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Prompt: Brief Awakening: A boy named Sam is suffering from a terrible disease and he only has days to live. He’s in a coma, and he’s not responding to any medical treatments. Until one night he starts to experience some new changes…
Genre: Horror
Source: 110+ Horror Writing Prompts (With A Twist) | Imagine Forest
Time Spent: 60 minutes
Word Count: 1195
Prompt: Brief Awakening: A boy named Sam is suffering from a terrible disease and he only has days to live. He’s in a coma, and he’s not responding to any medical treatments. Until one night he starts to experience some new changes…
The monitors beeped and there was the ever-present hum of the electrical devices. Sam’s parents were in chairs on either side of his hospital bed, holding a hand each, with heads bowed down. Whether they were praying, or wishing, or merely sleeping was unclear, but whatever else they were doing, they waited for the end.
Their boy, Sam, an athletic and gangly teen of fourteen, had always loved to play in the woods that surrounded their sleepy little town with his friends, and even on his own. It made his parents uneasy sometimes, especially in recent months where there had been reports of some predator in the woods that was eating smaller animals and even the occasional deer, but it got him out of the house and off his electronics, and how bad could it be.
This was of little comfort when, nearly a week previously, he had not returned home from exploring the woods. It had taken nearly 48 hours of searching by his parents, the local police, and a number of friends and family before he was found in a secluded glad, slumped against a stone. Based on the blood around they had initially thought him dead, but paramedics were able to find a pulse and rush him to a hospital.
Sam had not woken up since, and the doctors, after many tests and consultations, had advised his parents that there was very little chance that he ever would. Whatever it was that had bitten him had given him a powerful case of rabies and by the time he was found and that was determined it was already too late for the treatment. So, even as his vitals slowly faded, he had been secured to the bed, lest he have a moment of lucidness and harm himself or others. His parents had begged, and pleaded, for more tests since they had searched online and had seen that rabies setting in so quickly was rare. The doctors had informed them that they were giving Sam the appropriate treatment, but he was not responding and his symptoms and the tests they performed all confirmed an aggressive rabies infection ravaging his body.
The hospital had largely quieted down as day moved into evening which moved into night when suddenly monitors began to beep more loudly and rhythmically, and Sam’s parents look up in fear that this was the end, they were about to push the button to summon medical help when, to their surprise, Sam opened his eyes.
Doctors and nurses were called, one even coming in from home, and there was a frantic scurrying around of more tests and observations, but to all appearances, Sam was awake, talking, and recalled getting hit in the back with something heavy, feeling the first bite on his upper arm, and then nothing before waking up. Doctors said things about rallies and warned of a potential downturn, but privately they did not understand how many of the symptoms of rabies had seemed to disappear in just a few hours and there was a conference planned for the morning to go over all of his test results to see what they had missed. His parents heard little of this as they took turns hugging their son, each other, and happily chatting with their son, and helping him eat some food. He was pale and his eyes were bloodshot, but the nurses had told them that would likely pass.
Sam and his parents were chatting about the latest movie news, one of Sam’s favorite topics, and several doctors and nurses were having a discussion out in the hall when the monitors and alarms all began blaring. Sam’s heartrate, brain activity, and blood pressure all skyrocketed. His eyes were shut tight, his mouth opened in a silent scream, and his body had gone rigid, with his back arched. The doctors and nurses rushed in and began to check vitals and administer meds for a seizure, but they seemed to do nothing for several long moments.
At last, Sam’s body relaxed, and his eyes shot open to reveal almost glowing blue/white eyes with slitted pupils. When his mouth opened again everyone could see gleaming white teeth elongating into pointed fangs. Fingers and toes curled and uncurled to reveal elongating digits and quickly growing fans. Muscles stretched the skin of his arms and legs and hair was growing rapidly. A snarl emanated from a mouth that was lengthening into a muzzle.
Everyone in the room was frozen in shock as the restrains, that had been placed on his arms and legs when he was thought to be having a seizure, were snapped with ease as Sam moved up into a seated position and then stood, now with an elongated torso that added more than a foot to his height. Leeds and IV’s were torn off and out by fearsome hands and he seemed to pant heavily as he looked around the room, without comprehension.
The Nurses nearest the door recovered first and made a run from it, but he was not quicker than Sam who turned and leapt, pinning the nurse to the wall and sunk his fangs into the man’s neck, cutting short his scream. The nurse’s flailing arms struck the light switches, plunging the hospital room into darkness, with only the dim hallways light pouring in through the small window in the door, the screaming monitors, and the moonlight that flooded through the window.
Sam let the nurse, bleeding out from the neck, slump to the floor as he turned slowly toward his parents and the other doctors and nurses, blood dripping from his fangs and muzzle. He seemed to almost be grinning and his eyes glowed with the light of the moon, as he sized them all up. He let out a howl which made everyone else’s hair stand on end and then a growl which spoke of the horror to come. He lunged
The Massacre at All Saints Hospital, as the papers came to call it, claimed thirteen lives, including Sam’s parents, and was put down, after much investigation, to lax security protocols, insufficient restraint and sedation, and a rabies frenzy gone horribly, horribly wrong. Those few who saw the unedited pictures of the carnage questioned this, and the town became a common destination for investigators, cryptid hunters, and the like. Sam was never seen again, and presumed to have fled into the woods to die of his infection, although the occasional hunter would report catching a glimpse of him in the deep woods, and the surrounding wilderness saw regular reports of animals of various seizes being attacked and eaten by a large predator. Eventually, the citizens of the town came to dismiss all the fanciful stories and ‘overactive imaginations’ of the curious who came to town with their wild theories, and put the whole thing down to a great tragedy. To this day, however none of the townsfolk ever let their kids play in the woods any longer, and rarely went in themselves without being armed. They called it common sense but many would come to remark on the fear that was in their eyes when they said it.
A fun little horror story for this Friday, hope you enjoy and please leave your feedback and comments!
Hope you enjoyed and that you are having a wonderful day and get to do, or experience, something creative.
– Jon
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