Fifteen years later-

Bradmer State Hospital

"Don't go into that room alone, listen, I repeat, no matter what happens, don't go in alone – always remember to let your companions go in with you, and you should choose people who are good and upright at heart to be with you. ”

Cindia Sandford stood next to the cart and said to the new girl.

She worked for another hospital in Seattle for twenty years before the hospital was officially established, where the rainy season made her arthritis worse, she moved to the drier and hotter West Coast, and then she spent another thirty years at Bradmer State Hospital, where she remains until now.

She was a stern-faced, unkind Mexican woman, with a hazel face with a pair of threatening eyes. In Bradmer, any qualified doctor and nurse follows the rule of silence, and if there is any particular trouble here, then there is no problem in listening to Cindia. It is because of this special authority that Cindia Sandford has been in charge of his ward since Red Deer was transferred to this hospital, and fifteen years have passed since then—and even Cindia Sandford has not escaped the ravages of cancer.

She will be retiring at the end of this month, and before that, she will have to fill in the heads of the girls around her with some necessary common sense. And this common sense is obviously not limited to how to wipe down toilets and cabinets with pale blue disinfectant spray and how to change the-stained diapers of paralyzed patients - there are other things that need to be repeated and made sure they remember.

For example, don't go to the intensive care unit where Red Deer is alone.

“…… If you can't find someone to accompany you, then tell the nurse on duty that you are not feeling well and need to rest. Cindia Sandford said to Isabel Ledlaw, the new caregiver who was a little overzealous about life, with a blank face. The latter's eyes widened slightly.

"Uh...... Is this going to work? I mean-- is there something wrong with that room?"

Cindia stared at Isabel from behind a stack of fresh sheets, her pupils reminding the young woman of the old cat that had lived too long. The strange, oppressive gaze made Isabel feel uncomfortable. Just as she was about to apologize for her stupidity, Cindia lowered her voice and spoke.

"That's the 'Red Deer' room. ”

She looked like she was afraid of touching something.

"Red deer? is that...... Who?"

Isabel asked, a little dazed.

"A demon. Syndia suddenly turned around and pushed the cart towards the end of the hallway, "He was famous back then, and people tried to kill him with an electric chair, but it went wrong. ”

The Mexican woman paused, stretched out a finger and wrapped it around her temple.

"They gave three electric shocks, but they didn't kill him, and some say it was because the man had demonic protection...... Who knows, he survived in the end, but the electricity broke his brain, and he has been in a vegetative state ever since. The damn lawyers ended up getting him out and throwing him here. ”

Isabel frowned and thought about it, and after a moment showed a look of sudden realization—

"Oh my god, you mean that man, I think I know him...... Oh my God, he's in this hospital?!"

What made Cindy feel a little uneasy was the look of surprise on Isabel's face.

"Yes, he's always been. ”

Her voice became a little muffled, and Yan Sù's expression made her look even more unapproachable. Isabel immediately realized the change in the other party's feelings, and she froze and smiled embarrassedly at Cindia.

"I'm sorry - I'm just a little ...... How can I say it, after all, it's the 'Red Deer', when I was in middle school, there were boys who used his stories to scare girls, you know, those gossip tabloids at the time wrote him as if he was some witch master or something, those stories, all the hell gates and stuff, although they were all nonsense, but it was enough to bluff people at that time, wasn't it? I was scared many times. ”

Isabel said, her tone quickened a little from nervousness.

The corners of Cindia's mouth pulled down in a stern arc.

“…… Some things aren't just made up. ”

She whispered.

"What?"

Isabel didn't hear Cindia's muttering, and she asked suspiciously, but the latter seemed to have suddenly lost interest in the subject.

"All right, good girl, you just have to write down what I say. ”

Syndia forcibly interrupted the topic. Isabel threw her shoulders on her shoulder, perhaps an illusion, and Isabel always felt that Cindy was avoiding the mysterious stories about the "Red Deer".

They had already completed most of the work on this level, leaving only the intensive care ward where the "Red Deer" was located. Cindia waited at the door of the room for a while, until it was twelve o'clock in the afternoon, when she motioned for Isabel to enter the room with her.

It has to be said that Cindia's solemn attitude made Isabel nervous. She swallowed dryly before following Cindy into the door - she thought she was going to feel something special, like the lights flickering on the roof, the windless curtains, and so on, as described in those horror movies......

However, in fact, this intensive care ward is no different from the dozen or so wards she cleaned before.

The air was filled with the smell of detergent and ozone, and from the corner of the wall came the regular electronic sound of life-sustaining equipment.

"Uhhh

Cindy walked to the window with ease, and she opened the curtains.

When she's in the room, she always makes sure there's plenty of bright, bright light.

Behind her, Isabel clumsily poured disinfectant into the spray bottle, and in doing so, she habitually looked to the side of the bed, where there was usually something at the head of the bedside of the hospital, sometimes a bouquet from a loved one, sometimes a note clip from the patient himself (there was always a diabetic old man hiding a handful of candy under the mattress near the pillow) - but there was nothing at the head of the "red deer".

On the pale blue sheets, a man lay quietly.

Isabel's eyes widened and she stared blankly at the man on the bed, the ...... The legendary demon, the serial killer "Red Deer", has experienced the eerie legend of electrocution and not dying.

Her movements stopped unconsciously, and she was surprised to find that it was a young and handsome man—his skin was smooth and ruddy, his face was very deep, his eyes were closed under his eyebrow bones, his long brown hair was around his face, his thin, rosy lips were tightly closed, and the corners of his mouth were slightly hooked upward, like a subtle and sweet smile. In fact, he looks like a sleeping man immersed in a sweet dream, a male version of Sleeping Beauty.

And a scene that should have been pleasing to the eyes of a mature woman suddenly caused a chill to rise behind Isabel.

She turned to look at Cindia, who had returned to the cart and was looking at her. There was no verbal communication between the two women, but in this brief moment, Isabel felt the importance of Cindia's previous admonition.

That's right, there's something not quite right in this room - no, no, no, "Red Deer" is wrong, it should be said.

As a vegetative person who had been in a coma for fifteen years, his state was too unusual...... Isabel has seen people who live on instruments in their hospital beds, not even fifteen years, but only a year or so of a vegetative life, and no matter how wealthy those people are, no matter how advanced the equipment and how meticulously cared for, they will always take on similar characteristics. Their hair will be as dry and messy as sun-dried straw, their skin will turn dead gray, their cheeks will be deeply sunken by the loss of fat, and the skin of their mouths will be powdered white without saliva moisture.

They are definitely not like "Red Deer", as if they may suddenly yawn and stretch their waists to wake up slowly like "Red Deer......

Isabel felt that faint ...... An inauspicious breath.

It is likely to be substantial, and can only be captured by the intuition of the sharpest woman: like the kind of breath you can catch when you pass through a dark alley in the middle of the night, or go home alone and hear the slowly overlapping footsteps behind you.

Her heart began to beat wildly inexplicably, and she felt that she should leave the room right away if she could.

Cindia looked at Isabel.

"Cheer up, Isa. She whispered, then pulled the hot disinfectant towel out of the plastic bag and headed for the hospital bed.

She began to clean Red Deer's body, and Isabel found that he didn't even show any signs of muscle atrophy.

"Are you sure, he, he ......"

She asked dryly, in a very low voice.

Cindia interrupted her, "I know what you want to ask. He didn't pretend, nor did he get up at night when there was no one else and continue his terrible business...... Honestly, there are a lot of people who think the same as you think, but several groups of people have been here, and they've done a check-up, a brainwave test, and all that messy test. Don't worry, he's just a vegetative person. ”

Cindia said solemnly and calmly to Isabel, who was obviously a little flustered.

She didn't like the girl's easily agitated personality, and she wanted to quiet Isabel if she could. Because of this, Cindia looked even more relaxed than when she was outside the door.

"Don't worry, be vigilant, but don't panic too much, my girl," Cindy said to her companion, "He's a demon or a normal vegetative person, he's been 'quiet' for fifteen years. ”

- It's just that the distortion in this room has never gone away.

Cindia didn't tell Isabel about that last sentence.

She felt a little apprehensive, and it was clear that Isabel was much more perceptive than she thought, and she wondered if this girl would have the strength to fight the twisted aura as she did. But soon she realized that she didn't have to worry about that.

A week later, when she and Isabel pushed open the door to the intensive care unit, they found the pale blue hospital bed empty.

Red Deer is gone.