Chapter 2: Proving One's Worth (Part 3/7)

"AAaiieeeeeee!!!" The high-pitched tone of her blood curdling scream was just the trigger that I was hoping Not to set off. "Hissssss!" The creature's left claw which at that moment had been caressing Miss. Clifford's neck, now clamped down upon it with razor sharp nails, digging into her fragile skin and cartilage. The right claw then came racing towards her chest only to pierce inches deep into the left side of her chest, definitely puncturing her heart and lungs. Poor Miss. Clifford didn't have a chance as her body jerked about a bit like she was having a seizure, which caused her walker to tilt and fall to the side. After a few other short jerks, she simply slumped over like a puppet without strings, and with trace amounts of blood dribbling from her mouth. As a dainty little thing weighing less than 90 lbs. and a filmy night gown, one could almost imagine as if this was a romantic scene with a valiant lover or friend who was supporting her after she swooned. The contradicting factor was that the one supporting her weight with its right claw in her chest and left on her throat was no lover. All the blood in the general vicinity really ruined the scene as well. Alright, enough holding back on the assumption that I was crazy! Either I was getting carried away in a super long sleeved white coat and leg cuffs when this was over, or I was going to live or die trying to survive. *Kugh* I jumped back out of the way, just as the monster's right claw pulled back out of Miss. Clifford's body in order to swipe at me. Blood coated nails lightly grazed my right shoulder, tearing through the short sleeve of my scrubs. My own blood began to lightly bead up from the thankfully shallow wounds, as I frantically distanced myself from this abomination. Seeming having lost interest in me for the moment, the lizard man opened up its mouth to display 2 rows of serrated teeth that had replaced its now unnecessary dentures. A forked pinkish green tongue flicked out and appeared to taste the air, as it leaned forward towards the still form of poor Miss. Clifford. Blood dripped down from the hand that still remained clenched around her throat while the opened puncture wounds to her heart streamed red. Wow that was just . . . Wow! It looked about ready to take a bite of the late Miss. Clifford, when again I heard another scream. Eeeeeyaaaah!" The blood curdling scream tore my gaze away from the bloody display in front of me, and pulled me out of my engrossing thoughts. Apparently, Lacy had yet to faint from the view in front of her. What had she been doing all that time?! Just staring into space? The nurse however had already fallen into a heap on the floor just in front of the door. 'Great, just great.' I thought to myself. Following the scream, the frantic CNA began pressing down Hard on the security handle of the exit door, while wailing out indecipherable words. The siren that sounds when a resident presses it went off and added to the already chaotic stimulation that was I fear building up to a terrible outcome. Obviously, the scream combined with the wailing of the door alarm proved to be too much of a distraction for the new Mr. Smith to enjoy his late evening snack. "Hisssssss!" With rage clear in its eyes at the disruption, it released its hold on the dead fellow resident, which fell to the floor with a light *wump* as her filmy night gown cushioned some of her 90 lbs. weight. I shuddered again as I heard and watched Miss Clifford's head hit the floor. That made a louder smack as it rebounded on the surrounding blood. My attention of course never truly left the abomination in my sight. Completely ignoring me, it got on all fours with sharp claws clicking on the tile floor before ambling in an unsteady rush towards the hapless Lacy who continued to desperately press on the door. As it passed me, I took a look at its backside and . . . huh, I just realized that he now had a tail. . . Just before it would have reached her, the door finally reached its timed limit, which allowed it to open despite not entering the code. That set off a whole new alarm, since the security deemed the successful opening of the door, to be of a greater level of importance. *REEEEEEEEEE! REEEEEEEEEE! REEEEEEEEEE! . . .* Stumbling off center at the high-pitched whine of this new alarm, the disoriented monster slammed into the door frame before crumpling to a heap. Next to its stunned frame, not very far from it, lay the unmoving form of the nurse who was still passed out. Its momentarily dazed status allowed Lacy to quickly close the door behind her as she escaped to safety. That now left me with Jeremy who seemed to be hiding in one of the side rooms, the very fragile residents who . . . Huh. Risking a quick look around, I noticed that all the residents were gone, as well as all the doors to their rooms were closed. I guess the rest had been cleared out into their rooms by Jeremy. Damn, He's fast! Guess it was just me, the comatose nurse, and Mr. Monster. Quickly arming myself with a nearby vitals machine pole that stood around mid-chest height, I unceremoniously tugged on the entire assembly. This yanked the charging plug out of the wall outlet, likely bending the plug. I, however, didn't have time to care. Now with the unwieldy pole in hand, I rushed over to the sprawled creature that had yet to gather itself from its intimate encounter with the door frame. Slamming down the base with as much force as I could muster, I was able to somewhat pin its body to the floor. "Hissssss!" Oh, it did not like that. Pressing hard with my body weight behind it, I had 2 of the 5-pronged legs nestled up against its neck, keeping it secured away from me and hopefully the comatose nurse within kicking distance. Pressing down harder I sought to choke it to death if at all possible. Unfortunately for me, the creature was quite a bit more resilient than I'd hoped. Doing nothing more than severely pissing it off, it grasped at the long pole with its arms, scratching at the metal and leaving shallow lines in the previously shining chrome coated surface. Its longer legs and accompanying claws dug shallow furrows into the laminate tile floor. Dodging its awkward tail was the hardest part out of keeping it trapped. All this while I was casting my eyes about searching for something, anything that could bring this to an end. "Hold Still!" I yelled at the creature who was being very unhelpful with its restraining. It was then that I noticed Jeremy peeking out of one of the doors of a resident room to check up on me. "Oh! Thank goodness!" I exclaimed. "Come help me take care of this thing!" The fear and frustration at the situation had to be evident in my voice. Despite his obvious trepidation to come out, Jeremy slipped out of the resident's room he had been in and edged closer to my position. There was an extreme dearth of practical weapons since this was a nursing home. As far as receiving additional help from other staff, I didn't know what was holding up the help that I assumed to be coming, since Lacy had escaped from the unit. Unless I was granted the necessary time, help, and freedom to run to the kitchen for some nice and shiny knives and pointy long forks, then my arsenal was not likely to improve by much. Unfortunately, circumstances and the lizard man did not seem gracious enough to allow me that liberty. His grasping claws and repetitive hissing as I sought to hold him at bay with the vitals pole, was evidence enough of his current disposition. After much persuasion and a fruitless search of his own for a better weapon, Jeremy was reluctantly and begrudgingly convinced to take over my position, as I then tried my hand at finding a usable weapon that could kill the damned creature. I felt a momentary twinge of regret that said creature had likely been someone's grandfather, father, and possibly still husband just a few moments ago. To be honest, I never had seen anyone come by and visit the poor man. Sadly, with his inability to recognize or remember the people around him, it likely would have been an empty gesture only, with no real substance to it. I know that quite often, family members and friends cannot bear to see their previously cognizant and life filled parent, lover, or friend as it fades from the person they knew and loved. Thus, transforming into the hazy and easily confused existence that they are now. It can be both painful and unbearable to see such a built-up foundational image become a terrible shadow of its former self. He was already in a facility that took really good care of him as he floated through life, careless of his own existence. Here and now though, with it fighting to get free, it was time for him to be ended, now that he had taken the life of another with many more still at risk. Running behind the nurse's station, I opened drawer after drawer searching for anything useful. Articles of clothing from the lost and found, random keys, a stash of snacks, and juice boxes filled with nutritional supplements were all that I found. I highly doubted I could feed the thing to death with juice boxes or be willing enough to get close enough to stab it with dull keys. Turning around, I started opening the cabinets that usually only held outdated cleaning supplies. My eyes fell to the container of bleach wipes and the Windex bottle. Combining those would get me chloramine fumes, which are highly toxic to us humans. Unfortunately, I didn't know how effective it would be to this creature. Nor did I know who would expire first from the deadly combination. That's considering if I even could combine them at a large enough volume to produce said fumes or poison. "Hey man, Hurry up!" Jeremy cried out to me, "I can't keep this thing here forever!" This frantic reminder broke me out of my temporarily distracting thoughts. Spurred on with his dire reminder, which was interspersed by the continued pissed off hissing from the lizard man, I mentally set aside the toxic concoction for use if I couldn't find anything better in the next few moments. Continuing to dig through the tall cabinet, I pushed aside a mop and its bucket and then at the far back I saw some ancient halogen bulbs. A brief memory of having mock played swords with a pair of those before when I was a child assailed me. I remembered how they gave a satisfying sound and sensation when shattered, which sadly quickly ended the fun. Caught in that brief memory, something clicked. 'What if . . .?' It was all I had to go on and so I ran with it. Grabbing the bulbs, I quickly stripped them of their plastic covering and pulled the long tubes free of the packing. Running over to Jeremy with two of them, one in each hand, he looked at me incredulously. "What the Hell are you going to do with those!?" He screamed at me. Ignoring his irate and desperate expression, I grabbed an additional vitals pole to help contain the monster and reduce its movements. Pinning its right arm to the ground close to the wrist, I got much closer than I was comfortable with. This then enabled me to force its claws to splay outwards, rendering it unable to grip around my shoe. Then taking one of the bulbs, I thrust it towards the open and hissing mouth of the monster. In reflex, it bit down on the end of the bulb, shattering it in the process. Cracks formed almost halfway up to where I was holding it as shards started bursting forth and outward near the creature's mouth, covering the floor in sharp pieces of glass. A decent amount of the shards actually made their way into its mouth. Not wanting to miss this opportunity, I kept forcing the decreasingly solid remains down into its gaping jaws as it chomped away at the damaging glass. I visibly and internally shivered and winced at the inhumane damage it was causing. Jeremy as well had begun to look at me as if I was a monster now. As the first tube was quickly demolished, I brought about the second one and forced it into the mouth of the monster. I shuddered in moral agony at the convoluted actions I was taking, but what else was I to do. By now large streams of what looked like thick bluish liquid made its way from the creature's mouth as it began to build up some bluish foam as well. *HaAK* *HaUAK* Hacking noises replaced the previous hissing as it struggled in its now contained misery. Leaping off of its now thrashing right claw, I threw down what remained of the second halogen bulb and more firmly grasped the other vitals pole. Together Jeremy and I held the creature pinned as it struggled in its death throes, choking on its own blue blood and glass shards. "Ugh!" Grimacing at the pitiful sight, I still couldn't help but feel sorry for it, despite knowing that it had killed a fellow resident just moments prior. I guess knowing who it had been before all this happened also added to the pity. Finally, after what felt like forever, it seemed to give up its life. Even then, Jeremy and I refused to let go of our grip on our personal restraining poles, till the last of the twitching came to an end. With a sigh of relief, I was the first to let go and sink to the floor. "Phew!" Jeremy too sunk to the floor, but he retained a death grip on his pole as if unable to let go in his fearful state. He continued to poke at the creature from the pole length away as if needing the constant reassurance that it was not going to come back to life.