Roses in the Sky - A Paranormal Romance

Chapter Four:

Chapter Four:

Rhoswen dragged Anna through the back room and nearly reached the back door before Anna pulled free. "We can't leave him in there!"

"He told us to run!"

"He wouldn't leave us!"

Rhoswen looked at Anna, then toward the swinging doors. It sounded like a small battle had broken out in the main patient area. "Alright. I'll go back and try to get him out. You run ahead!"

"And leave you behind?!"

Rhoswen put her hands on Anna's shoulders. "Listen, you have Miranda to look after. She doesn't have anyone else! So go back to her! Terrian and I will meet you at your apartment later."

Anna hesitated for a few moments, then nodded, tears leaking down her face, and ran out the back door.

Rhoswen swallowed hard. She quickly scanned the room until she located a scalpel, grabbed it from the counter, then ran back through the swinging doors. The sight laid out before her was worse than any nightmare her sleeping mind could have dreamed up.

Terrian was on the floor, not moving and blood pooling beside his head. Around half the patients were already dead, decapitated or disemboweled in their beds. The rest were shrieking in terror, most of them confined to their beds but trying so desperately to escape that a few of them had tumbled onto the floor and were now crawling in the direction of the back room. Blood was every where, as if the whole room had been painted red, just like the sky. The three half-breeds were calmly making their way toward the back, slaughtering the immobilized patients along the way.

The half-breeds didn't even look angry.

One of them looked up and noticed Rhoswen. He was taller than the others, with fiery red hair. "Oh, there's one of the nurses," he said.

The other two looked up briefly, then returned to their work with the patients as if they were not even interested. The redhead lunged at her, and she sliced at him with the scalpel. She managed to cut the sleeve of his uniform, and a tiny trickle of blood escaped his arm. To a half-breed, it was less than a paper cut.

He quickly grabbed the hand holding the scalpel and squeezed until she dropped the weapon, then flung her across the room. She hit the wall and slid to the floor, wincing. A couple of the patients froze to watch the unfolding scene. A trembling hand reached out to Rhoswen from under the bed beside her, and she looked over to see Mr. Renaldo, the elderly patient who flirted playfully with her, peeking out with terrified eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but the half-breed suddenly threw the bed aside and grabbed Mr. Renaldo by his throat. The red-haired monster lifted the old man into the air, then clenched his hand tightly together until the man's entire head popped off, like the cork from a bottle of wine. He dropped the now limp body and looked down at Rhoswen.

She screamed, kicking at the half-breed as he came closer, until she heard an even louder scream. She looked up and saw that Anna had jumped onto the half-breed's back, wrapping her legs around his torso and clawing at his face with her finger nails.

Rhoswen used the opportunity to crawl away and stand up, then run around behind him. The half-breed finally managed to get a hold of Anna and pulled her off his back, throwing her to the floor. "I found the other nurse," he said to the others.

The two other half-breeds looked up, then began walking toward him. The female looked slightly disgusted. "These two human girls are giving you trouble?" she asked with a hollow voice.

The redhead shook his head. "Not really. But we should deal with them first and save the weakest for last."

The other male half-breed, who had very long, straight dark hair that fell to his hips, nodded in agreement. "I'll take the one with curly hair, you take the one with short hair."