Chapter 1

Ward

    It was said that a "hospital” was a place of suffering.

    The sick and the dead all strived to come to the hospital.

    However, there was one department that everyone agreed with as “a place of happiness."

It was the obstetrics and gynecology ward,

    where human beings were born on the earth amid the delight of the onlookers.

But in the beauty of it, there was also a secret dark corner.

    The secret that few people would find, and one of those few included Doctor Achira.

    ‘Achira’ or ‘Doctor Aun’ was an Extern (1) in the obstetrics and gynecology ward. He was initially told to check a Pap Smear (2) of a young patient about twenty-five years old. When the nurse had everything prepared, he beamed and walked into a small and relatively private examination room. He smiled at the young patient lying on the bed in a lithotomy (3) position with her legs apart. The crook of her legs was supported by a stirrup (4). Looking at the patient's face, Doctor Aun could see that she was utterly embarrassed that she had to lie with her legs spread-eagled for the man she had just met for the first time. But for a doctor, this kind of matter was so usual that he could say he was already used to it.

    The doctor sat down and put on the rubber gloves...before introducing himself to the patient.

    “Hello, I'm Doctor Achira. I will check Pap Smear for you.”

    He paused for a moment to read the patient's profile and continued. "Miss Patra, correct?"

    "Yes," the patient replied softly. Doctor Aun secretly smiled... He genuinely felt sorry for her.

    "Don't be afraid. I will be gentle. I promise it won't hurt even a bit and will be done in a second. I will do the clean-up first so you may feel a little cold. Please don't be alarmed. " Doctor Aun turned to the operation desk and gently cleaned the area to be examined. Talking about her profile which would guide the examination direction, the doctor tried to calm the woman. Even though he knew she felt uncomfortable, it was his duty to do so.

    "Miss, you have urinated already, haven't you?”

    “Uh… yes.”

    “Internal examination is something that should be done at least once a year for women aged 20 years and over. If something goes wrong, it can be treated in time. But most patients are afraid of pain, which is not a big deal. But most are embarrassed to see the doctor...that's the main issue. So, patients don't come for cervical cancer check-ups until it has spread too far. Did you know that cervical cancer is the first leading cause of cancer death in women?” The doctor kept talking so it wouldn’t be too quiet while cleaning.

    There was no response from the patient... The young doctor knew right away that she was probably cursing him inside. “You idiot… Why do you keep talking? Just hurry up and finish the check-up. So, you can get lost.”

    “The clean-up is done. I will insert the tool in. It may feel a bit strange, but it doesn't hurt. From your profile...you haven’t been married and don’t have children, right? Well… have you ever had sex?” Even if the question seemed too personal, it was necessary for the examination and device selection.

    “I haven’t.”

    “All right… I will insert the tool. Please calm down and don't panic. It will take a second.” The doctor turned to select Speculum (5), which came in various sizes based on the patient's history, then slowly inserted it to expand the vagina. At first glance, the young doctor knew immediately that the patient had lied about having sex as her condition indicated that she was no longer a virgin. But that was not the point because most patients were embarrassed to talk about sex. This wasn’t the first patient to cover it up, so he didn't blame the patient. He handily used the tool to scrape out the cervix tissue for further cancer tests.

    “All done, Miss Patra. Kindly contact the nurse in the front to confirm the appointment for the result hearing.” After he had finished the conversation, he got up and walked out of the room, leaving the rest to the nurse.

    After completing his tasks, the doctor sat down at the obstetrics and gynecology ward's counter and waited for the time he could get off work. As Doctor Golf said, this department was so chill that it became unbearable. That was right. As an extern or a medical student in his final year, he was ambitious and passionate to study and work hard. But Doctor Aun knew he was only boasting because if the doctor wanted to be so tired that he had no time to sleep, he would go to the ER ward.

    He smiled at the two nurses who were having a passionate conversation about last night's soap opera. He liked eavesdropping on the nurses' talks, which seemed meaningless but so entertaining. Even though a male doctor like him didn’t understand nurses or their behaviors, he had to adapt to them. Because if we actually counted, the majority of the hospital staff were women. Therefore, making friends with them should be a good thing.

    “Nurse Ae, Nurse Pia. Are you secretly gossiping about patients?” The doctor teased them while playing Restaurant City (6) on Facebook to kill time.

    "Woah, doc. Why did you say that? I'm not that kind of person. If it's Pia, then it will make sense since she likes to peek at patients’ husbands." Nurse Pia immediately denied herself upon hearing that.

    "It's not true at all, Doctor Aun. Don't believe what Ae said. You have just come to a new ward. You will be scared thinking that all the nurses here are perverts.”

    “Well, I’m just kidding... It's almost time. I haven’t met Professor Kawee today. Hasn't he come in today?"

    “Oh... Professor Kawee has a big meeting today. Hasn't anyone told you that you have to cover his shift tonight? In case there is an ER patient who needs to give birth.”

    Her reply stripped all color from the young doctor’s face. He thought that he could go back to have a long, restful sleep. Instead, he wouldn’t be able to entirely fall asleep as he would anxiously wonder when the cell phone would ring or if there would be a patient giving birth in the middle of the night. If so, it would be better for him to take a nap in the doctor's room. If there was an emergency, he wouldn't have to rush from the dormitory and waste his energy.

    “If so, I will go back to take a shower and come to take a nap here. Who is on the night shift tonight?” After the young doctor had asked, Nurse Ae turned to open the file indicating nurses’ names on the shift. She turned to him and replied in a sweet voice, which was only reserved for a handsome doctor!

    “Tonight, there's Nurse Koi and Nurse Nam. You probably haven't seen these two before. They usually come in pack on the night shift together. You can get to know and make friends with them tonight. So, you will have someone to talk to in the late night. If you are alone and don’t talk to anyone, there will be uninvited guests who want to be your friends.”

    “Uninvited guests?"

    “I’m talking about ghosts. Don't ever think that the obstetric ward is at peace! Even though there are more people born than dead, there are cases where patients died from miscarriages, hemorrhage, or DFIU (7). There was a woman who gave birth to a child and bled to death a few days ago. It was terrifying." Nurse Ae made a long snort with her eyes dilated to scare the new doctor. Nurse Pia lightly hit her shoulder and laughed.

    “Silly, don’t scare him like that. Ae often pranks new doctors like this. Compared to the surgical ward, our ward is pretty calm. That ward is blood-curdling.”

    The doctor gave them a solemn smile. Although he had no idea whether Ae was joking or not, he knew that there are wandering souls in every hospital. Some still didn't know they were dead. Some were dead and had nowhere to go. Some still walked around to wait for their loved ones.

    Thinking that the young doctor got goosebumps. He immediately seized his bag and walked down from the obstetrics and gynecology ward to go back to the dormitory.

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    When the alarm clock at the head of the bed rang at 8 p.m., the doctor got up and took a shower to be on the shift at the obstetrics and gynecology ward for the whole night. After the young man had finished dressing up, he didn't forget to grab new comic books with him. At least they would make this long night not too dull.

    The distance between the medical student dormitory and the hospital was about five hundred meters apart. Even though it was only about 8 p.m., the hospital area was utterly quiet. It was the silence that a sixth-year medical student like him was pretty familiar with. He had never thought it was scary until today.

    As his leather shoes touched upon the cement floor that curved along with the corners of the building, every step echoed back until it sounded like he wasn't walking alone on this silent night. It would sound like someone was following one step behind for those who overthought things but merely an echo for those who did not.

    Fortunately, Doctor Aun wasn’t a person who overthought…

    The wind blew neatly planted trees along the aisle until they leaned in the same direction. It sent a little shiver down his spine. He often had to stop to listen to the echo of his own steps to make sure it was just an echo, not the sound of other people's footsteps.

    This was weird… Doctor Aun had never felt this kind of terror before. Having walked in this hospital for six years, he could almost walk around with his eyes closed. Why did he suddenly come across this fear in his sixth year? ...The year that he was about to become a full-fledged doctor.

    The lights from the patient's room were on and lit up the corridors, so it was not pitch-black. Even though there were lights from the electric poles along the way, his uneasiness had not yet faded away. The doctor quickened his steps towards the obstetrics and gynecology building that seemed so far away. Damn, he despised this feeling.

    The walk would end in a second... There, the obstetrics and gynecology building finally stood in front of Doctor Aun. He breathed out softly through his mouth with a sheen of sweat from his quick walk. The doctor entered the building and stopped in front of an elevator. The surroundings were as silent as a graveyard. It was a totally different world in the daytime. He reached out to press an elevator button, which growled as it came down. With its "ding" signal, the elevator opened. The doctor stepped in and pushed the fourth-floor button where the doctor’s room was located. When the elevator moved up, he looked at the mirrors surrounding him to check his appearance. His hair was tangled from the wind when he walked from the medical student dormitory. Doctor Aun fixed his hair by using his hands as he was afraid that patients and nurses would be shocked from a misunderstanding that the doctor was a ghost.

    Ding…

    The elevator door opened when it reached the fourth floor. After the doctor had stepped out, looking left and right, he was surrounded by silence. It was so quiet that he could hear his own breathing. The sparse lights didn’t diminish the terrifying atmosphere. The counter area had no lights on. Even shadows of the night shift nurses were none to be seen. Where have they all gone? What if there was an emergency maternity patient? He needed to have a conversation with them.

    As the doctor walked past the counter on the fourth floor, a faint clattering noise sounded out. However, it was so clear to him in the silence. Doctor Aun paused again to look toward where the sound might be located. He broke out in a sweat. There was something hidden in the darkness. He took a deep breath to summon the courage before slowly heading over to the dark counter. He clutched comic books in his hand as if they were an excellent weapon to fight an invisible thing behind the ward counter.

    One more step left to the source of the clattering noise, but then someone's figure suddenly emerged from the counter. The doctor jumped back and screamed. Then the voice of a person behind the counter brought him back to earth.

    “Doctor...it's me...I’m a night shift nurse.”

    The woman hurriedly introduced herself to the frozen doctor, who slowly opened his eyes to see the plain-looking nurse standing there. He sighed in relief. “I was so scared, what were you doing in the dark there?”

    “Oh... I was looking for a light bulb in the drawer. The light on the counter was broken. Sorry to startle you. I'm Nurse Koi. You are an extern, Doctor Achira, right?" The nurse asked the young doctor, which he nodded back.

    “Yes, Nurse Koi. You can call me Doctor Aun.”

    “Yes, Doctor Aun.” She gave him a friendly smile.

    “So did you find the light bulb?”

    “I did.”

    “In that case, I will help you change it.” Doctor Aun showed kindness to the colleague, to which she nodded in agreement and handed him the light bulb box. The doctor raised his head hesitantly to look at the ceiling light. He has never changed a light bulb in his life; he was sure that baby delivery was easier. Nevertheless, he thought there would be nothing too difficult for human capability.

    The young doctor took off his leather shoes and climbed onto the counter. He took off the old light bulb and replaced it with the new one. Screwing the new light bulb in, he turned to the nurse, who was anxiously waiting.

    “Try to turn on the switch and see if it works.”

    “Yes, Doctor Aun.” She replied and reached out to press the switch on the counter. The light flickered a few times before it lit up. The light struck the doctor’s eyes. Unless his vision was blurred, the young doctor felt like he had seen a black shadow running fast past the counter, so fast that he couldn't even see what it was.

    “What…”

    “What is it, doctor?”

    “I thought I saw something black running past the counter. Did you see it?”

    “There is nothing here. You might mistake it."

    “Maybe it is,” said Doctor Aun before slowly jumping off the counter. He tidied up the clothes before heading to the nearby doctors' lounge.

    “I will stay in the doctors' lounge. If you have any urgent cases, please call me.”

    "Yes, Doctor." She nodded to the young doctor before continuing to work hard on the documents on the counter. While Doctor Aun was pondering whether the mysterious shadow he saw was due to his blurred vision or not.

    Let's just hope it was just an illusion!

    The doctors' lounge was not huge in the obstetrics and gynecology building. It was repainted to make the room look brighter. Looking at the painting, he could guess that the hospital had definitely recruited male nurses to paint the room themselves. There were still traces of the old painted wall showing up in the corners or crooks that the brush was difficult to get into. Even though the sound of an old air conditioner was ringing, it still worked well. In the middle of the room, there was a desk of a good size, not specified who owned it. He assumed that it was a desk for extern medical students like him. There was a long white window on the left that didn't provide him with any views because the light inside the room was reflecting on it. On the right was a bookcase which he couldn’t call empty because it contained a few medical magazines from four or five years ago along with the hospital's free journals. Looking at the condition, the patients waiting to be examined must have read them countless times.

    The doctor sat there and looked around. The comic books he had brought from the dorm were still lying on the table, all curled up from his grip when he heard a rustling sound coming from behind the counter. The young doctor leaned on the cushion with low-quality leather patch repairs. He fell asleep in a moment, as if by magic...

    The young doctor had a strange stomachache; it was tight and stiff as if it was about to explode.

    “Ouch…” he cried out in pain. But in that pain, the doctor flinched when the sound from his throat was a woman's voice, not the one he had used in the past twenty years. And when he looked down at his stomach, which was as big as a pregnant man, he became even more alarmed. His hands were slender and soft with no trace of roughness. His stomach was thumping as if something was kicking from inside. It kicked harder and harder.

    Doctor Aun felt gooey liquids gradually flowing from his legs. He decided to open his maternity robe to see that his legs were tainted with blood running down to the floor. His pain intensified… so much that the young man gritted his teeth before letting out another scream.

    “Urgh…”

    Suddenly, the young man woke up with beads of sweat on his forehead bursting from terror. His surroundings remained silent, only the sound of the air conditioner humming as always. The doctor let out a long sigh of relief. Damn! He dreamed about being pregnant when entering the OB/GYN ward. If he went to a surgery ward, wouldn’t he dream about having appendectomy surgery?

    All of a sudden, there was a shadow running past the young man's face…

    He lost his breath. He really saw a mysterious shadow run past him. Suddenly, he turned to a gentle knock on the shading glass. The knock grew harder and harder till the whole glass shook as if about to shatter. The young doctor got up from his working chair and walked towards the window with a brave heart. He slowly unlocked the shabby glass window and slid it open to see what was hitting the glass until it sounded like someone knocking outside.

    As he had expected, it was a tree branch scuffing against the glass pane making a knocking sound.

    “Oh my… what was I thinking of?” The young man couldn't help cursing himself before slowly sliding the window back down. But then, the reflection from within the room made him flinch as he saw a woman in a maternity dress. Her long hair covered her eyes as she was standing in the corner of the doctor's room. Doctor Aun didn't dare to take a breath now. What should he do?

    An anonymous woman’s howling screams interspersed with her laughter. The doctor could do nothing but close his eyes and chant every prayer he could imagine. But he couldn't think of anything, his brain screamed one thing, “I’m scared... I’m scared...and I’m scared” ...until he couldn't think of anything else at this time.

    The figure of the ghost slowly walked towards the doctor, who stood with his back facing her. But it wouldn't be right to call her "walking," rather than "floating." She came so near that she stood next to the frozen young doctor who was still like a lifeless stone.

    “What do you want…." Doctor Aun thought, even though he didn't know if the ghost could hear it or not.

    “Help me, please help... Help me!” A cold voice asking for justice rang over and over again before she slowly faded into the air as if she was nothing but intangible dust.

    He was startled from his reverie by a soft knock on the door.

    His brain was heavily blurred. While he was shaking his head to regain focus, he argued to himself whether this whole thing was a dream in a dream or a dream that came true. What actually happened in this dream?

    "Doctor Achira, I'm a nurse on the night shift. I’m bringing you some coffee, can I come in?" A female voice from outside penetrated through the stained-glass door.

    “Come in,” shouted back the doctor. The young nurse pushed the glass door open with her shoulder as she was holding a coffee tray and a plate of beautiful jam rolls from a convenience store in the hospital. The young doctor quickly took the tray from the nurse with consideration.

    “I knew from Koi that you are on the shift, so I took the opportunity to buy you coffee and introduce myself.”

    "You shouldn’t have bothered."

    “It's not bothering me at all. Our ward is friendly like this with everyone. Professor Kawee has trained us well.” She smiled sweetly as the doctor nodded his head thinking that he had never felt that he was this important before.

    “Then I really appreciated this. Oh... You can call me Doctor Aun. You don't have to call me by my full name. If you need any helps, please tell me."

    "Yes... Doctor Aun, then I'll go take care of the patient. If there’s anything, you can call me." She said before bowing slightly and walking out of the room.

    Leaning back on the chair, the doctor let out a long sigh and drank a cup of coffee to quench his thirst. Then he almost choked out because the coffee tasted so bitter. The nurse had served him black coffee with separated sugar and cream to add because she still didn't know how he liked his coffee. Doctor Aun thrust a bite-sized jam roll into his mouth to sweep away the bitterness and made the coffee as he liked. He sneaked a glance at the corner of the empty room.

    The doctor prayed for it to be really empty with nothing there like his dream.

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(1) Extern means a medical practitioner student, which is the last year of the six-year medical course in Thailand.

(2) Pap Smear is a screening test for cervical cancer.

(3) Lithotomy is to lie on the back with legs spread.

(4) Stirrup means a tool supporting numbness around both crooks or the trestle.

(5) Speculum is a device that doctors use to open the vagina for internal examination. There are many sizes to choose from as suitable for each person.

(6) Restaurant City is a famous game to build and manage an available restaurant on Facebook.

(7) DFIU is the Death Fetus In Utero or the death of a baby in the womb.