Viribus

Chapter 1: Viribus

"A dogs eyes can tell a thousand tales."
-unknown
The generic ring of an iPhone alarm goes off. I look at my phone and of course it's 3:30 pm. Working these 12 hour night shifts at the hospital has this 25 year old feeling like a 45 year old. Rolling out of bed, I pull my furry "overdue for a touch up" box braids up into a bun.
Viviana walks to the bathroom and looks in the mirror, her messy hair is pulled up to reveal her brown freckled face and sleepy hazel eyes. "Girl, u really gotta start taking care of yourself. This is not how you get a man."

All of a sudden theres a sound in the hallway right outside the door and honestly, with all this weird shit that's been happening in my house lately, I'm not slow to be suspicious. Creeping up to the bedroom door, I grab the smith and Wesson I keep under the bed. It's loaded with one bullet. It's a pretty optimistic move for someone who's never shot a gun in her life. I didn't even load the bullet, My dad did when I first bought it. Pathetic. The sound is right outside the door now. I don't even know how to explain it; Taking a deep breath I'm holding the gun with my right hand and grasping the door knob with the other. Snatching the door open I scream "FREEZE CREEP!"

An obviously spooked large black German Sheppard sits outside the door just staring, his big golden eyes gleaming and jaw tight. He looks at me as if he's looking behind me or beside me. Never looking AT me. "My God, viribus, are you trying to make me stroke out or something!?"

He looks down as if to say sorry. Viribus. I forget I have a dog sometimes. National adoption day at the shelter 2 weeks ago, I thought I could use some protection. We've all heard the story: Young, black girl lives alone in a big city. She hears a bump in the night and goes to explore...we all know how it ends. I'd rather not be another news story. Viribus was deemed "unadoptable" because he was a dangerous breed of dog I guess. A lot of people are uneasy about adopting an adult 90 lb dog. Boy, was he beautiful though.

That day I saw him, I just had to have him. I feel like we just get each other.
"Let's go get some breakfast, huh?!", I say as I slip my virgin gun back under my bed. The strong and silent viribus's jaw loosens up slightly. His tail starts to wag back and forth. His eyes go from an intense yellow to a soft orange glow. He goes from dog to puppy in record time.

"Will you be having your usual?" Viribus looks up at me with "hfffft" out of his wet nose. "As you wish, good sir." I grab his dog food and put it in his dish along with some leftover cooked ground turkey from the back of the fridge. He tried to play it cool but his tail always gives him away. I eat oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins, along with black coffee.

It's about an hour before it's time to leave for work and I'm day dreaming about a certain Russian surgeon I work with, Dr. Ivanov. He was tall, dark and surprisingly young to be surgeon even though I didn't know the exact age. My moment is cut short when I look up and see Viribus. He's still as stone, looking at me, no.....past me, maybe even behind me. Theres a strange icy cold draft in the room. I don't feel well. I feel unsafe.

Viribus is looking at his owner. He hasn't known her for very long but he knows she is in danger. The type of danger that she can only feel but he can see. Behind her he see's a beast that may have been death itself in physical form. The creature has dark purple skin, black hollow eyes, long spindly arms and long dirty yellow nails. It watches her. It is salivating. It doesn't pounce but seems to be waiting for another time maybe. He is confused but he knows this lady has saved him from the small box that was once his home. She feeds him and he owes her his loyalty.
"What in the hell is wrong with you?"
My dog has gone from 0 to 100 really quick. He's snarling, his white teeth glitter with saliva. His eyes go wild as if he doesn't even know who I am but once again I notice...he's not looking at me, he's looking behind me. I quickly turn to look but nothing is there. I don't have time for this. "SHUT UP!!"
He gets quiet just as quick as he started. He looks up at me with wide eyes, his tail has fallen back between his legs, as if to say, "sorry."
"You are an odd canine."
Viribus wonders if his new owner wants to get eaten.
It's time to leave for work so I throw on my dark gray scrubs , name tag, and with a pat on my own person beasts head, I head out the door.
It's November in Alabama so it looks much colder than it is and it's dark at 5:30 pm. "Gotta love the south...sike."
Pulling up to the big building with a million windows, I'm already tired just looking at it.
It's 6:15 and it's time to clock in.
Once on the floor I see Wendy, a fellow nurse, in the Breakroom. She's annoyingly upbeat as usual. "What's up girly?! You ready for another rewarding day doing the Lords work?!"
"Absolutely!"
I throw on a tired, fake smile.
Nursing is definitely a labor of love, I'm exhausted but I come back night after night. I love my patients and they love me back..sometimes.
The charge nurse comes in and hands out assignments, she is not in a good mood and leaves quickly. On the assignment sheet I go ahead and see what I'm working with.
Room 311: Male. 56. SOB A&O x 3
Diagnosis: Heart failure.
Room 314: Female. 32 chest pain, SOB, diaphoresis.
Diagnosis: Anxiety attack? Needs further testing
Room 317: Female. 98. "Believes she can see spirits." Possible psych consult needed.
Wow! I really got the cream of the crop tonight, I'm thinking as I gather my things to go get report. Report is uneventful until we reach room 317. Beckie is giving me report; A total valley girl if there ever was one; one with a potty mouth from hell. Long blond hair, blue eyes, full face of makeup and not one interest in nursing. She's a nice girl, but she's definitely not who you want around if one of your patients starts knockin' on the door to the upper room. I chuckle at myself. We are standing outside of the room.
"Girl! First of all, I'm not going to beat around the bush. This old heifer is bat shit crazy! She's been talking to people that aren't there, she has tarot cards in her purse AND to top it all off, she has a fake EYE! I'm adding this lady to my list of shit I want nothing to do with! Good luck!"
After beckie's super informative report, I'm on my own. I walk into the lady's room and introduce myself. "Hi, my name is Viviana and I'll be your nurse tonight." She glares but doesn't say a word; her right eyeball is opaque, she has stringy gray hair with many bald patches and reminds me of something that's been dead for a long time. I feel a little uneasy and leave the room.
Later that night, I do some research on this woman, which is not hard to do, I just click on history & physical.
Labou, Anne. 98.
"Mrs. Labou is an eccentric 98 year old woman with a history of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and hallucinations. She reports to the ER today under mysterious circumstances as she doesn't know why she came. Upon arrival, it was obvious that Mrs. Labou was mentally unwell and needed to be admitted. She speaks minimal English as she is Haitian and speaks Haitian-creole. We have yet to find a translator for this. We will continue to monitor her and consult psychiatry. "
"What a nutcase", I think to myself. I avoid her room pretty much all night as she has no medications due until midnight comes and she has blood to draw. I'm really dreading this.
Knocking on the door, I let her know I'm coming in. What happened next was right out of a Stephen king novel. I couldn't believe my eyes. Mrs. Labou sat straight up in her bed in a dark room. Still as a statue. I'd swear she'd died and rigor Mortis had set in if I didn't actually see her breathing. "Mrs. Labou.. are u okay?"
No movement. Not even a blink.
"I've come to draw your blood, is that okay?"
Nothing.
At this point, I'm pretty freaked out but I really don't want to call the dr. and tell him I'm too scared to draw this lady's blood so I go for it. I get my things together and I even get the tourniquet on her arm without so much as a muscle twitch.
"Okay, I'm about to stick you in one, two, thr...."
All of a sudden Mrs. Labou takes her hand and grabs my arm with a strength that no 98 year old woman possesses.
"Mrs. Labou, you're hurting me!"
"Stop right now!"
All of a sudden her whole body stiffens as if someone's pulling a string that runs from the top of her head to her toes. She turns over and looks at me. Her neck bones popping one by one. Her head falls back and she jerks. The words come out of her mouth with a lurch like vomit. "I SEE DEATH ALL AROUND YOU."
I look in horror as this woman that I had seen before looks totally different. It's still her but she's just a vessel. Someone or something is speaking for her. I manage to finally loosen my arm and run out of her room.
My face is hot. I'm trying to hold back tears but they still come; burning my face with each slide down my cheeks.
I need to go hide. I don't even want to explain what just happened. I don't even know if I can. I'm running to the supply room so I can get myself together and I run into what feels like a warm wall.
"Viviana, are you okay?
You're running through the halls like a mad woman!"
I look up and see Dr. Ivanov.
Even in my raw panic I can't help but notice that he smells like lemon cough drops. His baby blue shirt tucked into his black slacks. He looks at me with concern in his icy blue eyes.
"What happened to your arm?!"
"What?"
Looking down I am almost speechless. My right Arm is a shade of purple that I didn't even know my ebony skin could achieve. There are 4 deep red impressions in my skin and every pulse of my heart is torture.
"It doesn't even matter, we have to do something."
He pulls me into the supply room and immediately starts to pull out things like gauze, coban, and peroxide and gets to work. "What happened to you Viviana, who did this to you?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you.", I say with tears in my eyes.
"Try me", his intense blue eyes soften a little.
"That crazy lady in 317 did this to me!"
"The little old lady?"
"Yes! Well... she definitely didn't seem like a little old lady when she did this!"
"She was probably sundowning, the poor thing."
"THIS was not sundowners."
" So what are you implying Miss Lawson?"
"She's...she's...I don't know."
"I don't want her as a patient anymore."
Dr. Ivanov's gaze has not broken for a What feels like forever. His eyes are piercing my soul.
He snaps out of whatever he was experiencing. He clears his throat and pushed a lock of his thick wavy black hair up off of his forehead.
"I uh...I don't want you to feel uncomfortable.
You don't have to have the lady again tonight, I will make sure of it."
"Thank you Dr. Ivanov"
"Call me Dimitri, I'm not an old crusty Dr like my dad. I'm only 30 after all."
"I really have to go, we've been in here for at-least an hour and my patients need me."
"Well it's only been 10 minutes but you seem like you're well enough to finish the shift now."
" Thanks Dr.....Dimitri."
"No problem and Viviana?"
"Yes..."
"Hopefully the next time we bump into each other, it's not because you're injured."
My face feels hot again but in a different way. I giggle like a pure idiot and get back to work.
Dimitri gets the charge nurse to rearrange the assignment and I don't go in the lady's room again. The rest of the night is boring, just like I like it.
Pulling into my garage, I can't help but wonder what Viribus is up to. I unlock the door and just as I thought, he's standing there waiting for me. "What's up big fella? U keep the house safe while mom was at work?" He gives one of his typical huffs with his nose and wags his tail. He knows he gets a treat for this.
"Well, thank God because after tonight, I am spooked."
Viribus see's it. He see's it all over "mom" as she calls herself. He realizes that for now, the spirits have dispersed and he can relax. More importantly, she can relax. She smells like tired.
"I'm so rude. You probably have to go out huh?"
He is still wagging his beast of a tail. I open the door and he shoots out like the flash. I think I'm going to go with him because ya know, I don't know him that well yet. I usually don't go out in the yard by myself, my mom has obsessively warned me for years about kid-napping and human trafficking and as crazy as I thought she was, that caution did stick me subconsciously. Viribus isn't going to let anything happen to me. I'm still a little shaken up from last nights ordeal. That weird old lady had been there for 3 days and no one else had a problem with her. Beckie didn't have a problem with her. Why'd she flip out on me?? I try to put it in the back of mind in a pile labeled "Shit I'd like to pretend didn't happen."
Viribus is doing his business in the yard. He finally finds a spot after 15 minutes of sniffing in a circle.
All of a sudden, I get that uneasy feeling again. Its so cold that I'm getting goosebumps. Viribus looks up at me and he stares. He's watching something but it's not me. All of a sudden, I can't move.
"It's happening again."
Viribus is looking at Viviana as this blackness engulfs her, the way ink looks when it's dropped in water. The spirit wraps it's tentacle-like appendages around her neck. It's yellow fangs encasing a long, red tongue.
"I can't breathe!"
All the breath has been taken from my body and I struggle to move. Everything is black. Something has me but nothing is there. I can feel my feet start to lift off of the ground.
I gather just enough breath to let out a pitiful yelp.
"Help!"
Viribus knows he's got to do something or she's dead. Why can't she see these things? Why is HE the only one that seems to see them?
He realizes every idle minute is a drop of blood spilled.
Viribus has gone wild. He's snarling and snapping. I'm about 10 feet in the air when whatever has me, decides it doesn't want me anymore or either wants to kill me. With tremendous force, my body goes flying across the yard. I land on the concrete lining of the flower bed with a cracking thud. Everything goes red, then hot, burning pain. A warm trickle of blood falls down my forehead onto the tip of my nose. I feel a humid ,musty breath on my neck then I feel the wet lapping of fleshy tongue. Viribus is trying to lick my wounds. I look at him and he looks at me. He knows something wants to kill me and now I do too.
While trying to get up, I feel a sharp jab in my side. "It's a freakin broken rib, or ribs." I pull up my shirt and take a look. My abdomen looks like a bag of sticks. Pieces of bone are sticking wildly in every direction, thankfully none has broken through the skin. It hurts to breath and I know I have no choice but to call an ambulance. With a painful lunge, I fling my arm behind me and grab my phone from my back pocket. The pain takes my breath away and fat tears start to roll down my cheek.
Viribus has laid down and curled his big warm body around me. I give his head a pat. " This whole time, I thought you were trying to turn on me and you've been trying to warn me all along; I'm so sorry vir..."
He Lowers his head even more as I scratch behind his ears, as if to say, "It's okay."
With my phone, I dial for an ambulance and they say they are on the way.
You notice a lot of details you never did before when you're stuck in one spot, unable to move. It only hurts when I move.
The neighbors annoying yappy dogs in the backyard, that I can always hear but never see due to their wooden privacy fence. I'd imagine they're the breed of dog that viribus would have for a mid evening snack. While thinking of irrelevant things and waiting for the EMS, something catches my eye in the back corner of the yard. It's glimmering in the bright sun. I have no idea what it is but it's basically blinding me. "What in the hell is that? I've never noticed it before.."
Just as I've started to try and figure out this strange thing in my yard, I see the red lights of EMS.
"Ma'am! Are you okay?" Please try to sit as still as possible so no more damage is done."
"I know, I know...I'm a nurse."
The rest of the trip, I'm drugged up on dilaudid and after I make sure Viribus is safe inside, everything fades to warm blackness.
My eyes open and I can feel my contacts stick to the inside of my lids. They sting and I wonder how long I've been out. I automatically recognize the room I'm in. Fourth floor, ICU. I have been floated here before and I know it well.
"You can't even get away from this place on your day off, can you Viviana?"
Reaching for my phone on the bedside table, I get a painful reminder of why I'm here. A sharp, shooting pain flashes across my torso like a lightening bolt.
"OUCH!" I scream as I grab my waist. It's tightly wrapped with an abdominal binder.
Even through the pain, I manage to get my phone and see that it's actually 6:00 pm.
I've been out for 9 hours. Not surprising actually. I look up to read the board and make sure I don't have some crappy doctor.
"NURSE: Lisa
DOCTOR: Ivanov
DIET: Clear liquid (gross)
GOALS FOR TODAY: Pain control
"Pain control my ass, I need to learn how to survive in my own yard, heck...my own HOUSE."
There's a knock on the door and I smell a light scent of lemon. Enters Dr. Ivanov, this time, his dark black hair is slicked back to show his brooding, strikingly blue eyes well. He's seems so tall standing over my hospital bed. He has to be at least 6'2. His eyes suddenly change from a serious, almost cold stare as he enters the room, to a look of concern.
"Viviana, HOW did this happen?! Did someone do this to you?"
"I fell."
"Excuse me?", he says with obvious confusion.
"Do you know that the injuries you have are the injuries of blunt force trauma?"
"I FELL, I swear!"
"You might have fallen but someone pushed you."
"Are you covering for someone?"
"Dimitri, I cant tell you what really happened, you're going to think I'm crazy as hell!"
"Try me."
This is an intense moment, but I have to pause for a second and admire this man. I've always been the type to like tall, dark and handsome but Dimitri was nothing like that. He was tall but his complexion was a smooth ivory. He was an obvious fan of the gym, the object of all the female swooning in every unit of the hospital and was completely oblivious to all of this. He was known to be a tough patient advocate and he was very much liked in the community for his volunteer work at the free clinic in town.
I was going to sit here and tell Mr. perfect, Mr. Russian beefcake how crazy I was. I really didn't want to do it but, at this point, I'm desperate, scared and everything in between. If he sends me to the psych ward, at least I will never have to be home alone again.
"Dimitri.....something wants to kill me."
Who?! Have you contacted the authorities?"
"Not someone, something.."
"Like an animal?"
"No......"
He comes over to the bed and grabs my hand. "What a bad time to have chipped fingernail polish." I think to myself as he leans in closer.
"You can tell me anything."
His hard Russian accent has warmed up in its tone. Something in me is telling me that it's ok to tell him.
"Something supernatural. It's been after me for a while. I never knew until I got this new dog. He sees them. I can't see them but they are trying to kill me. I have no idea why this is happening to me!"
I tried to stay calm but I could feel my face getting warm and a flood of tears break loose from my eyes.
"I know you think I'm crazy! Maybe I am, I'm not sure of anything in my life right now!"
We stare at each other for a minute, I'm just waiting for him to order a psych consult on me or a urine drug test but he doesn't do that at all. He grabs my hand. His hand feels soft but with existing calluses, almost like he might have worked with his hands once upon a time. At that very moment, my nurse comes into the room, her work phone buzzing loudly, likely from needy patients asking for everything from dr. Pepper to dilaudid.
"Viviana! Hey girl! I heard you were awake and I just wanted to ma...."
She looks up from her phone.
"Oops! Did I interrupt something? I'm so sorry, I am so inconsiderate. That's probably why I'm single right?! "
She does a nervous giggle.
"Lisa, that's totally fine. I'm just trying to talk to Viviana about her health and prognosis. "
He smiles.
"Could you be sure to limit any interruptions until we are finished. I want to make sure she is well educated on what to do when she goes home tomorrow."
"Yes, Dr."
"I will talk to you later on tonight, ok Lisa?", I say as she gets ready to leave.
"Okay girl, you better tell me every detail!!"
She leaves and I can hear her phone as the beeping fades down the hallway. My eyes fall towards Dimitri again. I get distracted every time I look at him but I really need to know what he was going to say next.
"Did I ever tell you the main reason why I left Russia?"
Well frankly Dimitri, we haven't talked a whole lot until these last couple of days, so no, I think to myself.
"That's right, because I've never told anyone. Never thought I'd have reason to. Never hoped I'd have a reason to."
"I'm scared already."
"Please, don't be scared, I just want you to know that I don't think you're crazy. I have my own experiences..."
"I come from a city in Russia called Kirishi. It's a very nice city with humble ppl in it. My mom was a stay at home mom and my dad worked at a local oil refinery.We were middle class and I had a normal, happy childhood...until I was 8 years old and my little brother Kodiak was born. The day he was born, my mother was absolutely in love right away. I was so happy to have a brother to play with finally but Kodiak was sick. He was very sick with a heart condition that I now know was Called tetralogy of Fallot. The dr. said that surgery could wait for a couple months until he got stronger but he died that very night in the NICU after a particularly intense crying spell."
He stops there.
"Oh my God, this is such a sad story. I'm so sorry that this happened to your little brother. I don't want to sound like an awful person but how do these two stories relate?"
I could tell these were some very painful memories for him and I really wished I hadn't even asked that question.
"He never had a chance to be baptized. This is a very big deal in Russia. Everyone was so distraught over Kodiak's short life that no one actually thought about the torment that his soul was going through. We would soon find out though."
At this point, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to hear more.
"Everyday after that was a nightmare. My mother would stay up every night, all night until the sun came up. She would say she could hear the screeching of a tormented child and she couldn't sleep. My dad didn't know what to do, so he mostly ignored it and increased his hours at work as a distraction to the sorrow. Our once happy family was slowly crumbling. One particularly restless night, I laid awake. I tossed and turned but I just couldn't get comfortable. I decided to go into the kitchen and get a drink of water. It wasn't an uncommon sight to see my mother awake as well. She didn't see me. I was watching her sitting out on the porch from the screen door. Once kodiak died, she tried so hard but she was just a shell of the mother I once had. What used to be brown curly locks of hair, always pinned up neatly in a bun with little wild baby hairs going everywhere we're now stringy, greasy unkept wires. Her once rosy cheeks now pale with gray undertones. Her dark, Brown eyes, which used to hold so much warmth and love for me were now frigid and tossed back and forth in her head in a constant state of confusion and anxiety. She wasn't my mother anymore.
I watched her as she seemed to be having a conversation with someone or perhaps something.
"Please, please! Don't do this to me! You've haunted me every night since the death of my son! It's been 5 years!! Is that not misery enough?! I can't stand it! Go away, go away, GO AWAY!!!"
At that very moment she grabbed my fathers shot gun from the front porch table.
"MOTHER, please no!!", I screamed and she paused, she turned around and looked at me and I will never forget her face. It was the face of someone who had given up, someone who had run out of options, someone who had been tortured for years. "Son, beware the Drekavac....", she muttered as tears ran down her face.
She shot herself in the stomach right then and there.
I'm so lost in the story that I almost don't notice silent tears inching down Dimitri's face.
"You really don't have to keep going, I can tell this is hard for you."
"Viviana, I'm telling you this story because I'm seeing some similarities."
"How so?"
"Well after that happened, I wasn't ever very close to my dad but now we basically were like room mates that never spoke. It gave me a lot of time to do research on things and that's really when I began to focus on medicine.
"My colleagues always laugh at me because I've always believed in things supernatural but how could I not when I have lived this life? There are some things that you said earlier that really set off some alarms for me. You said your dog, he senses this thing?"
"Yes, Viribus is the only reason I'm still alive. He knows when it's around."
"Drekavac hate canines, as a matter a fact, older people in Russia would keep a dog around the house to ward off evil spirits."
"Look, Dimitri, I understand where you are coming from here but, didn't you say that the drekavac terrorized your family because your baby brother passed away unbaptized? I don't have any situation similar to that?"
"Are you sure?"
"Positive"
Dimitris phone starts beeping and I know the hospital will be buzzing with rumors of how the dr. Spent 1 whole hour in my room and wanted "privacy."
He looks down at his phone and quickly looks back up to meet my gaze.
"I have to go, I really want to help you get to the bottom of this, Viviana. I'm concerned for your safety."
He gently sweeps a wild curl from my forehead.
"Here is my contact information, please call me if you fear you are in danger, Day or night."
He leaves and I fall back into my bed with a soft thud.
"This can't be life."
The next day, I'm discharged from the hospital and I'm so excited because I miss Viribus so much. I don't even care if he pooped on the carpet, it's been two days and I feel like I'm missing a part of me.