Taint (Formerly Claimed) Dark Midnight 1

Chapter 3

The road to the hospital was long and winding.  Like a snake, it sliced through the foot of the mountains as the only way leading out of Wafter’s Point—and coincidentally the only way from town into the hospital.  

Up this high in elevation, the narrow road was prone to getting cut off by snowfall, which made the winter months seem like flipping a dice on the chance of disaster. 

Though, to be fair, this area was lucky to even have a hospital so close at all.

Even the nearest Walmart was nine miles away. 

This area with its cold mountain charm and suffocating small-town vibe wasn’t exactly the prime target for businesses, and the town of Wafter’s Point…

Well, to put it nicely, Wafter’s Point was a tiny speck of hell.

Albeit, it was a pretty hell with neat picket fences, and white lines, and a group of busy bodies who called themselves the ‘Beautification Squad’ went around bullying people into keep their yards clean.

On sunny days, if you squinted a little, it almost seemed like an ideal suburban paradise. 

Until you felt the sheer boredom covering this place like a cloud. 

It was hell; a fiery inferno and gossip and stale boredom where nothing interesting ever happened outside of a television screen. 

It was for that reason that Wafter’s Point memorial didn’t attract too many doctors—or anyone for that matter who wasn’t desperate enough to forgo decent civilization for a job.    

Desperation was why Miriam figured her father had been offered a pretty penny to practice at the hospital.

  Enough money to pick up their life in the city and move here with plenty to spare.  More than enough to leave behind everything and everyone she had ever known for a creepy three story Victorian house on a misty hill that creaked and moaned in the wind at night. 

Though, if she wanted to be honest, she’d admit that the money wasn’t the only reason they’d come here. 

Desperation attracted desperation after all.  

Some days her father seemed so eager to leave their old house behind—full of those old memories—that she figured any hospital could have flashed an actual penny at him and he would have had them on the next plane before the ink on his contract had even dried. 

Some days, it seemed as if the ghost of her mother haunted him, driving him away from everything and everyone in an attempt just to forget.

When running away didn’t work, the alcohol was his only remedy. 

She figured that it was only coincidence that her only uncle also lived in Wafter’s Point with a family of his own to make the move less traumatic. 

In theory at least. 

In reality, her Uncle Sal and her cousin Sheena seemed just as wary of her as she was of them.  Even now, in the front passenger seat of his truck, Miriam caught her Uncle glancing at her nervously from the corner of his eye.  Carefully, he’d peek, only when he thought she wasn’t looking.

It was like he was afraid that she might spontaneously combust into thin air if he happened to blink.

Shatter into a billion tiny pieces right there on the vintage leather seat. 

“So…did your Dad say anything about coming over for dinner this weekend?” He asked, tactfully changing the subject, though his eyes kept darting to her chin.