Carnival: Sarah Is Sick

A nasty storm had swept the mountain range where Teresea’s Home For The Lost was located. A nun named Maria was looking out the window with a teenage girl named Bab. Maria commented how the rain brings life to plants. Bab remarked how rain never does anything except put people to sleep. Maria reminds her that nuns should have a more positive outlook on life. Bab reminded her that she wasn’t a nun, her parents just sent her there to keep her from having premarital sex. Maria went on to talk to her about the power of faith and kindness. Bab rolled her eyes and continued looking out the window. Bab asked Maria if she could see something crawling towards the gates. Maria looked out the window and saw what appeared to be a person crawling towards the gates. Maria and Bab hurried to help.

Bab and Maria helped the young lady into the nursery. Maria told Bab to get more sisters to help dry the young lady and get her comfortable. Bab hesitantly did what she was told. Maria checked the young lady for identification. She found a name on the tag on the back of her shirt, Sarah. Maria began to wonder what could have happened to bring her all the way up the hill. Her stomach growled. Other nuns came in and under Maria’s instruction, they prepared to undress and dry her off as soon as possible. One nun went to start undressing Sarah. Only for Sarah to throw up on her, which made her throw up. Instructed by Maria, she left to clean up and join the kitchen staff since she had a weak stomach. Maria and another nun excused themselves from the room. They talked about what to do with Sarah.

The nun that was vomited on complained that she’s going to feel gross all week as she passed Bab. Bab reached into her shirt and walked away. Maria noticed Bab turn the corner with something in her hand. She followed her into the chapel. Bab looked around before going into the confessional. Which confused Maria. She was sure that Father Lincoln had not come back yet. For a moment Maria thought that Bab was confessing to God about her insecurities. That was until she heard Bab say, “I need the quarantine unit or whatever to get up here soon. I have a very bad…”

Maria opened the confessional and snatched the cell phone away from Bab.

“Where’s your faith?”

“Where’s your survival instinct?! A random sick chick, that no one knows, shows up out of nowhere. Somehow climbing up a mountain that we need vehicles to travel on safely? No signs of her actually climbing? How did she get up here? How did she get up here without the priest seeing her? Doesn’t any of that seem off to you? Maybe these ‘coincidences’ are a bit too convenient?”

“Bab. What would a sick woman have to gain from climbing a mountain to get here, unless she was seeking sanctuary.”

Both heard a scream from the nearby hall. They rushed over to see a nun, on the floor, unconscious by a shattered bowl. Maria asked Bab to take the nun to the nursery and get her to a bed. Bab asked Maria where she was going to go. Maria told her she would get the pieces of the bowl to the kitchen.

Bab arrived at the nursery to see most of the beds were taken up by other nuns. She asked about what happened. One of the nuns told Bab that everyone suddenly started dropping after dinner. All with the same symptoms. Hunger.

Maria walked into the cafeteria and noticed that it was spotless. Impressed with the effort that the women have been able to handle the craziness of the night, she decided that she would take a moment to eat. Only after grabbing a bowl did she notice that the only thing on the menu was soup.

After hunger comes fever.

Maria started to feel a bit warm. She figured that soup would be best for her right now. As she moved down the line, she made a remark about how the utensils were cleaner than she has ever seen them. Getting to the front she only saw lines of pots all filled with soup. Seeing that they all appeared to be discolored, Maria called out to the kitchen staff. “Raphea? Gabriella? Eve? I know I don’t normally do this but is there anything else available? I don’t feel my best, and I don’t mean to sound rude but these… soups… seem off. A bit unappealing.”

Then comes nausea.

Maria made her way around the counter into the cooking area. She saw someone stirring a pot, all alone. “Are you one of the young ladies that came in with Bab? I’m Mother Maria.” she put her hand to her mouth to catch a burp. “I’m sorry. I must have had a bad lunch. Is there anything else besides soup available?”

Then comes vomit.

“You of all people should know Mother Maria.” the female said with a voice that sounded like she was gurgling while speaking. “That when you’re sick, nothing is better for you than Soup.” All the pots in the kitchen began to boil. Mother Maria fell to the ground. Her vision was blurry. The female turned around and as Maria was passing out, she thought the female was missing her face.

Bab was backing up in terror. She had backed to the wall in absolute horror. Everyone in the nursery, except her, were throwing up. The smell was horrid. Worse than a month old spoiled milk. Worse than boiling rotten eggs in hot sewage. But it was only getting worse. The vomit was collecting itself. It was congregating in the center of the room. The nuns were violently ejecting all the fluids in their bodies, leaving them as completely dehydrated and shriveled husks. The vomit collected into a very rotund childlike form sitting in the center of the room. It gurgled and cooed as it formed a mouth and sockets on its head. Simulating blinking, the socket closed and opened. It looked over at Bab and in its gurgled infant voice it spoke to her, “Momma?” Bab went pale and she fumbled with the doorknob, “Nope. Nooooope. Noope. Nope-nope.” the giant vomit infant grimised and spoke with a deep gurgled voice, “Then I have no use for you.”

Bab ran out of the nursery as fast as she could. Against her better judgment she looked back. The giant infant was glaring at her as began to shrink. Only for figures made of vomit in the shape of well built athletes sprinted out of the infant after her.

Bab continued to run throughout the large building. She would occasionally knock things over to trip up her pursuers. If they tripped, they would fall, splatter, slowly reform, stretch, then sprint off again. The more she did it, however, the less and less it worked. At one point she bumped into one of the girls that arrived with her, she panicked and just yelled and pulled her along. The girl pulled away and tried arguing with Bab. One of the athletes bumped into the girl, as it splattered it sank into her skin. The girl gasped and tried to fight the urge to throw up. She covered her mouth and held her stomach. Another athlete bumped into her but instead of going into the girl, it forced all the fluids from her body out and formed into a seemingly more bulky form. It looked at itself in amazement. Bab dropped to her knees and forced herself to swallow her vomit that almost escaped from her throat. By the time she got on her feet, she was surrounded. The athletes and bulky athlete were smiling at her with food particles in their faces to imitate teeth. Not liking her chances, Bab looked over the balcony. “Dear God, if I survive this then I won’t have sex until I get married.” She jumped off the balcony. The athletes gathered, trying to catch her. They failed. She fell. They winced at her hitting the floor.

They looked at each other as if to ask, “Is she alive?” the bulky athlete shrugged. They looked back down to see Bab getting to her feet. Impressed, they clapped. Bab curtsied, gave them the middle finger, limped away. The athletes and the bulky athlete made expressions of anger and jumped down after her. Piling on top of each other, they reformed into the infant. The infant cried and whined. For a split second, Bab looked bad and felt bad. She thought that the monster was just a child lashing out. That feeling didn’t last long. She witnessed it throw up. The vomit recollected into itself. Causing it to get fatter and fatter. Bab slowly got behind a door. She didn’t want to look but couldn’t look away.

A giant hand came out of the infant’s mouth and stretched towards Bab. Bab slammed the door shut. The giant hand slammed into the door, knocking Bab back a few feet. She did he best to get back up and run but was in too much shock to get on her feet. A light green mist began to fill the corridor. The giant hand squeezed its way through the door and swiftly reached for her. Bab closed her eyes, accepting her fate. A fate that was interrupted by a clear and pained screech. She opened her eyes to see the hand melting under a water pipe it had knocked off in its pursuit. There was a wall of water between Bab and the retreating remains of the hand.

The vomit formed a male humanoid form on the other side of the doorway. It almost looked sad before it ran away. Bab slowly stood up, thanking God. in the distance she saw red and blue flashing lights getting closer. She tried banging on the window to get their attention. No such luck. Two cops came out of the car with an umbrella and knocked on the gate.

“Bab, what’s with all that noise?”

Bab turned to the open door behind her and saw Mother Maria in the doorway. Bab with tears in her eyes ran over and hugged Mother Maria. She apologized for being such a pain. She told her that the police had come and they could get help. Bab stopped crying, sniffed, and laughed, “You really need a shower.”

“I’m not too fond of water.”

Only then did Bab notice that she was sinking into Mother Maria.

The cops turned around to leave just as the gates opened. “Good Evening, we got a call saying that something suspicious was happening on the grounds. We really hate to bother you nice folks and Mother Maria but we felt it would be best to follow up.”

The woman stepped aside, to let the two men in, “Please do come in. Please join us for Soup.”

“Thank you, sister…”

“Sister Sarah.”