This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/TheBatBelfry on 2024-10-02 08:19:55+00:00.
My mother was terminally ill and spent her last few days in a hospital bed. I would work throughout the week as usual, but over the weekend I would stay with her. Day and night.
It became a routine and the nurse in charge of my mother would leave a pillow and blanket ready for me before I arrive. Claire was her name.
She was the only real company I had left. I distanced myself from the outside world, the hospital and work were all I knew. When my mother lost her ability to speak, Claire was the only voice I heard since.
Every night after my mother fell asleep, she and I would go check out the vending machines down the corridor.
The lights in the hospital were faulty. They flickered on and off. Some lights just gave out leaving many hallways in the dark.
Must have been around midnight when Claire and I returned to the vending machines. Mother had fallen asleep earlier than usual.
We chatted for some time, catching up on each other's week. Cracked a few jokes. Then a cry interrupted our conversation.
It came from where the hospital kept the newborns. Claire, being her job and all, went to go check on them. Me who had nothing to do, followed her.
She entered the room first, but before I could step inside, she screamed. I quickly darted into the room to find her frozen in place as she stared at the far corner. I glanced over to what she was looking at.
A thin, boney creature laid before us. It was supporting itself on all fours, its' arms twice the length of its' legs. The most horrifying part of the creature had to be the two babies stuck in its' abdomen.
The babies weren't sewn or glued onto the body, they were growing out of it. Complete with disfigured faces, arms and legs.
We quickly realized that the cry we heard didn't come from the newborns but from those things in the creature's body. We realized this because every newborn in the room was chewed up and crushed like half-eaten steak.
One of them was currently in the creature's grasp who was feeding the newborn's corpse to 'its' children'. It stopped and turned over to us.
I grabbed Claire and dragged her out of the room, locking the door. As we ran down the hall, we saw the creature jumping across the room through the window. It burst through the door and chased us down the corridor.
We zig-zagged through various dark halls until we lost sight of it. I ordered Claire to leave and call for help but she refused. Asking why in my right mind would I stay here with that thing.
I told her I couldn't leave my mother alone with it. Claire agreed, telling me she would stay too no matter what I said.
Unable to change her mind, we quietly snuck back into my mother's room. I nudged her arm and asked her to wake up. Shaking her arm harder everytime I said her name. She lied there unresponsive.
I look to the machine that has been silent probably long before we entered the room. My mother was dead.
After a good while, Claire convinced me to get up so we could leave at once. On the way out we never ran into that creature again.
The police showed up right when we made our exit. Apparently the creature attacked more people on its' way out. Officers didn't know what to make of the stories they were told of a giant monster that ate children.
I gave my mother a funeral of course. Only some relatives and family friends showed up. Left almost as soon as the priest did. Me and Claire stayed back and watched over my mother's grave.
About a month or two later we went back to the now abandoned hospital. Claire insisted we go check it out for clues against my better judgement.
The reason for her curiousity was that the hospital told the police their surveillance cameras were faulty, and thus were unable to record the 'monster' people spoke of. She said the cameras worked just fine.
We searched the place, wary of the creature lurking around. Didn't find much except for a classified document on a certain patient described as neither human nor animal.
The papers following it contained ripped out pages bearing strange symbols. Not sure how to describe them other than satanic. Demonic.
“You know... In my very little time working here. I never saw any prayer room,” Claire said.