Mia woke up with the feeling that she was late.
Her heart was racing even before she opened her eyes.
For a moment, she didn't know why.
Then it hit her.
It's time.
The words from the message replayed in her head as she got ready for work, her hands trembling slightly as she tied her hair.
Andrew didn't say much during the drive.
Neither did she.
They didn't need to.
The hospital doors slid open like always.
Too easily.
Inside, everything looked the same.
And yet… Mia felt it.
The weight.
Eyes that lingered a second too long. Conversations that stopped when she passed. Not dramatically—just enough for doubt to creep in.
"Do you feel that?" she whispered to Andrew as they walked down the corridor.
He nodded, jaw tight. "Yeah."
At the nurse station, Mia reached for a patient file.
It wasn't there.
She checked again. Then another drawer.
"Looking for this?"
The receptionist stood behind her, holding the file, smiling politely.
Mia's stomach dropped.
"I—I was assigned to that patient," she said.
The woman handed it over slowly. "You should be more careful, dear. Files go missing easily."
Was that a warning… or a threat?
Mia forced a nod and walked away, her pulse pounding.
Inside the room, the patient was asleep.
But the IV bag wasn't the same as yesterday.
She stared at it.
Different label. Same patient.
Her mouth went dry.
She stepped back and nearly collided with a man standing in the doorway.
"Sorry," he said calmly. Too calmly. "Didn't mean to scare you."
His badge read Administrative Affairs.
Andrew found her minutes later, pale.
"They reassigned my shift," he said under his breath. "Didn't tell me why."
"They changed something in my patient's treatment," she replied. "Quietly."
Their eyes met.
They were being separated.
Watched.
Tested.
As they passed the Old Wing corridor, Mia noticed something that made her stop breathing.
The door was open.
Inside, the lights were on.
Someone was in there.
She grabbed Andrew's sleeve. "Don't look."
But it was too late.
A stretcher rolled out.
Covered.
No patient visible.
Just a tag dangling from the side.
No name.
Only a number.
That night, Mia washed her hands again and again, like she could scrub the fear off.
At her locker, she found something folded neatly inside.
A hospital wristband.
Blank.
She didn't scream.
She didn't cry.
She just stood there, frozen, until Andrew appeared behind her.
"What is it?" he asked.
She handed it to him.
He stared at it, face going white.
"They're not warning us anymore," he said quietly.
Mia swallowed hard.
"They're showing us what happens next."
And for the first time, the hospital didn't feel like a place people came to heal.
It felt like a place where people disappeared.
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Who do you think is troubling them?
Drop ur thoughts in the comments.