1 Chapter 1

"Yes, I saw his eyes on me and he is wearing a bouffant cap. Just trust me! I saw him on the operating room"

The clinical instructor cut off my classmate's conversation with a stern "Quiet down!" and gave her an inquisitive look. I interjected, "Are you sure you've seen a man?", closing the medical record I had been reading.

She nodded and gestured to the hallway. "Not just one man, but the other doctors too. They were all looking at me."

One of my classmates during our clinical rotation joined us. "What she said is true. I saw some of the doctors in their forties staring at us when we walked into this hospital, and one nurse particularly seemed to be keeping her eyes on us. They were all grouped up at the entrance."

I glanced between them, my brows furrowing in confusion. "What? Are you guys okay?"

When I stepped into the hospital with my classmates, I didn't see any nurses or doctors standing around to greet us. Everyone was already busy tending to their own tasks. It was still early in the morning, but my classmates were already narrating stories of horror. I shook my head and spoke up, "Come on, guys. Let's get going. We have to do the morning rounds." I grabbed my medical records and headed to my assigned patient's room.

As I finished checking up on my patient, I glimpsed an elderly woman standing at the far end of the corridor. An IV pole and line were tethered to her, and she had her head tilted towards the window, as if she were looking out at something. "Hello, ma'am," I said, approaching her. She didn't say anything, remaining still with her head tilted.

"Hello, ma'am. How can I help you?" and threw a sideways glance out the window. Four young children were huddled in a circle outside, their chatter carefree and their laughter ringing out. A smile tugged at my lips as I watched them in their own world, and I felt a twinge of sadness as I reluctantly turned away from the window and just as I was turning my head back to the old lady, I jolted as a hand fell on my shoulder.

My classmate peered at me and asked, "Did I startle you?" I shook my head to indicate no. She looked at me skeptically, saying, "I'm sure I scared you, because you jumped a bit. Are you okay?" Again I shook my head, and asked her, "What can I do for you? I'm just finishing up my rounds. Do you need something?"

"No," she said. "I just heard you talking to someone when there's no one else here."

"I was conversing with someone, an elderly woman. Maybe she was a patient of someone's, since she had been standing there looking outdoors before I had spoken with her."

"An elderly woman?" she queried, and I nodded in response. "Yeah, an elderly woman."

"Can you tell me what she looked like?"

"An elderly woman wearing a hospital gown, with her short bobbed hair and an IV line attached to her."

"Really? Are you sure you're not making this up?"

"What? No! Why would I?" I exclaimed.

"That was Mrs. Jones, who had been under our care, had passed away only an hour ago. She had been in her bed when she had succumbed to the shock that had caused her death."