The full-time care wing of Dayspring General Hospital was darkened to a dim light throughout the main hall when Clara’s night shift started. She worked as a part-time nurse at Dayspring overnight as she took graduate courses for medical school during the days. She was often exhausted during her nursing shifts, but coffee helped. That, and Dayspring was usually quiet at night, so all Clara had to do was make hourly checks on the patients and she was good to go.
The night crew usually consisted of anywhere to three to five nurses at night, but Dayspring was understaffed, so only Clara and one other nurse, Janet, were working. Clara sat at the main desk filing paperwork into the computer when Janet came back from checking on some of the patients.
“How is everyone doing tonight?” Clara asked as Janet took a seat at the desk beside her.
“All of the rooms seem good; no alarms going off, thank the lord,” she answered as she shifted through files in the cabinet. “Damn, the day crew don’t know what they’re doing anymore.”
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“Is everything okay?” Clara asked.
“Yeah, just a rash of spotty work from our lovely dayshift coworkers,” she said. “We have a new patient in Room #7 but I can’t seem to find any paperwork on her. It looks like she isn’t checked into any of our records.”
“Do you think she doesn’t belong in this wing?”
“Woman, I doubt it,” Janet said. “She looks older than most of our other elderly guests and as frail as fine china. My chips are on the dayshift misfiling it with another wing in the hospital. I’m gonna have to go down to archives on Level 1 to see if I can find any duplicate copies of her record so we don’t have any nasty, medical surprises with her if she starts stroking out. You good to watch things up here?”
Clara hesitated for a moment. “Yeah, I’ll be good for a little bit. You can go down.”
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“Thanks, sweetie,” she said. “I’ll try to be quick. I know you get anxious on your own up here.”
Janet went out the door leading to the stairs as Clara tried to refocus on inputting data into the computer before her hands trembled. She took a deep breath to calm herself of her anxiety when the monitor on the wall started beeping, which signaled that there was something wrong with a heart monitor in one of the rooms. The flashing red light beeped underneath the marking for Room #7, the room of the patient with no record.
Clara shot up from the desk and made her way down the dimly lit main hall. With each step, she became more anxious until she reached the room. She took a deep breath and opened the door.
She entered the darkened Room #7 as the heartbeat monitor beeped relentlessly. Not knowing what could be ailing the elderly patient laying still on the hospital bed, Clara inched closer and closer to the woman, her gut turning over nervously.
She turned back nervously to look at the door. “J-Janet!” Clara yelled, but there was no response. She slowly put her fingers on the elderly woman’s neck to check for a pulse and was surprised to feel a steady beat. Clara, puzzled, checked the heartbeat monitor to discover that the sensor had fallen off the patient’s finger and landed on the floor, setting the alarm off. She felt a sigh of relief and knelt to the floor as she grabbed the sensor. As she rose back up, Clara was greeted by the elderly patient staring at her.
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Clara jumped and dropped the heartbeat sensor. “Are… are you okay, ma’am?” she asked, frightened.
“Oh, deary,” the woman said. “I was perfectly fine until someone yelled out for a ‘Janet’ while I was asleep.”
“I am so sorry, ma’am,” Clara said sheepishly. “The heartbeat monitor went off, and I-I got nervous, so I…”
“No need to explain yourself, deary,” the woman said. “All is well. Just trying to get some humor in tonight. My name is Isabella, and you are…?”
“Sorry,” she said. “My name is Clara. I’m one of the overnight nurses.”
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“Clara,” Isabella said. “What a wonderful name for such a young, pretty thing like you.”
“Awe, thank you,” she said. “I’ll let you get back to sleep, Isabella. It was nice meeting you.” She took a few steps toward the door.
“Wait,” Isabella said. “Please don’t leave me yet. It’s rather lonely here. Would you mind sticking around for just a few minutes more?”
Clara learned long ago not to upset some of the more elderly patients lest yelling would occur, so she went back to Isabella’s side. “Sure,” she said. “But only for a tiny bit.”
“Thank you, deary,” she said. “I’ll only take a moment of your time. I used to be quite the catch back in my day. All the boys would fight each other to try and gain my attention, much less my affection, but that can only happen for so long before age catches up. I miss having those boys near me. Does that happen to you too, Clara?”
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“No, not really to that extent,” she said with a reserved smile. “I mean, boys always come up to me, but I’m far too busy for a relationship right now. I’m still in medical school.”
“Wasted beauty,” Isabella said. “Life is ever so fleeting. You’ve got to take advantage of your youth while you can. Do you mind if I take a look at your hand, deary? It’s been so long since I’ve seen a hand not covered in wrinkles or liver spots.”
Clara was uncomfortable, but she relented and gave her hand to Isabella.
“Ah yes,” she said as she grabbed Clara’s hand. “So young; so pretty. Thank you for being here for me. This youthfulness will do just fine for me.”
“Fine for you?”
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Isabella’s grip grew tighter. “Why yes. Just the age I was waiting for. I thought I was gonna have to settle for that older coworker of yours, but thankfully you came to my room instead.”
“Excuse me?” Clara asked. She tried to pull her arm away, but Isabella was locked on tight. Her skin started to tingle, and then burn. “Please let go of me! You’re hurting me!”
Isabella’s grip grew stronger every second, as her strength weened.
“What are you doing to me?!” Clara yelled.
“You’ve been wasting your youth, deary,” Isabella said with a devilish grin taking form. “Don’t worry, I’ll put your beauty to good use.”
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Clara’s hand withered away rapidly as her veins became more defined, her skin paler. She dropped to her knees.
Isabella sat up, her liver spots gone, her body leaner. She slid out of the bed and finally let go of Clara’s hand.
Clara laid frail on the ground, all of her strength sucked out of her, her body covered in wrinkles. “W-what did you… do?” she asked.
“I just came for a fill-up, old-timer,” Isabella said as she neared the door. “Make sure to get some good life insurance before you pass on. Old age can take forever to kill you, but when it does, it hits like a freakin’ train. Toodles!” She left the room as Clara shook on the ground.
“Hello, Clara?” Janet asked a few minutes later, entering Room #7. “Oh my God, ma’am! Are you okay?”
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Clara was crying and shaking, unable to get to her feet.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get you right back into bed, ma’am,” Janet said as she picked up her and helped her onto the bed. “I’m so sorry, my coworker Clara was supposed to be monitoring the rooms. I don’t know where she’s gone off to.”
Ryan Sullivan is a short story writer based out of Hopatcong, New Jersey. A lover of all forms of fiction, nothing quite feels right to write other than horror.
So, as you may have noticed, we have a special fondness for spiders here on Nightmarish Nature. Well, they are kind of the spokes-critters for horrifying animalia, perhaps because they are so freakishly different from us. Or maybe it’s because I find them a little disconcerting for all that I try to take the “you mind your business, I’ll mind mine” approach, at least if they stay outdoors. Or just because I really like to draw spiders for all that I prefer not to find them sharing my home (though I’ll gladly take spiders over other bugs or mice or larger critters who didn’t get an invite).
Anyway, this segment is devoted to the largest Giants Among Spiders, as if you didn’t have enough to worry about already. And the top place is contested based upon body mass or leg length. Most of these are tarantulas, which globally take top place among the large arachnids.
Goliath Birdeater Tarantula
The Goliath Birdeater Tarantula of South America is the biggest brute of spiderdom, weighing in at over 6 ounces. They build funnel burrows and are known to eat birds (although rarely), mice, lizards, frogs, and snakes, but largely any big insects including other species of spiders. They have urticating barbed hairs that they fling at would-be attackers as an irritant to escape. And people even eat them after they singe the bristles off. Here’s a National Geographic video showing this spider in action, in case you wanted to see a giant spider take out a mouse.
Giant Huntsman Spider
And with the longest legs, we have the Giant Huntsman Spider of Laos, with a leg-span of 12 inches. Their legs have twisted joints and they move in a crab-like manner, which furthers their impressive appearance. ‘Cause they’ve got legs, and know how to use ’em. They prefer to live in underbrush and cave entrances. These are like the big relatives of their Australian cousins, which we’ve all seen online and developed a healthy aversion to.
Brazilian Salmon Pink Birdeater & Brazilian Giant Tawny Red Tarantulas
Next we have two more South American species: the Brazilian Salmon Pink Birdeater, which boasts one-inch fangs, and the Brazilian Giant Tawny Red, believed to be the longest-lived spider with a lifespan of up to thirty years. Both are in the tarantula family and have urticating hairs, a word you probably never read much before today unless you are in the hobby. So apparently South America is not the best travel destination for you if you struggle with arachnophobia, though I suspect you’d figured that out already. (I wouldn’t recommend Australia or Southeast Asia either.)
Face Size Tarantula
And finally the Face Size Tarantula, which has a very terror-inducing name reminiscent of the Face Huggers of Alien-glory. Anyway, these spiders have an 8-inch leg-span and live in India and Sri Lanka. They look kind of like big hairy wolf spiders with stripey legs, sometimes with pink and daffodil coloring.
If you enjoyed this eight-legged segment of Nightmarish Nature on Giants Among Spiders and their larger than life kin, please check out past segments:
So here is our last installment of our AI journey exploring the idea of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad wolf being one and the same. All of these are based upon the AI generated art and prompts using NightCafe and then created as posters in Canva. Feel free to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this exploration if you missed them.
A non sequitur I know, but I couldn’t resist. If you picked up where we left off you’ll get it.
Seriously?! Again with the cropped off head cop out…
Finally! That was a journey. And not even worth the result, in my opinion.
Anyway, here is a bonus montage I made out of a bunch of additional Red Riding Hood prompts for an article that never happened…
Prompts for Montage:
1.) What if Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf were one and the same being? 2.) Her wolf face peering out of her red cloak, fangs dripping with the blood of another victim, lost in the forest and never found. 3.) Little Red Riding Hood closes in for the kill, lunging from her red cloak, her wolf fangs dripping with blood. 4.) I am Little Red Riding Hood. I am the Big Bad Wolf. I am coming for you. 5.) Howling within, the rage sears forth from the red cloak, discarded in the deep woods. Red Riding Hood succumbs to the lycanthropy. 6.) Heaving breaths. Dripping blood. Red Riding Hood is not what she appears. She is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. 7.) Her red cloak masks the fangs hidden below the surface. 8.) It starts with a long sighing breath. Waiting. The wolf within stirs. 9.) Red Riding Hood trembles. She succumbs to the lycanthropy. 10.) The wolf bursts forth from within. It takes over Little Red Riding Hood’s mind, her body, her being. 11.) Red Riding Hood howls. She is ravenous with hunger for blood. The wolf within has taken over. Mind, spirit, body. She feasts on the blood of the moon. 12.) Big Bad Wolf Red Riding Hood ravenous blood moon feast 13.) Blood moon beckons. I. Little Red Big Bad Riding Hood Wolf. Freedom howling night curse. 14.) Beware. Bewolf. BeRedRidingHood. Betwixt. Beyond. 15.) I pad quietly as the forest dissolves around me. Red Riding Hood and Wolf, one and the same. 16.) Wolf within howling dark recesses of the mind, Red Riding Hood lost 17.) Red Riding Hood HOWL wolf bane true existence polymorph within-and-without. 18.) Red howl Riding Wolf dark existence brooding within
Continuing our AI journey from last time exploring Little Red Riding Hood herself as the Big Bad Wolf… All of these are based upon the AI generated art and prompts using NightCafe and then created as posters in Canva.
How very… Phantom of the Opera predatory… this is definitely not what I had in mind. Maybe something more cutesy?
Ugh. Maybe not.
Wow, that seems like such a cop out, cropping off the head so you don’t have to depict it. And I don’t want to lose the Little Red Riding Hood reference completely.
So no surprise there, I knew that was too many references to work.
Brandon
May 14, 2020 at 9:30 pm
Omg this is like an old twilight zone episode! Love it!