The Brute

“Yes Dr. Das,....but my duty time is over,” Sr.Tina said, holding the phone tight. Dr. Das is one of the senior doctors working in this government hospital but definitely not the one you could convince that easily. He wanted things to be his way. “But sir my kids are home alone and it's already late at night and it's raining heavily….” she said looking out of the window. After some time there came Krishna, the office boy with a small paper “Sr. room no.7 you have an emergency case.” Going into room no.7, I saw a lady in worn-out cloth more like a sack. She was very dirty, like more than you do expect. Her nails were long, hair was very long and tangled as if never been combed for years. She looked like someone who was lost in the jungle for years. I noticed a well-dressed young man standing right outside the room looking at me nervously, he wouldn’t be more than 25 years old; I had my suspicions. This does look so unusual. “Sir, who are you?” I asked him, and all of a sudden he started crying surprisingly “Sr. will she live?” “But who are you to her? Who is she?” He was scared and trembling. “Sr. please try to understand my situation, I really hope you do. I had a small trip to the mountain, my friends and I spent a few days there camping and enjoying ourselves.” “But it's a thick forest there and I don’t think outsiders are allowed to…” “We were helped by the locals there, we knew it was dangerous but we were so excited about it. We were planning to go home tomorrow morning but it was my cousin’s wedding so I left late in the evening. I was driving down the mountain through the forest as I came to know about a shortcut I can use there, but the weather was pretty bad and it was soon dark, it started to rain heavily, I was in a hurry to cross the forest as soon as possible so that I don’t get attacked by wild animals and that's when I saw something, a black figure running towards the car and as you have been working here you might have heard from the locals that the forest is haunted and unsafe. So I speeded up and I had no intention to…but I hit it. I was so scared but only then did I know it was a human. So I carried her here as it was close by. You are supposed to inform the police ya? If she is alive there won’t be any cases charged against me right?” “I have to speak to the Dr.” and that's when Dr.Hema came into the room “How is the patient?”, “I just came in Dr. it's an accident case. I just wanted to ask you what to do.” “Is he the one?”, “yes, Dr.”. “Sr.Tina please do ask Dr.Das and do accordingly,” she said, giving him a cold stare. I was walking out of the room to Dr. Das’s office when I noticed that bright smile. The only pleasant thing in the whole hospital. She was still in her school uniform, looking exactly like my Jennie; it was Diya, Dr.Hema’s daughter. “What is my sunshine doing here at night?” “Dad said he will come and pick us up early in the morning, my exams are over and vacation started and we’ll be going to grandma’s home, Mom’s on leave from tomorrow.” “Oooo, that's the reason she is in a hurry. Kids are not supposed to be roaming around in hospitals, there are so many strangers around and patients who are way too ill.” “Mmmm, but I’m no longer a child, I'm a big girl now, I’ll be in 1st grade soon.” “Oho my big girl, don’t go far. Stay close to your mom, go wait for her outside her room.” I said leaving her behind and rushing to the office. Dr.Das was about to ask me about the patient when I told him it was an accident case and that now Dr.Hema was checking the patient now. “I’ll come in 10 minutes,” he said, asking me to help him with one of his patients so that he could soon come to check on her and decide whether to call the police. I was checking the patient, she was unconscious and I noticed something pretty weird in her. Her eyes were light greenish-blue in color, and she had bruises all over her body which wouldn’t have been caused by the accident the way he said it to me anyway. I had my doubts about him. But she seemed unusual too, like either captive or she was lost in the forest for so long and her teeth were sharper and longer. I knew something was off here. “Don’t go anywhere I’ll come” I told him and went out of the room, I wanted Dr.Das here, I was so confused and it was already past midnight, not many people were there in the hospital. I have to travel early in the morning and my daughter is waiting for me. What a bad day but just a few more hours and my duty is done. I at least wanted to get this strange case off my shoulder. I noticed Diya waiting in the corridor for me, alone playing with her favorite doll, “Diya go and sit in the nurse's room. Don’t roam around alone.”. The nurse's room was close by, and I knew there would always be someone in there. I was about to go upstairs to Dr.Das’s office when I saw a few guys rushing to the reception and asking for room no.7, it seemed like they were his friends. Something was off about the whole thing so I asked one of the office boys to tell the security to make sure the guy standing in room no.7 doesn’t leave the hospital and hurried my way to Dr. I was trying to complete my work so that I could go and check what was going on downstairs, Sr.Tina was helping me out too and it was then Dr.Hema came in. She looked worried and irritated “Dr. something looks weird, the patient has bruises all over her body and her hair and nails look as if she has been trapped in there for so long, even in her eyes and teeth something looks off. I don’t know if I doubt her or the story of the accident he said. His friends are here too so I asked security to make sure they don’t leave from here. What if they make some issues?” Ok then call the police, she is still unconscious and he said it was an accident, even bruises on her body are…and as something looks off to you we need to inform the police. She immediately rushed down to call the police station nearby. I was finishing up my work when a Krishna came running breathlessly and started asking if we have seen Diya, “We have been searching for so long, Dr.Hema came down to call the police and those guys were there near the canteen having tea, I was in the reception whole time and saw them having tea. That's when Dr.Hema said Diya might be hungry and bought snacks and went to the nurses' room but she wasn’t there, no one was there actually. I remember Sr.Riya being there, she was there to attend the emergency call but even she isn’t there.” Something was definitely going on but what? We rushed downstairs immediately once we heard what Krishna said and that's when we heard that blood-curdling scream, it was Dr.Hema from room no.7. On reaching there we saw Sr.Riya lying on the ground, she had deep scratch marks on her neck and could barely keep her eyes open. To our surprise, the patient was missing, but according to what Dr. said she had bruises on her body and was unconscious where could she have gone? Dr.Das carried Sr to the bed and asked Dr.Hema to check into it and by the time he’ll find Diya. I rushed off with Krishna, security was also searching for her, and that's when the police arrived. Asking Krishna to take them to tell them about what happened and continued on my way to search accompanied by the security, he did tell me he searched everywhere but couldn’t get any trace of her. The police too were searching now, we did almost lose hope when I realized about that room where we store all the required gas cylinders and emergency items but it wasn’t possible to be in there for so long. She might have got locked in there by mistake or something? But what about the patient and what were those marks on her neck, did she do all these? But why? I got down to our store room, it was dark and cold in there, I turned on the torch and was carefully moving around when something big caught my attention. There was a hole, not too big nor small but enough for a human to pass through, I’m sure it does take longer for a human to make a hole through the wall to get out of the hospital. Immediately asking security to call the police I went closer to it, I could smell blood. Something was dead on the other side of it I knew, the smell was that strong and I prayed it do be nothing bad, not Diya. I came to the storeroom with the police, they got inside. I too was about to go in when I saw Dr. coming out from there totally terrified. He wasn’t even looking our way, totally lost in thoughts. “Dr.?” “She is in there,” he said bursting out into tears, I saw all the other staffs including Sr.Tina and Dr.Hema coming. On seeing them he told the security to keep them away, especially Dr.Hema. “What's wrong Dr.? Is she unconscious?” he wouldn’t give me a reply so I thought of going in to check myself. Getting inside, the strong smell of blood hit me, I knew what happened but never wanted to believe it. Police officers were pulling something out from a hole leading outside the hospital to the forest nearby. That's when I saw what it was, just a piece of meat. I couldn’t believe my eyes, just a piece of meat and bones. I knew it was her, completely torn apart by something, a half-eaten piece of flesh. I…I was blank for a long time. Something ate the child, inside the hospital. How? What was that creature which looked like a human?