Have You Ever Seen A Rainbow At Night?

I lay in the hospital bed, staring at the orange dusk thru the window of my hospital room. Beautiful, I’ve never seen the sunset with such clarity before. I can also see that the town is empty. No one is walking around, nor cars are passing by, everyone must be heading home to their families to put an end to this long and boring day. The sun sets slowly and gracefully, giving a slight touch of crimson to the few clouds gathered around him. Now I noticed that my room must be at least five stories from the ground, because I have the most wonderful view of almost the whole town and highway. The hospital is awkwardly located in the highway next to the Arizona Desert. I can only see the town far, far away. There are a couple of restaurants around the hospital which I can also see from up here. Earlier this afternoon the restaurants where full with different families enjoying dinner, but right now they both look desolated.

Now that everyone is gone I feel a little lonely. There is only me and Roy, who I have safely embraced in my arms. I can’t wait until tomorrow so I can see my little Zack again, but most of all, because I’ll be at the carnival. I have to admit that I am extremely excited about spending one more night next to my gleaming knight.

I feel a cold draft enter the room thru the window, forcing chills all over my body. I wrap myself with the thin blanket they have in this hospital. I might as well be covering myself with dust, the cold is still here.

Someone opens the door.

“Hello there. How are you doing miss?” A young nurse asks me very kindly.
“Well, I’ve been better.” I giggled, she looks very friendly. Maybe I can make a new friend out of her.
“I know.” She giggled in response. “Is kind of lonely in this place. You’re actually the only patient in this floor.”
“Really?” I asked, feeling a little paranoid.
“Yeah, but don’t worry about anything, if you need something just call us thru this intercom and I’ll be here in a minute.” She smiled, touching with her hand the intercom next to the door.
“Oh, ok.” I assured.
“Well, is there anything you need right now?” She asked me.
“Well, I’ll like a glass of water if you don’t mind.”
“No problem, be right back.” She said with a smile and then she left, closing the door behind her.
I stare out the window again, and notice that the sun is almost down, darkness showing its face around corners of the sky.
As I stare lost in the stars starting to appear in the red sky I hear something.

“Heh…heh…heh…” A far away voice laughed in the back ground…slowly.

I look around the room a little concerned. Didn’t the nurse tell me I was the only one here? I try not to pay much attention to the creepy voice and I stare at the window again. This time a loud breeze of wind rushes in. The wind was strong enough to blow away the blanket that was covering me, and cold enough to make me shiver….very cold. I gasp and close my eyes hugging Roy tighter. The whistle of the wind is gone, so now I open my eyes. I stare around, but something catches my attention. I notice that now I can see my own breathing. White mist comes out of my mouth as I breathe. Wow, the temperature of the room has dropped dramatically. Is cold, every hair in my body is twitching with chills. I stare at the window, now the sky is completely dark.

Something is not right… I can feel it.

“Are you afraid?” I hear the voice that laughed earlier whisper in my ear.

I jump of the bed and turn my back, trying to see who did it. Whoever he was, he is in the room. I’m sure that is the voice of a guy, not a very old or mature man, but not a child either. He is a young guy. But of course, my eyes can’t see anything. The room is as empty as before, I am the only person standing in here. My heart beats accelerate, and fear crawls inside me.

At that moment another loud breeze of chilling wind came thru the window. The breeze this time was so strong it almost blew off the white hospital robe I’m wearing. Once again, the room gets colder; this time the cold is unbearable, I’m sure that if I stay here I might freeze to death. With trembling legs I walk towards the window to close it down. The window is made out of crystal, the type of window you have to slide down to close down, but when I’m only three feet away:

“Heheheh.” The same voice laughed, this time faster and louder. It doesn’t sound too far away from my room this time.

I gasp and turn around again. During the turn my legs trip and fall butt-first to the floor. I crawl with my feet towards the wall under the window; Roy wrapped around my arms and pressed hard against my chest with more force than necessary. I stay sitting on the floor, just staring at the door, waiting for the guy laughing to some in, my legs trembling. After one minute or so I feel my legs cold, really cold, the floor is freezing, I need to get up. As I do I quickly turn to face to the window. I lift my right hand to grab the top of the crystal window, my left hand still pressing Roy against my chest.

“Alexis?” I hear a familiar voice call my name, but I can’t help it, the adrenaline is already running thru my veins. The voice startled me and I screamed out loud. I turn around.
“Is…me… sorry.” The nurse apologized. I press my right hand on the middle of my chest, trying to calm my agitated heart.
“I brought you the glass of water.” She said, holding the clear glass of water on her hands, her face blushing.
“Oh… sorry, you kind of startled me.” I laughed awkwardly, trying to hide the fear.
“Is ok.” She laughed while she laid the glass of water on a little table next to the bed.
“Need anything else?” She asked, but I can’t answer.

I stare around the room once again. I don’t know what’s going on… but I do not like it. Now the room feels warm, the temperature is back to normal.

“Miss?” she asked, snapping me back to reality.
“Um, No. Thank you.”
“Oh, very well then, anything else just ask ok?” She smiled and turned around heading for the door.
“Um, Miss?” I stopped her with my question.
“Yeah?” She replied.
“Am I really the only patient in this floor?” I asked.
“Yes. Why?”
“Nothing…is just… nothing.” I replied.

She stared at me for a couple of seconds worried. Then she turned around and resumed her walk. She closes the door behind her and leaves me alone again.

As soon as she left the room I turned around, grabbing the top of the window again. Carefully, I slide the window close. When the top hits the bottom I feel relieve. I turn around and walk towards the little table next to bed, to grab the glass of water. As I do… I feel a hand grab my right shoulder.

“Are you afraid?” The voice whispered once more on my right ear. Immediately after, almost instantaneously the temperature drops, and the room is freezing again.

I scream and jump on the bed, as I did I saw the mist of my own breath again. I lay on the bed on the fetal position with my eyes close, still hugging Roy, pressing him hard against my heart. My whole body is trembling and water accumulates in my eyes. Then, in a mere moment, the cold is gone, and the room feels warm again. I open my eyes. Then, slowly, I turn around to face the window. The whole window is covered with condensation, hiding what’s outside with a thin layer of fog. I keep turning, and see the glass of water. I sit on the side of the bed, and stretch my arm to grab the glass of water. It took me an eternity to finally grab the chilling glass, my arm trembling as it moved forward. I stare at the glass for a moment, watching the drops of condensed water run down the cool glass, but I’m startled when a cold chill embraces the room again. A horrifying sound makes my whole body shiver. I hear fingers scratching a hard surface, making a screeching noise. The sound comes from the window. I dare myself to look at it.

I stare in disbelief as letters draw themselves on the window, as if a finger is writing in the foggy condensation blocking the view. The see thru letters begin to form at the rhythm of the screeching noise. They form slowly, and slowly fear starts to take my breath away. At the end, five characters are written on the condensation of the glass window.

F E A R?

Just when the dot on the question mark was written the noise disappeared. As a stream of tears run down my eyes I feel a cold breeze surrounding the glass of water I’m still holding with my hand. My eyes open wide as they see the water on the glass freezing. In a fraction of a second the clear water in the glass transformed into a hard white stone of ice. I let go of the glass, and it fell to the floor breaking instantly into a million pieces of crystal and ice.

“Hahaha!” I hear the creepy voice laugh again, this time even harder than the last time.

I don’t understand what’s happening. I don’t know what’s wrong with this place. But I am absolutely sure that I have to get out of here as fast as possible.

I get up from the bed. My bare feet felt like they were walking on ice as they touched the cold floor, but I ignored it. I ran to the intercom to call the nurse. But just when I was about to press the button to talk a layer of ice formed around the whole thing, the intercom froze completely almost instantly. I quickly try to open the door, but as my right hand grabs the freezing doorknob I know immediately it was useless. I jerk and jerk as much as I can, trying to open the door, but I’m sure that the doorknob is also frozen.

Panic takes over my body. I hug Roy again and I inhale deeply, But just when I was about to let out the scream, I feel a hand squeeze my neck. I gasp in horror, as I feel invisible cold fingers trying to strangle me.

“G-G-Ghost?” I asked to myself, as I felt myself being lifted from the ground by the hand, painful pressure accumulating around my neck.

My eyes begin to roll behind my head. This is it…. I’m dying. I keep adding force to the hug on Roy, and then, I feel his tiny and soft body made of cotton respond to my action.
I feel Roy’s body heating up; an intense and comfortable warm now is touching my chest. With the tip of my eyes I can see a red shine. The red shining is coming from Roy, I’m almost sure, I just can’t look to assure myself because the hand trying to kill me won’t let me. But soon there is no hand. I fall abruptly to the floor.

I stare around the room, my head and eyes moving from side to side hysterically. But everything is back to normal. I stare at where the glass of frozen water fell earlier. And I see no ice, only pieces of crystal scattered all over the floor and under them, a puddle of water. I look at the window, nothing is written on it, and there is no condensation, I can clearly see the stars thru the clear crystal of the window. I hold Roy with both hands and stretch my arms forward, holding Roy in front of me. Nothing is wrong with him too. But I touch my sore neck, and I can still feel them. I can feel the cold spots that the cold fingers of the hand left on my skin. Now there is no hand holding me back, now I can do it. After inhaling deeply, I scream.