Ward Of Evil
“Ma’am, all our A2 wards were fully booked. Can we give you an A1 ward?” The receptionist asked. Janet nodded frantically, not really caring as contractions pains were her.
It was a tiring delivery, since Janet was having her very first baby. Nevertheless, everything went smoothly, and the doctors brought her baby girl out into this world after ten hours of labour.
After her delivery, Janet was totally exhausted. Her baby girl was left in the infants ward where she knew would be well taken care of. The exhausted mother soon dozed off into a dreamless sleep.
Janet was awakened by a strange sound. Dimly, she thought it sounded like the rusty laughter of an old woman. Looking around the room, she saw no one.
It was late and the dimly lit foom was shrouded in an eerie light. The door of her personal ward was closed, and the corridor outside her room was quiet, showing that the whole ward was asleep. Even the usual shuffling sounds of the nurses footsteps could not be heard.
‘Must be my imagination,’ Janet thought as she shifted to a more comfortable positiion, but not without wincing at the pain, the aftermath of childbirth.
Sleep eluded her. As the minutes ticked by, she felt goosebumps erupting all over her body while the hair on the back of her neck stood up. Someone was watching her.
Without much thought, she covered her head with a blanket. Cold sweat broke out all over her body, as her heart beat faster. For a while, Janet thought she was about to go into labour again.
Suddenly, the blanket was yanked from Janet’s grasp by an unseen force, and she saw an eerie-looking old woman hunched over the foot of her bed. Her long white hair flowed to the ground, and Janet could see her white eyes glowing in the dark.
She was stunned. How did the old woman get in here? She did not hear the door opening or closing.
“I want your child! Give it to me,” the old woman said in a coarse voice.
“No! Why do you want her?” Janet asked nervously. Deep inside, panic was rising and Janet did not know what to do.
“I only want to give it a good home. I want to make it mine,” the old woman said seriously. Following that, she started to laugh – the same laughter that woke Janet earlier.
The laughter had grown louder and louder, until it was nearly deafening. After a while, Janet closed her hands over her ears, trying to block out the unbearably loud and mocking laughter. Her eardrums felt as if they were bursting from all that beating. Unable to bear it anymore, Janet closed her eyes and screamed out in terror.
Suddenly, someone gripped her shoulders and shook her hard. Thinking that the old lady was trying to hurt her, Janet screamed even louder.
“Ma’am! Ma’am! Wake up!” Janet opened her eyes to see a nurse’s face. She realised then that the nurse was shaking her.
‘It was just a nightmare,’ Janet thought with some relief. Anyway, she told the nurse about her dream.
Strangely, as Janet told her story, the nurse paled. She picked up the intercom immediately, and spoke in a hushed voice. In no time, a group of nurses were in the room, asking Janet to shift to another room.
Seeing the tense expressions on the nurses faces, Janet was beginning to get frightened. Still, she co-operated. When Janet was finally settled in her new bed, she asked the nurse what had happened.
It was after much persuasion that the nurse would tell her. Apparently, women who had seen the pontianak in the room in their dreams had to be shifted out of that room immediately. Those who remained would be found dead mysteriously the next morning. Strangely, the pontianak did not affect every woman who had just given birth.
Janet could only stared at her stunned. Tired as she was, Janet did not allow herself to sleep. For the rest of the night, she insisted that a nurse stay with her at all times.
The next day, Janet had herself and her baby transferred to another hospital.