The Beast of Existence

Realization

“Oh f**k no man, come on what the s**t!” - said Lau with a shaky voice, he was notably disturbed, most of them were, he anxiously took out a cigarette and with a trembling grip of his lighter he set it on fire; most of the staff were in shock, some of the medics were distant, something to be expected given the cold character of their vocation; everybody had to leave that room and went to the back of the hospital, some medics had to returned to their duties, others took a time to try to find an explanation to the events. 

”Lau what the f**k was that...” - said his boss to Lau, visibly deranged, -”...h-h-how the f**k did they got those kind of injuries, what kind of sick f**k does that”- his boss was grasping with the image that he just witness, trying to reasonate, trying to find an explanation “... and why the f**k you didnt alert anyone, weren’t you supposed to be looking at the damn monitors?”- Lau was still thinking about that face, flashing images go before his eyes rapidly, of the bloody bodies and their unearthly injuries, when he distantly could heard the nagging of his boss; he turned his eyes to him, and with a assertive gaze replied, “Could you not make me the one to blame, for f***s sake Ronan I was looking at them monitors, I-I-I swear man, just felt a bit ill, and got a bit lost for a couple minutes...”- His boss rejoinder was -“Yeah for sure dude no worries, I know why you always look and feel ill, its for all that filth you got in your locker you sick f**k”- Lau with shame on his face continued, -”Oh grow up man, s**t’s not on me, I was looking at the cameras, nothing came up there I swear it didn't”.

“Both of you pricks shut up”- a female voice could be heard saying imposingly, Lau was still staring at his boss, when he heard that voice, he flickered his eyes to try to have a glance at the person who said that, he saw a female figure, skinny and almost near his height, couldn't see much of her, his attention was being juggled between the staring piss contest he was having with his boss, and the figure of a doctor approaching the gathering.

The figure grew in detailed as it was getting closer, Lau and the entire group turn their heads and attention to the advancing doctor, - “Who the f**k are the gentlemen who are in charge of the guarding? I need to have word with them”. - Said the doctor in a thick slavic accent and a sort of broken, but not quite, english; the doctor was a neurologist, and he was a part of the senior management in the hospital, he often swore a lot, was an old gray haired man, and walk in a awkward manner, almost on a limp, and had a wide range of nervous tics that complemented his very extravagant picture.

“Yes sir, it's us”- Said Ronan, as he eyed Lau, with a very menacing gaze; “Yes you two come please”- replied the bearded doctor -”the police arrived here and they are asking many questions, now I have not an idea of what the f**k happened, Cara the reception girl said someone attacked our people, I just want to know why you didnt realize this as it was taking place”-The doctor said accusingly. -”Sir I was looking at them monitors, but I saw nothing as I was telling my superior here, Ronan, things just happened so fast sir.” - Said Lau in a search for mercy, then the doctor proceeds to address Lau.-”listen to me you little s**t, either you find out what the f**k happend or either you are going to be taken by those policemen. Now they want to see the cameras, and take some declarations, so you young man, dont f**k up this time ok, and take some of the police down to the monitors.”- Said the doctor making eye contact with Lau, with a prepotent and totalitarian demeanor.

Lau nodded in affirmation and looked down in the shyly manner that characterized him, as he was being looked at by the doctor and his superior. Lau went to the officers and a couple of them asked him if he could please take them to the monitors area to see the recordings; as they walked, the two officers talked very quiet to each other, when they arrived to the monitors, the officers looked at the exact moment when the attack occur, as well as Lau watched the recording for the first time.

Lau rewind the recording until the attack; the screen was playing the last minutes of life of one these two individuals while it was being inspected by the two officers; the recording showed the nurse approaching to the back room, it was an area where some of the sheets gets put in, in order to being cleaned, also it was the place where they kept some tools and some extra set of keys for different areas;  the nurse got inside the room and took out a pair of keys, then she notices that her phone was ringing and she takes it out, begins to read some messages and reply to others, Lau notices that as she does so she repeatedly turn to see the doors in the back of the room, as if she felt like somebody was out there, as she was doing it the janitor enters the area, she greeted him cordially, and he replies accordingly, then the nurse continues to attend his phone, as the janitor mops the floor.

When the clock struck a quarter past seven the camera began to shake, both of them  inside the room looked at each other, the nurse gently placed her hand on the wall behind her as she was looking around erratically, the janitor made a hand gesture that could be read as to calm her down, she spoke some words to him, as he continue to move his hand in order to appease her nervousness, when the shaking stopped they both looked at the ceiling as to check on the hanging lights to see if the movement had stopped completely. 

They both looked relieved when they were sure that the shaking had come to a halt, they even began to laugh nervously and giggle, they made some jokes about the situation, and felt as if their wellbeing was being reassured at least for one more day, then... 

Both doors were pulled open in a violently way to the outside right after the giggles had begun, they both turn and looked at the doors while a shadowy darkness began to invade the room from the outside covering in a total blackness the doors and the floor around the exit, it moved slowly towards them, the nurse expelled a desperation scream as the shadows covered completely the janitor, then the duskiness reaches to her suddenly, leaving only her feets to be seen, covering them shortly after and covering in a complete darkness the whole room, leaving only a black screen where a hospital back room used to be, looking back at the officers and Lau. 

The officers took some notes, they barely spoke a word to Lau, only to play it faster or to rewind on some points, after they saw the incident entirely they both got up, and gave a card to Lau, they told him they might want to ask him some questions in the near future, Lau was still reading the first name on the card when the officers were already on their way to the parking lot.

Lau felt sick, nothing made sense to him, he thought he might still be sleeping or maybe hallucinating, result of his current drug usage, the feeling of sickness for life had begun to arise, so once again he took a whole bunch of pills that sooth his temper.

As he was exiting the hospital he a sees a familiar figure in the near distance, she resemblance the figure of the one who yelled at him in the parking; Lau was beginning to feel the euphoria he desperately search with every hit of pills he takes, and as he approached her he felt confident, she was putting a lock to one of the pharmacy’s fences, “Hi, so you’re the girl that shout to strangers?” - Said Lau oblivious. - “And you’re the guy who freaks out over injured people while working at a hospital”- replied the girl. “Yeah sorry ‘bout that, I only been here for a month or so, I will get used to it” - Said Lau, bereft of any previous confidence. 

“Don't sweat it, I was just teasing you, I saw you around but you're always quite distracted” - said her comfortingly - “I’m Lau '' -  “Alright” - Said the girl as she walked towards the exit. “And what's your name” - Lau inferred with a slight desperation tone. “To you I'm Woman, nice to meet you Lau boy”; Lau followed her to the bus station, as he attempted to engage in a conversation.

“That’s an odd name, Lau?” 

“Its short for Lautaro, actually”

“Its shorter and now, not so odd actually”

“What about Woman? that’s an odd name, if I ever heard one”

“Woman it's not weird my boy, woman it's fierce, it's rebel. It's all that crap and then some”

“You really feel that, you believe in the feminist ideology”

“I do and don't, it depends on my mood”

“You got the aura of quite the moody person”

“Do I? It's not deliberate”

“Its ok, I like it”

“Does agreeing with everything a girl says or does always work for you?”

“Nothing ever works for me”

“So you're a fatalist I see”

“It depends on my mood” -said Lau with a small grin.

“That's funny, so do you walk home or do you take the bus like the rest of us members of the proletariat?”

“I walk, usually, I always have lots of energy at night, it's ironic, in the morning when I should function better I'm a lethargic employee, and by the end of my duty I feel energized, that probably says a lot about my career choice”

“Again with the fatalism, you try to gloom me into your cult Lau”

“Not at all, sorry, I just haven't had a conversation with a real person in a while”

“Yeah, me neither actually”

“You want to grab a drink, or a coffee… now?” - utter awkwardly Lau.

“I don't know, its friday, I just witness a girl lose her life right before my eyes, all I want to do is go home and admire the dark void while feeling empty inside” - said the girl, as she looked at Lau and noticed how much of an effort he was making to hide his insecurity. “ now that you mention it a drink might help”

“Alright, lets go”

“Leah... that’s my name Lau”

The pub were Lau took Leah had a very franchise type of feel, very pretty and nice, but a bit soulless, lacking of a substantial input, still the company was more than enough for Lau to endure such a trouble, “You know what I found most interesting, the fact that there was no traces of anybody, not even the bluemans got any evidence, don't you think?”, - Leah addressed the occurences of the day. “I mean if you want to talk about it, I don't know, maybe you just want to get your mind off of the events” - said Leah. “No, it's cool, I'm not that much of a damsel in distress” - said Lau, as he blew air through his nose. “You know what's stranger, I took those boys to the monitors area, we check the recordings and something weird appeared…” - said Lau, as he was uttering his story and reaching the part of the shadow, he felt that, that particular portion of the story, could made him look like a superstitious guy, which he was not, far from it; so he made the conscious decision of not letting her know about the bizarre nature of said video. 

“What was it?” - said Leah with her face alive with anticipation. - “Well… you know, it seems like before the attack the building was in a sort of trembling, they both looked scared, and then they fell to the ground, so did the camera and then the recording stopped” - said Lau mumbling and unconvincingly. “Right, that is quite strange”- Said Leah, almost disappointed. “Did you feel a tremor” -Asked Lau changing the conversation route. “Well not really but I mean I'm almost always moving you know”- Leah replied conformable.

After some minutes they both indulge in their respective alcohol consumption, helping their interaction, having a more fluid conversation, disinhibiting any sort of awkwardness.

“You know what's funny…”-said Lau with a confident and careless voice. “that old man told me that I was gonna put in blame for it, and I just really just wanted to tell him to f**k off”

“Oh don't worry about him, he's such a prick...” - said Leah with intoxicated eyes “he's one of those old peoples who likes to listen to himself talk, I think he gets aroused by how > he is compare to all of us”

“I like how you can so easily disregard somebody by their behaviour” -Lau’s face flooded with admiration. “I like how you find attractive little quirks like that” - riposted Leah with warmth in her voice. “Well maybe the most basic things can hold some sort of beauty” - said Lau with a bobbly voice. “The most basic things are the most complicated ones” - added Leah, looking straight to Lau’s drunken eyes. “I think you are quite a complicated girl” - Lau replied, advancing forward, closer to Leah’s face.

“Are you implying that I'm beautiful” - Leah moved closer to Lau’s face as well, squinting her eyes with a flirtatious smile. “The word beautiful is far too poorly to describe you” - Lau gently placed his fingers on Leah’s chin and made his move forward, his lips touched Leah’s as he grabbed her with care by the back of her neck. Leah pressed her lips even closer to Lau’s, and it became a back and forth deal to express their feelings, with disregard for opinions, both of them being taken over by excitement and a warm feeling that filled their veins with emotion. 

The drinking stopped, but the conversation continued, they laughed and felt a comforting feeling growing within themselves, after a while they both headed to their respective places, holding hands at night; Lau left Leah at her place and, according to common ritual, they both kissed and said goodnight to each other.

As Lau walked home, alone, he introspected, how he had change from the guy he was in the morning, a pathetic suicidal and cinic individual, to be a more confident excited filled guy; the reassurance of love dormance the usual toxins in his brain that made him feel in a continuous state of numbness and disinterest for life. 

Lau got to his place, from the street outside he noticed the lights were on, which made him feel odd. He opens the door and leaves his things on the table, he takes off his jacket and searches for his mum, he turns on the rest of the lights in the kitchen, she's not in the living room, she's not in the bathroom. Lau has a bad feeling, he checks her room… nothing, he checks his room and she's also not there.

Lau looks at his phone and the clock says it's 3 am, “where could my mum be… No missed calls, no texts...” He calls her on the phone, the phone rang, with every unanswered ring, his tension and anxiety grew.

He calls his aunt, his mother sister, to see if she know something, but the call has the same result as the previous one, he leaves a text for her aunt, asking her if she has any idea where his mum might be, Lau feels like he’s being observed, a reminiscent feeling to the one of the night before.

He tries to call her for a desperate fifth time, with his forearm he knocks all of the figures off the coffee table and stands up on top of said furniture in the middle of the living room, as if the signal might be an inconvenience, then a voice utters in a menacing tone the words “She’s gone”... The spoken words came from his room, Lau turned to the half closed door and sees two yellow ghoulish eyes looking back at him.