Unikum mai 2021

remained. The man could escape the suffering, but not
his sins. Then, a tiny little voice whispered in the back
of her mind:
“You could not administer the drug, no one would blame
you. Say he died before you could make it…”
It was such an abstruse thought, as if it wasn’t even
Emma’s own voice. She couldn’t kill anybody, she promised
she would help anyone who needed it. Save anyone
she could. Save them before they ended up like…
mom.
Yet, if she saved the demon, did she not ensure his continued
murderous frenzy? Sentence more girls to their
untimely meeting with the pearly gates? No, no, the police
would arrest him, put him behind bars. And then
he would be punished, perhaps even rehabilitated of
his urges. Yes, he would see the light, and that all began
with her injecting him with hope. The hope of life.
Because who was she, to cast judgement upon others,
to decide their fate?
She found a syringe and pressed the fluid through
the syringe and into the man. After a few minutes, his
muscles loosened, and slowly but surely, the giant rested,
having been bested by a tiny needle.
Exhausted, Emma slammed into the chair, drowsiness
attempting to shut her eyes.
“I just need the pill…then I’ll be…good to go…again…”
Yet, the call of the dreamworld whisked her away, and
Emma fell into a long, peaceful sleep.
***
Such a strange dream. A strange, vivid dream. It felt
so real, like the line keeping dreams from seeping into
reality was absolved, and like toxic waste from a factory,
it polluted all it encountered. Snakes, snakes were
coiling around her. She couldn’t move, nor scream as
the snakes closed in on her. Strangled her. Their rough,
black skin slithering across her throat, suffocating
what little air she gasped for. All the while she heard a
maddening whisper from their slippery tongues:
“You’ll regret it. You’ll regret it. They always regret it.
You’ll regret it. You’ll regret it. They always regret it.”
She attempts to scream, but no words may leave her
mouth with the grasp of the snakes tightening. In the
horizon, she could see the sun on the verge to banish
night’s gloom. If only she could hold on a little longer…
Just…a little…longer…
***
Emma woke up, completely perspired. Her mind was
in a daze, and memory was a fleeting mirage, she could
not capture it. But her clock let her know that it was
the night shift. She must have dozed off.
“Silly girl,” she thought to herself.
She found her medicine cart where it always stood and
readied herself for the night shift. As she made her
rounds, a somber quietness befell the ward, as if it had
been a radio blasting tragedies, and now it was dialed
back to blissful tranquility. The echoes of screeches
from wheels faded, the agonized cries of pain and torment
having died out, the monotonic sound of heavy
equipment buzzed down.
It was simply…peaceful.
***
“Tonight occurred the tragic incident of the murdered
nurse. The victims name was Emma Asc Lepius, and she
was strangled by the vicious serial killer Zamenis Lapin.
She’s currently in a vegetative state, but her colleague,
Miss Ratched, have hopes for a swift recovery for the
girl. She says that Emma was the bright hope of the hospital,
and if she dies, the world has lost its light.”
MAI 2021 UNIKUM NR 5 31