Yup. Creepy. Love the creativity here. If/when you revisit, the POV wobbles in spots, and the dialogue is written in such a way that I thought there were three people in the car. But these are minor, minor fixes.
ReplyDeleteBut a long day at the office certainly makes for a powerful muse. This was a killer plot twist. Well done!
Cool creepy. I saw that kangaroo photo and had no inspiration. A three-fer...well done! I totally empathize with the whining. You write whining perfectly ♥
ReplyDeleteOh, thanks, because I needed another reason to hate hospitals...
ReplyDeleteCute, terrifying, and good.
Oh, yikes!! Poor little girl--but there's no way her mom's not going in after her, hopefully with a bazooka up her sleeve. (And that's why I'm glad you've left us with an ambiguous ending--we can make it happy or horrifying, depending on our threshold for creepiness).
ReplyDeleteDreams are so real for kids that they can seep into adults' heads, too.
ReplyDelete