Not Crazy to Me | Slashers x Nurse!Reader

Chapter 16: Get. Out.

You're sick and tired of waking up entirely exhausted and shaking from fear. You sit up, lights still out, and look at the time on your phone; it's 7;45, 15 minutes to when you have to bring food to the patients, and you know that you won't have time to shower or anything of the sort. You groan, hauling yourself out of bed and stumbling over to the lightswitch. Pulling open the top drawer of your dresser you pull out your hairbrush, running it haphazardly through your tangled mat of hair and pulling a set of purple shirt and pants from your middle drawer. You slip into your black slides, grab your keys from their place atop your dresser, and, as you turn to the door, three sharp knocks echo through your room.

"Nurse (L/N)?" a stern voice says, obviously unamused; the use of 'Nurse (L/N)' makes you frown, since most people simply call you by your first name. "You're needed in the Head Nurse's office." you swallow down the lump forming in your throat, and shout out a shaky 'okay'. Was Melanie alive? Hope glimmers in your chest, along with a budding sense of dread you can't quite explain. Running your fingers through your hair one last time, you hurry towards your exit door and peel it open. The lights in the hallway outside are shining brightly, and doctors and guards hustle and bustle through the hallways at a rapid pace, most likely dealing with the aftermath of Freddy's outburst. Another pang of guilt makes you frown at the memory of Melanie having her eyes crushed within her own skull. You suddenly realize that there is absolutely no way she could still be alive, and sorrow overpowers you so strongly that you have to retreat back into your room. You slam the door shut, your body falling against it, and you struggle to fight back the tears threatening to spill over. She was so kind. So pure. She actually cared for the patients, actually treated them like human beings. She didn't see them as crazy, but rather sick, and she was so determined to heal them. You bite down on your knuckles to suffocate the wail rising in your throat, and take in a deep, trembling breath. You have to go out there, to face the inevitable, to see someone new in Melanie's chair. You turn again, and your hand touches the cool metal of the door handle. With a twist, it's open again, and the rushing people are revealed to you once more.

Almost immediately, the guilt returns, and you notice one or two of the doctors giving you odd looks that can only be explained as mistrusting, as if you had killed Melanie with your own two hands. You brave the crowd and set off to join the flow of moving people. They remind you of minnows swimming strongly down a current, and you let the current carry you out into the hallway where your patient's cells are, taking a left. You pass both Bubba and Thomas, who are both at their windows, but you turn your head away and continue on until you take another left. It breaks your heart to ignore them, but they'll pity you. You don't want pity. You deserve the guilt, don't you? The Head Nurse's door comes into view, and you approach it with the dread in your chest growing greatly. Raising a fist, you have to force your hand to move as it stiffens up, knocking once, and then twice, moving to knock a third time when the door is ripped open. Amanda greets you, her eyes flooded with an emotion you can't even begin to describe.

"Come in." she says flatly, and takes a stiff step backwards to let you pass. Stepping by her with quivering knees, you keep your head low, and stop in the center of the room. You head the door click shut behind you, and risk a glance over your shoulder. Amanda is frozen, hand still on the doorknob, head leaned against the slab of wood as she takes a moment to gather her thoughts. "Melanie is dead." her leading words, though you had expected them, hit you so hard in the chest that your breath momentarily escapes you. "So are two poor men. Those guards. They had a family together, you know." Amanda lets her hand fall from the doorknob, and her head sets itself upright, but her back remains turned to you.

"It's horrible." you say, almost inaudible, not knowing how else to respond. Any more words and your voice would shake and break, inevitably leading to a flood of tears you fought desperately to withhold.