21/07/2022 - Ward of Woe
Hey guys, Daisuke's out for today. Instead it's me, Reiko. Truth be told I should be out too, but I have to share my story. It all started with a huge train crash. I don't know all the details, but I do know that, while me and Daisuke were riding the train to school, our train carriage upturned. It was absolutely packed during the accident and Daisuke somehow found himself crushed by everyone. He dislocated his elbow in the crush and, when he did, he let out the loudest scream I have ever heard. I remember pulling him out from the wreckage and yelling for an ambulance to take him to the hospital. Once we were on our way, I started to calm down. Even though he was yelling in pain and I was trying to calm him down, I knew he'd be on a fast track to getting the treatment he needed. Things took a very different turn for me however and I had no way of knowing what kind of trouble I was getting myself into.
Everything was so busy once we got off the ambulance and into the hospital. No matter where we went, there was someone rushing around. Doctors and nurses were rushing to register patients, ambulance crews were dragging stretchers back and forth and panicked relatives were hounding at anyone with a uniform for information about their loved ones. Daisuke had it pretty lucky as he was quickly taken to a ward and placed in a bed very quickly. The doctors reassured me that he would be fine now that he was in the hospital and I took a huge sigh of relief. Relief would gradually turn to anxiety once I met one of the nurses.
His name was Takenobu and he had a very cheerful atmosphere about him. His smile was absolutely huge and it only got larger when he looked at me. It was the same kind of look a lot of the boys at school would give me, only they would all do it at a distance. Seeing it up close was a little creepy. We talked for a bit but I noticed that, whenever I tried to find out when Daisuke would be all better, Takenobu would always steer the conversation back to me. I felt a little creeped out so I tried to end the conversation. That was when he lightly pinched my chin.
Those beady little eyeballs of his ran over every inch of my face over and over until I started to feel uncomfortable. As soon as I brushed him aside, he told me that something looked wrong. He thought I might have been injured in the incident as well. I didn't buy it and I told him that I was fine. He chuckled before telling me stories about people who said that they felt fine but in fact had many things wrong with them. His smile grew when he told me that it was only his prying that found those problems; he must have felt so proud of himself. I must have looked confused or worried because he told me "not to worry my pretty little head about anything" and that he had everything under control. His comments disarmed my doubts. He was a nurse and he was far more qualified than me to be dealing with stuff like healthcare. That's what I thought at least. What a naive fool I was.
The agony that once stained Daisuke's face was removed when he got his painkillers. He took a huge sigh of relief and he thanked the doctors for the temporary fix to his problem. When they left him alone, I ran over to his side, ready to give him a big hug. Unfortunately for me, Daisuke really knows how to take the wind out of my sails. He stopped me dead in my tracks before I could even embrace him, telling me about his dislocated arm. Guess the hug would have to wait, I thought. A sigh escaped my lips and almost immediately he asked if I would prefer it if he was in pain. I couldn't stop myself from pouting in annoyance. As he chuckled, someone's arm touched my shoulder.
Takenobu was looming behind me. He asked me to leave so he could check on Daisuke and I obliged. I waited a short while before he came back out and grabbed my shoulder, showing me that smile before he pinched my chin again. I could feel my pulse rise as I stared into his eyes; something inside of me was warning me about this guy. He was far too forward with his hands-on approach. I couldn't look him in the eye for very long and I certainly couldn't stand his fingers on my chin any more. I shook his hand off and I tried to move away from him. As soon as I tried, he caressed the side of my face, gently dragging my face back to his. I was so stunned by his actions that I couldn't even resist. It was as if he paralysed me. "What did I tell you to do with your pretty little face?" he asked me. I waited in silence for what felt like an eternity until I couldn't stomach that stare of his. Once again I tried to push him off but this time his grip was stern. "I'm waiting." Confused and scared, I did what I was told. His smile turned into a smirk and that smirk left me feeling embarrassed, weak and vulnerable. I don't know what was going on through his mind at that moment, but I felt that my dignity was in shatters. "That's right," he said gleefully, "don't you worry your pretty little head about anything. I'm sure this Daisuke guy's got a lot of things to worry about already. You shouldn't be a bother to him."
The next day I gave Daisuke his homework for school. He didn't look all that concerned about it though. He was more concerned about was what the nurses were going on about. I then turned to see some of the nurses had gathered together and they were mumbling about a beautiful young lady who had gone missing from the ward. Right when I wanted to ask Daisuke if he knew anything about it, Takenobu stood right between me and Daisuke.
That smile. That damn smile. It intimidated me and I could not understand why. I found myself creeping back out of the room the longer I stared at it; it was as if he had some sort of mystical power over me. "You know he's down for his X-ray today," he calmly stated, "so why are you bothering him?" I protested that I was not bothering him. I even told him that he was my boyfriend.
He told me that he suspected that I might have a skull fracture and that I should prepare for an X-ray. When I asked when that would be, he told me that he wasn't sure; he was working out all the details and that I shouldn't worry my "pretty little head" about it just in case I make that fracture larger. Just as he finished saying that, Daisuke was taken to his X-ray. Once he was out of the room, Takenobu crashed his hands onto my shoulders. I was so stunned when it happened, I just couldn't talk. My pulse kept on rising as he brought his face closer and closer to mine until I could feel him breathing on my face. "Did you know that medical procedures are thrice as likely to go wrong when the patient is stressed out?" he asked. I shook my head. "Hopefully the X-ray won't go wrong as a result of you stressing him out." His words were like a dagger to my heart. Surely I couldn't be responsible for that. I protested his words but he put a finger to my lips and he told me to shush.
"You look so much nicer up close," he stated before letting me go. His compliment didn't make me feel any better. It made me feel ten times worse instead. I could feel a real dangerous aura emanating from this guy. When he walked off, I felt smaller, more vulnerable and now doubt was starting to plague my mind. What if something did go wrong with the X-ray? Would I really be responsible? There was only one way to find out and that was to wait for what felt like an eternity. Every second I waited, I continued to sink further into the depths of doubt and dismay and there was no one around to rescue me.
Daisuke's arrival should have sent me running at him with joy, but those feelings were smothered by the seed of doubt that Takenobu had sowed. He was in the room, instructing the others to make sure that I didn't hurt myself by accident. I couldn't be with Daisuke to wish him the best when the doctors told him that his arm was good to be reinserted and I couldn't run over and ask how everything was after his arm was put back in. I knew that Takenobu was standing behind one of the windows, watching everything with those beady little eyes of his. The moment I got up, I knew he'd spring into action. He would touch me, caress me and put me to bed like I was a child and just the thought of him humiliating me like that sent shivers down my spine. I really wanted to see if Daisuke was alright, but Takenobu had a vice like grip on my mind and I was locked into my bed. Even looking at Daisuke was enough to bring back the sensation of being uncomfortably touched.
Soon I found myself staring up at the ceiling, trying not to look at anyone else. I didn't even get to see him when he was discharged. Speaking to the other doctors and nurses became incredibly difficult as, whenever one came to check up on me, Tankenobu would swiftly dismiss them, alleviating all of their concerns with his rhythmic explanations. Eventually others stopped coming to even check up on me. Even though I was surrounded by so many people, he had managed to make me feel totally isolated and alone, so alone that the thought of calling for help with my mobile phone didn't even occur to me.
Night fell once again and I could not sleep. I just continued to stare blankly into the ceiling with my head empty of thoughts. That all changed when I heard my phone ring. I jumped when it did and within seconds I reached for it. One of my friends from school had rang up. Seeing her come up as the phone rang sent a calming wave crashing into my body. There was someone out there I could talk to. Then my phone was yanked out of my hand and my happiness turned to despair. Takenobu answered my phone for me. I heard her voice asking what had happened to me, only for her queries to be answered without my input. My X-ray was up now, he said, and he wanted her not to call until the procedure was finished as their calls might prove a fatal distraction to the staff. I reached out to grab his uniform as I really wanted to speak with my friends. I wanted to feel like I was not alone with him. He eventually handed it back to me, but only after he hung up the call.
He then told me that the X-ray team was ready for me. When I asked if everything was alright he told me not to worry my "pretty little head" about the details. "I'm the medical professional here," he stated confidently and forcefully, "not you. I know when the departments are open and I know what you need. I know that they're ready for you and I know that you'll be alright as long as you don't stress yourself with things that do not matter." Soon I found myself strapped to my bed, ready for transport to the X-ray rooms. I asked if he could raise my head up so I could look around, but he ignored my concern as I was taken out of the ward.
As we trundled through the lifeless corridors, I could only stare up at the ceiling. The only noises I could hear for what felt like miles were the wheels on my bed squeaking, Takenobu's footsteps and a mix of those two sounds echoing down a long hallway. The regular sounds were broken up all of a sudden by the rumbling of an elevator. The doors opened and I was shoved inside.
When the doors closed, Takenobu looked over me. There was something in his eyes that was different. His eyes widened like a child with a new toy. They lecherously scanned over my body before coming to rest on my eyes. I called out for his name but he just kept on staring at me. My heart went into overdrive the longer I stared back into his lustful eyes. My mind was screaming that this guy was dangerous but I was strapped down tight and all I could do was stare back and pray for the best. I wasn't sure if it was a drop of sweat or some saliva, but something wet dropped just above my breasts. Then his eyes broke away. "Not yet," he mumbled. Those words of his sent a shiver down my entire body, a shiver so great that it caused the bed to tremble too. I asked what the hell he meant but he refused to answer. I asked him louder and louder until I was practically screaming into his ears. Only then did he turn to face me. He told me once again not to worry my "pretty little head" about things that I couldn't hope to understand before the elevator doors opened. "We'll get your X-ray done soon," he said. I wanted to get up and run, but there was no way I could.
Instead I was dragged through the cold, dank basement hallways which had fallen into disrepair. Rust surrounded all the metal surfaces on the roof and the light bulbs flickered for brief moments before falling dark for minutes. The paint was peeling off too. "Sorry about the mess," he said as he shuttled me into another, darker room.
The smell was utterly rancid, fouler than anything else I can remember. I tried to look around to see what was going on but I could only see some shelves close to some walls. I could also hear some plastic bags rustling in the distance, but there was no way to find out what was going on with them. Takenobu was significantly more careful with the bed than he ever had been before. I used to feel him bang into a few walls and doors, but now he took the bed in slowly and he would sometimes gasp when I got a little too close to the shelves. He did make one little mistake however. He crashed into one shelf and something fell onto my bed. I felt it writhe and wriggle as if it were alive. I shrieked before he took it off and placed it back onto the shelf. I asked him what it was but he told me to stop worrying about those things. Only this time I didn't listen. I demanded to know what it was. He then warned me that worrying about such matters wouldn't be in my best interest and then he told me he had no intention of telling me, let alone showing me what was in the room. Still I protested. He sighed. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
Corpses were hung like pieces of meat at a slaughterhouse. All of them were missing a limb or a feature of their body. The sight alone sent me screaming at the top of my lungs. I wanted to get out of my restraints. I struggled and writhed with all my might, but nothing gave an inch. Suddenly my mouth was covered. "They were all very pretty when they were alive," Takenobu said as he pointed at the bodies on the walls. "But they just weren't pretty enough, not for what I wanted. For a long time now I've been wanting the perfect face, the perfect head to make her complete."
He jerked a plastic cover off one of the beds in the room, revealing a horrible mess of a woman. Her body parts were all stitched together; the figure looked more like a beaten up ragdoll than a person. What really alarmed me was her lack of head. There was nothing there but blood, blood which oozed down onto the ground, falling over a network of chalk lines and candles that made up a strange symbol. That was when I put all the pieces together. That was when I realised how much danger I was truly in. That was when I knew I was going to die. I could only scream in protest while Takenobu pulled out his bone saw. "Your perfect face will complete her." I continued to writhe around in desperation, screaming and shrieking all the way. "I only wish I was able to take some anaesthetic from some of the other wards. Just try to relax." I couldn't relax. I could only screamed louder and louder as he approached closer and closer. Once he pressed the cold steel along my neck, I started crying. I wanted my mummy. I wanted my daddy. I wanted Daisuke. A cool breeze then swept in. Takenobu took his eyes off of me. "An uninvited guest," he mumbled before slinking into the shadows. My prayers had been answered.
Someone was asking if something was wrong. I could hear wet footsteps entering the room. I started screaming on a reflex for help. The footsteps quickened. "What the hell is going on here?" I heard. Soon a police officer hovered over my head. He asked me what was going on and I tried to tell him everything. He shook his head as he pulled me out of those straps, asking what the hell had gotten into people these days. At first I couldn't believe my luck. I thanked him and he smiled back. But then my thankfulness turned to horror as a figure emerged from behind the police officer. As he asked what was wrong, I scrambled off the bed, staining my clothes in a pool of blood. I pointed behind him and I tried to tell him that his life was in danger, but nothing coherent came out of my mouth. I stuttered and stammered at every turn. The officer asked what was wrong, but he soon found out.
Blood suddenly spurted out from the officer's neck. At first his hands reached for his pistol, but soon he found himself fighting to remove the bone saw now embedded in his neck. I screamed as I watched Takenobu saw deeper into his flesh until the officer's arms fell down to his side. Then he quickly removed his bone saw, letting the officer's lifeless body drop down. Takenobu's uniform no longer was a pristine white. Instead it was stained with the blood of the officer, much like his bone saw. "Apologies for that," he said as he used his clothes to wipe his saw. "Now, let's get on with the procedure." I could only shriek as I scrambled away from him on all fours. Any distance was good distance to me; I didn't care where I went, so long as I was getting away from him. When I bumped into a shelf, I got up off the floor as glass bottles shattered around me and fleshy, pulsating cloth bags splattered blood across the ground. I could only glance at them for a moment before Takenobu approached, his bone saw glistening in the darkness. "Don't worry your pretty little head," he told me once again. "You'll be even more perfect than you can imagine." I screamed at him, I told him no. I yelled no at the top of my lungs countless times before I ran out of the room.
I ran towards the elevator as fast as I could. When I reached it, I could barely press the button, my hands were shaking so much. Then the sounds of footsteps echoed throughout the hallway. The lights flickered for just a second to reveal the blood stained Takenobu trudging towards me, pointing his saw straight at me. I started mashing the button faster and faster, yelling at him to stay away, but he kept on approaching. He then started jogging before he erupted into a sprint as the doors opened. Without a second thought, I rushed in and I mashed the button to close the doors. They felt like they were moving in slow motion while he appeared to be moving at three times the speed of a normal person. As the doors came to a close, I took a sigh of relief.
That was when I saw his bone saw poke through the middle of the doors. I jumped, screamed and wept as I shrunk to the back of the elevator in an instant. "I'll find you!" he screamed as his saw slowly descended down to the floor. "That head will be mine!" It scraped along the ground before disappearing back between the steel doors. "It will complete my bride!" My pulse was still beating so fast that I could hear it in my ears. I wanted to believe that the cold metallic walls would keep me safe, but the elevator would open. He would use the stairs and he would catch up to me. I had to leave the hospital as soon as I could.
As soon as the doors opened and I saw the main entrance, I ran out of the hospital at top speed. I didn't care where I was going, and I didn't care for the rainy weather. I just kept on running and running and running until I could run no more. After running for what felt like hours, I crashed down amongst a pile of garbage in a tiny alleyway, bawling my eyes out. I was trembling all over completely and utterly distressed at what I had just gone through and it wasn't until I got a message from Daisuke that I was finally able to pull myself out of my sorry state. He asked me how my skull fracture treatment was going. Rather than answer him, I asked if I could stay over at his place. He was a bit apprehensive at first but I just kept asking him and telling him that I was tired. Eventually he accepted and I walked over to his place through the dark rain drenched streets.
The moment I saw him at the door, I threw myself at him and I gave him a huge hug. After that, I lost all my energy. Daisuke said that I fell asleep during the hug. The next thing I knew, I woke up in his bed, wearing one of his shirts as I looked at my clothes hanging above the window. "Oh, you're awake," Daisuke said. "You feeling alright?" I broke down into tears once again. He then gave me a hug and for the first time since the incident at the hospital, I felt comfortable.
News reports quickly came out about a mysterious gallery of corpses and the death of a police officer at the hospital. Their detailed reports had me unnerved to my very core but there was one thing that stood out to me. They were still looking for the perpetrator of the crimes; Takenobu had not been caught. I started to tremble as the knowledge started to weigh down on my head. He was still looking for me so that he could complete his wretched bride. A spear of despair stabbed my heart as I realised that I would probably never get rid of this man out of my life. I broke down into tears once again.
Even as I type this out now, I still worry for my life. If anyone has any information on Takenobu who worked at Seven Stars Hospital in Tokyo, please forward it to the police as soon as you can. I don't want to die.