Nightmares

Sleep Study

I walked into the hospital, it was bright and cheery for a place of death and disease. I pulled the paper out of my backpack with the floor and room number of the sleep study. 11th floor, room 1113, I walked to the elevator and pressed the button. An uneasy feeling was in the pit of my stomach, something here was bad, rotten, evil. I looked around, no one really stood out, but I couldn't shake the feeling of malevolence in this hospital.

The elevator doors opened, I pressed 11 with every floor we passed, the sicker I felt. As the elevator passed, the 7th floor. The pain in my stomach subsided, it was still there, but whatever it was shook my soul to the bone. The uneasiness was still in my body, it shook with anticipation, like I was meant to do something, like my body wanted to deal with something that my mind was fighting against. The doors opened, I walked out and looked for the room. Maybe Boston was a bad idea.

1113, the room was dark. The sign on the door said closed until 10. It was only 7am. Good god, what could I do for three hours? I decided to go to the cafe and get some snacks, then wait in the waiting room across the hallway for those remaining hours.

The cafe was in the basement, of course, it had small windows on ground level all around, there were small stations with snacks and pre-cooked items all around and three places to order pizza, wraps and other things. I walked to a salad station and made a salad to go, grabbed some chips and muffins and walked up to the cash.

I jumped back in the elevator and made my way back up to 11. Again as we passed the seventh floor, I had to steady myself on the wall. There was something on that floor, an unnatural thing, something really bad, and I had a feeling that I was the one that had to deal with it. Why, though I was no one, I was nothing.

I sat in the waiting room until ten, in and out of consciousness, munching on the goodies I had grabbed from the cafe, but I was so tired I just wanted to sleep.

Finally, someone opened the door and noticed me. "Hi!" the cheery brunette said, a huge smile plastered on her face. "Are you here for the sleep study?" she asked "I am." I replied stoically "Come on in, I'll give you some paperwork to fill out and a questionnaire. So how did you hear about us?" "actually, I didn't, I was just sent the invite." "Oh, that's odd." She said happily "I'm just assuming someone else set me up for it." she nodded "Oh, I see, that's possible. We have a lot of doctors that send us referrals." She smiled and walked behind the desk, grabbed a stack of papers, and handed them to me. "Can we make a copy of your ID for our records please?"

This wasn't really a question. I rifled through my backpack and handed her my ID. "Thanks I will be right back." I sat in one of the chairs and started filling out the papers, most were pretty basic, the questionnaire was a bit strange. Asking things like if animals like you, you have many friends, if you were adopted, just random questions that really had nothing to do with anything. I lied on that one, but they didn't know that. The girl returned and I handed her the papers. She handed me my ID. "Just have a seat someone will be with you shortly." "Ok, thanks."

The door opened, and in walked the bar guy. He smiled "Princess? Why are you here? Stalking me?" I smiled "Ha! you wish." He winked "Actually yeah. Seriously though, are you here for the sleep study?" I nodded "Isn't it obvious?" "I guess, although you could be one of our really hot doctors." I laughed "Yeah, with these bags." I pointed at my eyes. He smiled and walked over to the desk and got the same talk as I did, then sat at the table to fill out the papers.

A man walked out from behind the closed doors. "Rose?" I stood; the bar guy looked. "Rose? Did not expect that. I was thinking. Something more bad ass" I smiled "Rose is bad ass, a rose has thorns, that's pretty bad ass." He laughed "Come this way please." I walked towards the man. "Ok so I'm going to show you to your room while you're here, and common areas for you to watch TV, smoke if you do, are you a smoker?" "no" "Ok we'll skip that room, so TV, games room, somewhere you can do some laundry and the doctors office where you'll talk about your sleep issues. At night we'll monitor you with these." he passed me a little black box, when I opened it, it had three little nodes in it. "Now we would like you to wear them all day and night so we can get a good grasp on what the problem is, but you don't have to if you don't want. Most definitely you will have to wear them at night." "Umm where do they go?" "oh right, one on each temple and one on the inside of your wrist." I nodded "Ok." He showed me around and made small talk for an hour or so until finally he showed me to my room. It wasn't glamorous but it would be fine, better than that motel. The thought gave me shivers. I looked around. There was a small window that was barred up, a little end table with a lamp, a small single bed, a small bathroom with a stand-up shower, a sink and a toilet. There was a two-way mirror for sure in the room with another camera set up in the corner.

"Ok I'll let you be for now; the doctor will be here after rounds." I nodded and sat on the bed; he closed the door. It was like jail, but I guess after this morning this was exactly where i needed to be.