Night Shift

White leather shoes squeak on polished wooden floors

Gloom enfolds me as I venture deeper down

the empty hallway stretching away from me.

Antique couches stand watch alongside bookshelves

Stillness redolent with cedar oil polish.

*

C r e a k…

Steady steps falter

Heart trips and skips a beat or three

It’s nothing!

I’m silly

Carry on

Ignore it!

*

Curiosity conquers watery resolve

Swinging round swiftly

Torch light blazes behind me

Banishing ghastly ghouls in their ghostly garb

Brass door knobs wink back, as if they’re in on the joke.

*

Bang!

A door slams

Behind my jittery back

It’s just the wind…

An open window

I turn around

Shoulders squared.

*

All my patients slumber soundly

Tucked safely up in their rooms

Unlike me!

Get a grip!

I have a job to do…

*

Crash!

My steps freeze

along with my blood

Dread hounds me

“Who’s there?”

No answer.

I shudder.

*

Thinking of my patients

My Duty of Care and my pay cheque

Reluctantly, I retrace my steps

Torch held before me like a shining sword

A wooden broom lies untidily in a doorway.

*

Phew!

Relief washes

Over me

All is fine

Carry on…

Torch flickers

Then it dies.

*

Pulse races…

keeping pace with a stabbing headache

Blindly my hand gropes along the inky black wall

Until I stagger into an open room

Stunned, I stop!

*

Help!

Screams silently

In my mind.

A figure

Lurks behind

The curtain…

Threatening.

*

Neither of us move a muscle

I hold my breath

Spooky silence surrounds us

Except for the wall clock ticking time ever onwards

I sweep the curtain aside.

*

Oh!

Foolishness!

A bathrobe

Dangles from

A coatrack

Harmlessly

Nerves settle.

*

The fog clears from my mind

I remember my mobile phone

Securely sitting in my pocket

Fingers clumsily attempt to dial my workmate

She’ll be sending out a search party, any moment.

*

Inspired by working night-shift as a nurse.

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