In The Eyes Of A Stranger
I was at the polyclinic to check on something that might be a concern. When I finally got my chance to see the doctor, I was surprised to go through the doors and see a nurse sitting in place of the white coat. After sharing with her my symptoms, she diagnosed that I might be suffering cancer, but in order to prove it, she'll need to take porn poses of me, in public, in front of the other patients. I reacted the way any (half) decent girl would. NO WAY! This is sexual harrassment! So I ran off, but I needed my medicine, and since I didn't want to wait around in the same horrid building, I went to a neighbouring polyclinic with the presciption in hand.
Over at the counter, just as the medicine was about to be handed to me, the disgusting nurse came running by, instructing the other nurse not to sell them to me because I violated "the rules". Put off and in a desperate disposition, I ran to NTUC hospital.
The place was confusing. The reception was so difficult to get to, and I had to ask a million times for direction before I finally got there. I was then directed to the presciption counter, which was right smack in the middle of a waiting room for patients that weren't in emergency, but were suffering in pain all the same. Just flanking the seats was a make-shift operation room separated by just those hospital-blue plastic curtains. There was a strange moaning sound of spurts of extreme pain and discomfort. It was unsettling to hear, so I went to investigate.
Peeping through the gaps, I saw first the feet, then the body of a pre-teen boy wriggling on a transportable bed in seizures. A team of 4 doctors and nurses were trying to hold him down, they had their faces covered in hygene masks, and they were decked out in green surgical robes, whispering in hushed, anxious tones. The boy's skin was badly bruised all over, but the strange thing is that the bruises were coming and going at a constant change of blues, greens and browns. I was horrified. With my hand to my mouth, short of breathing, a small crowd began to gather where I was.
The next thing I saw might traumatise you for life. His feet, pointing in my direction, began to disappear into his ankles. They seemed like they were being sucked in with a strong but limited breath. His feet appeared again, then disappeared once more, leaving stumps cut short at the end of his shins. I was motionless and mortified.
News got round that he was suffering from a new and rare virus infection that would eat up a person's insides at an alarming rate, and in order to do so, it had an ultra high metabolic rate that used up more oxygen than available in the cavity of a person, thus creating a vacuum within the human body. The result would be disappearance or shrinking, not unlike what I had just witnessed.
The poor boy was convulting, the pain immeasurable. As the doctors where trying to control his flailing limbs, I caught a glimpse of his eyes. They looked above him, into space, thoughtless and in torture. I only saw mostly his pupils, black and wet and depthless, squeezed half open. Then, his head got sucked into his neck. I was crying, my mind was frantic. Just within the time I took to draw in a breath of horror, he got sucked into himself, leaving nothing. Like the concept of the black hole, which is the opening of a space of vacuum. Anything and everything in close proximity would get drawn into it.
5 seconds of tension. That's all that was left hanging in the air. An overbearing overcast of an imposing disaster. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Then... BANG! The skin of the upper torso of the boy was spit out from nothing, slapping onto those plastic hospital curtains. It slowly dragged itself down by the law of gravity. Those eyes, now just two empty spaces, went down to the ground, leaving a thick trail of fluid and blood.
Over at the counter, just as the medicine was about to be handed to me, the disgusting nurse came running by, instructing the other nurse not to sell them to me because I violated "the rules". Put off and in a desperate disposition, I ran to NTUC hospital.
The place was confusing. The reception was so difficult to get to, and I had to ask a million times for direction before I finally got there. I was then directed to the presciption counter, which was right smack in the middle of a waiting room for patients that weren't in emergency, but were suffering in pain all the same. Just flanking the seats was a make-shift operation room separated by just those hospital-blue plastic curtains. There was a strange moaning sound of spurts of extreme pain and discomfort. It was unsettling to hear, so I went to investigate.
Peeping through the gaps, I saw first the feet, then the body of a pre-teen boy wriggling on a transportable bed in seizures. A team of 4 doctors and nurses were trying to hold him down, they had their faces covered in hygene masks, and they were decked out in green surgical robes, whispering in hushed, anxious tones. The boy's skin was badly bruised all over, but the strange thing is that the bruises were coming and going at a constant change of blues, greens and browns. I was horrified. With my hand to my mouth, short of breathing, a small crowd began to gather where I was.
The next thing I saw might traumatise you for life. His feet, pointing in my direction, began to disappear into his ankles. They seemed like they were being sucked in with a strong but limited breath. His feet appeared again, then disappeared once more, leaving stumps cut short at the end of his shins. I was motionless and mortified.
News got round that he was suffering from a new and rare virus infection that would eat up a person's insides at an alarming rate, and in order to do so, it had an ultra high metabolic rate that used up more oxygen than available in the cavity of a person, thus creating a vacuum within the human body. The result would be disappearance or shrinking, not unlike what I had just witnessed.
The poor boy was convulting, the pain immeasurable. As the doctors where trying to control his flailing limbs, I caught a glimpse of his eyes. They looked above him, into space, thoughtless and in torture. I only saw mostly his pupils, black and wet and depthless, squeezed half open. Then, his head got sucked into his neck. I was crying, my mind was frantic. Just within the time I took to draw in a breath of horror, he got sucked into himself, leaving nothing. Like the concept of the black hole, which is the opening of a space of vacuum. Anything and everything in close proximity would get drawn into it.
5 seconds of tension. That's all that was left hanging in the air. An overbearing overcast of an imposing disaster. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Then... BANG! The skin of the upper torso of the boy was spit out from nothing, slapping onto those plastic hospital curtains. It slowly dragged itself down by the law of gravity. Those eyes, now just two empty spaces, went down to the ground, leaving a thick trail of fluid and blood.
posted by Nicolette Yuen at 3:01 am
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