morning nurse entry

Instructions

warning: some pale blood avery worked at the abandoned hospital after her hometown burned down in the accident. most of the survivors had fled or evacuated, but she stayed, trying to make sense of the wreckage and to help those who chose to stay. but at the time, there were so little people there. the solitary was maddening. eventually, she was the only one left in the town, refusing to leave. she knew if she did, then it would be abandoned, forever. she treated lost wanderers and explorers, but nobody stayed for long. ranging from broken limbs to cuts or wounds, avery tried everything in her power to help her patients. after all, despite being just a nurse, she studied medicine and hoped to someday become a doctor. sometimes, a passerby or loner would see her, the graceful caretaker, leaning on a windowsill or dancing in the sunbathed windows. this mysterious yet elegant figure was often nicknamed “the morning nurse” by roamers, yet nobody actually knew who she was. while treating her patients, she came across a sick, injured patient. she had numerous burns and wounds and a fever that wouldn’t go down. worst of all, she had the sickness, the viral infection that avery tirelessly worked to find a cure for, with no successful attempts. however, avery took her in, doing all she could to low her fever or cool down her burns. avery knew nothing about her, other then her long rambles of nonsense when she was delirious from the fever. they were long, unorchestrated rants, ones that avery struggled to make sense of. it seemed that her worsening status was incurable, yet she did everything she could to help her patient. she was shocked, as she watched, day after day, the patient was making progress. avery learned her name was lyra, but never really knew anything else about her; lyra was strangely secretive. one morning, lyra had completely disappeared. the morning nurse was concerned for her, and searched the remains of the hospital, but not a trace of lyra was found. her only clues were dusty footprints, but she couldn’t even tell if they belonged to her or not. as time passed, she slowly stopped searching for lyra, and resumed her role as a nurse. years passed as she forgot about lyra. she’d still remember her on occasion, through lucid daydreams, but never made a lasting impression on her. one night, as avery closed her eyes to sleep, she was greeted by a horrific dream of her hospital. but it was different. the walls were crumbling, the windows shattered, the carpet decaying. she called for help. the last thing she saw before she woke up was lyra’s face, distorted yet calm, both their eyes locked on eachother. and lyra mouthing the word, “thanks.” i’m not exaggerating when i say avery quite literally sprang out of bed. the dream had felt too real, to rational to have been just a dream. yet there was absolutely nothing anyone could do about it except move on; so thats what avery did. however, this lasted for a few pitiful hours, before she was met by two strangers. avery had initially thought they were two more loners, maybe looking for a place to stay at the hospital. maybe they needed resources like food or water or somewhere to stay the night. but as soon as she scurried over to meet them, they grabbed her wrists and pinned her to the wall. she stood there, trapped and confused, as the figures glared at her. “you,” one of them hissed in a voice of hatred, “you know anyone called lyra? lyra cosmaze-?” avery had no time to answer before she was shoved into the other wall. she tried to run, but she was pinned to the ground yet again. “you helped her, didn’t you?” the other demanded. “do you have no morals? no backbone? i despise people like you.” and then he grabbed a shard of glass from a broken window panel. “tell us everything you know. now.” she stared, in utter dismay and fear, at a loss of words. she fished her mind for anything, anything lyra had said that she’d remembered. “i-i remeber her a little bit. i’m a doctor here- well, the doctor here. she was one of my patients- she was burned, wounded, and had that… sickness. she was delirious most of the time. she had these long rambles-“ “what did she say?” avery stared at the ground. “i-i don’t know. i have my old logs, though, back in room 487.” the pair stared at eachother, a wordless conversation between them. “fine. but your not leaving. and you better not be lying.” before she knew it, they had her tied to a chair, arms and legs, so she couldn’t leave. she was left alone as the two went to look in room 487. but there was one thing, avery knew the hospital much better than the others. she was a genius for knots, too. somehow, carefully, she had escaped just enough to regain her mobility. she’d realized she’d been bleeding from a few head wounds from when she was shoved, but her main priority was escaping. Continued in notes and credits