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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Voodoo_Clerk on 2024-11-27 03:44:06+00:00.
I’ve loved helping people my whole life. I’m sure after a few minutes of meeting me, you could have my personality nailed down almost instantly. When the time came to pick my career path, I was lucky enough to know exactly what I wanted to do. That was to work at Sombra Rehab Center. Anyone who lives in New England should know about Sombra and its owner, Constantine Sinclair. They’re known as one of the most successful rehabs in the entire nation. With the opioid crisis in full swing, I felt like my calling was to be to help people who wanted to get clean,
After four tough years of nursing school and a few rejections, I was hired to work at Sombra Rehab Center on my third application attempt. I was overjoyed that I was finally about to complete my dream of working at Sombra. My parents were just as happy for me and they even drove me there for my first day. Standing in front of the entrance I turned to wave goodbye to them and finally entered the lobby.
“Hello! Are we checking in today?” The lady at the front desk asked me as I walked up with my suitcase and my carry bag. All the nurses who work at Sombra live on site so I had packed all my essentials with me.
“Oh no, I’m Cassandra Valois. The new nurse?” I told her, setting my bag down on the floor to get some relief from how heavy it was. The receptionist looked at her computer momentarily, pursing her lips in thought as she looked around for my name. I took the moment to look around Sombra's lobby. I was taken aback by how beautiful it looked. Everything was ornate and so shiny. The waiting room chairs were made from expensive wood and the cushions were embroidered with pretty designs.
“Ah! Yes, of course there you are.” The receptionist finally said. She stood up quickly and started gathering a few papers around her. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to your quarters.” I nodded at her, quickly picked up my heavy bag, and followed her as she led me to the metal doors separating the lobby from the rehab center proper. The hallways resembled the ones that I’d remembered from previous hospitals I’d been to. But there was just something, soulless about them. It looked too…corporate. Like a hospital mixed with an office building.
Just as quickly as we entered the hallways, the receptionist led me towards the employees-only section. She grabbed the nametag around her neck and held it up to a scanner on the side of the door.
“You’ll be getting one of these as soon as you’re settled down, and Nurse Taylor has been to see you.” She explained to me, I nodded quickly and followed her into the employees-only section. As opposed to the bleak hallways, our section was noticeably nicer and resembled the lobby more than the hallways had. It made me smile, thanking God I didn’t have to stay in such a depressing setting. She at last led me to my room, which even had my name engraved into a plaque on the door itself.
“Thank you so much!” I told her as she smiled and nodded. She soon handed me the papers that she had been lugging around the whole time with her. She explained that it was just a few agreements and NDAs I had to sign to work here. I nodded and thanked her again as I entered my room.
It was like a five-star hotel room all to myself. With a queen-sized bed and even a mini fridge. I couldn’t help but let out an excited little squeal to myself. I immediately started unpacking and placing everything where it needed to be. Once all my clothes and knick-knacks were placed where they were supposed to be, I took the stack of papers the receptionist had given me, and sat down on my bed to start reading them.
Before I had even got one page done, I heard a knock at my door. I looked up to see a blonde woman in nurse’s scrubs, with a blue butterfly necklace and matching butterfly earrings. She had a big loving smile on her face, with a pair of extra scrubs in her arms.
“Ms. Valois? Can I call you Cassie?” she asked me, I quickly nodded and allowed her into my room. I recognized Headnurse Taylor Trent from my interview with her. She seemed like a bright ray of sunshine and I had been so excited to work along with her. I tossed the papers to the side and smiled as she handed me my new scrubs. They even had my name stitched into them, along with my new ID badge.
“Thank you so much!” I told her with endless excitement bubbling up from inside me. She nodded and giggled a little. She looked around my room for a moment and then back down at me. “Oh, I hope I was allowed to decorate a little,” I said, worried that she was about to say something about it, but she quickly shook her head.
“Not to worry! I’m just getting an idea of who our new hire is! I know we had an interview, but this way I get to know you a little better. Makes it easier to manage you and all that,” she said with a smile. I nodded quickly and looked back down at my scrubs, so excited to have them. “You don’t start work until tomorrow, so after you’ve read over those papers and signed them, I’d suggest you walk around and get familiar with this place. It can be a maze sometimes if you aren’t careful.” She giggled, before waving goodbye to me and leaving me with my stack of papers to read.
I tried my best to read through all of them, but they were filled with so much legal crap that it started to make my head hurt. And against my better judgment, I decided just to sign them all without a second thought. I set them aside to hand to Nurse Taylor when I started work tomorrow. As much as I wanted to wear my scrubs, it probably wasn’t a good idea to wear them right out of the gate, since I didn’t technically start working there until the next day. So I unclipped the ID badge from the scrubs and attached them to my regular clothes. I stepped out of my room and looked around the employees-only area. There was a breakroom in there with several nurses talking over the coffee machine. They spared a glance over at me, probably wondering what I was doing, but after seeing the badge pinned to my chest, they waved hello to me and continued with their gossip.
I looked around some more until I came to an off-limits area with a large wooden door with a gold nameplate nailed into it. In bright letters was the name Constantine Sinclair. I stared at the door for a moment and felt a strong shiver go up my spine. Like some force was questioning what the hell I was doing there. I quickly went on my way to get away from the impending sense of doom.
Once I had familiarized myself with the nurse’s areas, I exited the employees-only section and walked out into the rehab proper. Along with the mountain of paperwork I had received, there was also a helpful map stuffed together with all of them. Nurse Taylor hadn’t been kidding when she had said this place was a maze. I probably would've gotten lost immediately if I hadn’t brought the map.
Most of the hallways were filled with patient’s rooms. And most of them were closed at this time. Judging by the time and the schedule I’d taken a look at, it must have been free time, but I expected to see more patients out and about. Following my map, I ended up in the recreational room, where I did manage to find some patients.
Though they were much less lively than I would’ve liked to see. Most of them were standing around, completely out of it. They were almost like zombies, and the few who weren’t were close to being like that. The ones sitting down and doing puzzles and board games moved with such lethargy, that I thought they were insomniacs who hadn’t slept in months. They unsettled me badly, and just as quickly as I entered the rec room I quickly exited.
“Watch out!” Someone shouted at me as I exited the rec room. I quickly jumped out of the way as I saw a patient running full speed down the hallway past me. Following him was an army of orderlies and nurses.
“Todd! Get back here this minute!” Nurse Taylor’s voice echoed throughout the hallway as she and her army of nurses and orderlies ran after the patient. As she passed me, she suddenly stopped and quickly examined me.
“Oh, Cassie. I see you took my suggestion.” She panted, pushing a lock of her blond hair back behind her ear. “As you can see, we have…quite the unruly patient.” She sighed deeply, trying to catch her breath as the other members of staff chased after the escaping patient.
“Shouldn’t we put out an alert that a patient’s on the loose?” I asked, standing awkwardly next to her as she caught her breath. Judging by her expression, she didn’t think of this as that big of a deal.
“Oh, no of course not. Todd is pretty harmless, he’s just…quite difficult to deal with at times.” She sighed in annoyance. She cleared her throat again and plastered a smile on her face. “But not to worry! I’m sure he’ll be caught in no time! In the meantime, please keep walking around and keep becoming familiar with the layout of Sombra.” She patted me on the back and soon left at a brisk jog to catch up with the group chasing after Todd.
I meanwhile, kept trying to familiarize myself with the layout of Sombra. I’m not ashamed to admit that I got lost almost immediately when I tried walking through Sombra without the map I had brought with me. One area I did find in my frantic attempts to memorize the layout was the garden. It was in the middle of the giant Sombra complex and was a beautiful grassy area with trees and even a small veggie garden.
I walked through the garden and sat on one of the bench...
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