Tales of Aegiceras: Cave in

5. The Night Watchman (5)

Translator: Superbomb

Record of Dark Occurrences in Aegiceras Hospital, (1999~2002) (I)

 

Recorder: Mao Chonggui (one of the staff members on duty from 1999 to 2000)

 

Zhang and I were still on duty tonight. Except for us, there were several doctors in the emergency room and several nurses in the nurse station on the first floor. The inpatient department was still brightly lit at the moment, but no family members would be allowed to visit the patients after 11:00.

At 11 o’clock, the entire main building was empty and dead silent. When night fell, it was even darker in Aegiceras Hospital than anywhere else. But we couldn’t leave all the lamps on. I was the one who would do a routine inspection of the entire building first. While Zhang was eating noodles on the bed, I picked up the torch and was ready to go.

I had only been working in this hospital for five months, but it was said that no security guards on the night shift had ever been working here for more than half a year. As usual, from 11:00 to 12:00 at midnight, I had to inspect the entire building from the 6th floor to the 1st floor one by one to check the doors, the windows, and the lamps. As the hospital didn’t have battery lamps, we had to turn off all the lights at night.

I slowly climbed up the stairs. The light from the torch was dim. The elevator had been installed only a year ago, but it was rarely used. At this hour, we were not allowed to use it.

There were not many departments on the 6th floor. Aside from the stomatology department, most of them were used to store instruments. After a thorough inspection in the darkness, I closed the doors and windows tightly and then walked downstairs.

Everything in the hospital was normal.

Zhang would come out to inspect at 12:30, and that was when I could rest.

Everything was fine from the 6th floor to the 1st. The lights were still on in the lobby on the 1st floor and in the two emergency rooms.

“Hey, Mao!” the head nurse greeted me.

“Hey!” I replied.

A few nurses whispered and chuckled from time to time while leisurely painting their fingernails.

“I haven’t seen a single patient or family member come in since I came on the night shift today!” the head nurse muttered. She and I came from the same town, and her house was near my house. Whenever we were on night duty, she and a few nurses would prepare snacks for us.

“I’ll lock the elevator right now, lest not…” I said as I walked towards the elevator.

The elevator was locked with a “click”. I looked up at the clock on the wall and found it was exactly 12 o’clock.

“I’m going upstairs! You’d better rest early!” I shouted at the nurse station, my voice echoing throughout the hospital.

When I went back to the watchroom on the 5th floor, Zhang had already finished his beef noodles.

“Mao, I’m a little freaked out…” he said, staring at me in a daze.

“What are you afraid of?” I laughed. “You’re a man! What are you so afraid of?”

“You… Do you remember what I told you at noon?”

It occurred to me that Zhang had told me something odd at noon.

“Mao, there’s a ferocious ghost in this hospital!” he said after lunch, staring at me blankly.

“A ferocious ghost?” I laughed. “No worries. It might be afraid of you!”

“I’m serious. It’s not an ordinary ghost, but a very ferocious one!”

“Really? How did you know? How did it come in?”

“Do you still remember that guy who was taken into the temporary morgue last night?” Zhang nervously rubbed his hands. “The one with his head shaven and his eyes covered with black cloth. He seemed to be the last one taken in…”

“What’s the big deal? It’s normal to have bald dead people in that room.” I patted the old guy. He was usually quite bold. I wondered why he behaved so timidly today! “Being on guard duty here at night is much better than in the graveyard!”

“According to the superstitious belief of my hometown… If someone dies a wrongful death, his head must be shaved, his eyes must be covered with black cloth, and his body must be cremated asap!”

“Why?”

“You know what? After a person dies, his hair will continue to grow, which is said to be the evidence of his soul. To prevent the soul of those who die a wrongful death from coming out, people have to shave their heads without leaving a single hair. If their bodies are cremated shortly after their death, they wouldn’t become ferocious ghosts. The ferocious ghost is the most powerful and fierce, and there’s no way that we can deal with them… ”