First Pages: Nurse by C.M. Simpson

Nurse is the fourth short story to be found in An Anthology of Those Who Walk Among Us. It is also available as a stand-alone short story.

Nurse is a short horror story, featuring a secretive species of vampire and the creation of its newest recruit. 

Nurse is available as part of AnAnthology of Those Who Walk Among Us, and also as a stand alone title at Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, iTunes, and Nook.

First Page: Nurse

 The nurse stood by the edge of the bed and glanced at her patient. She took the young man’s hand and began to bandage his mangled finger. It was the least gruesome injury she’d seen that day and he was her last patient. It had been a long and particularly busy day, and the nurse was looking forward to the end of a long shift. Her name tag called her Alison; the hospital records knew her as Alison Glaze.

Alison didn’t ask what had bitten his finger, although it was obvious that a bite had caused the damage. That question had already been asked and the details he’d given had been sketchy at best. Triage suspected a spider bite and placed him under observation, while other, more life-threatening injuries had been treated. Looking at the injury again, the nurse had her doubts. While the injury looked like a spider bite, there was more damage than seemed possible from a mere spider.

As she bandaged, Alison studied the hand she held. It was a strong hand, a working hand. There were calluses on the fingertips and across the top of the palm, not hard, horny calluses that felt like warts, but smooth stone-like calluses that were covered by layers of tough, yet supple skin. The nurse glanced at her patient’s face. The clipboard on the end of the bed named him Oliver Stone.

He was lying on the bed with his eyes closed. His skin was clammy and sheened in a light layer of sweat, but he ran no fever. He opened his eyes when she paused in her bandaging. They were grey although she could have sworn they’d been blue when he’d first walked in.

Oliver returned her inspection and smiled briefly at her. For a moment, his eyes were almost blue again. Almost, then he closed them once more, a faint smile lingering on his face. His smile made Alison wonder what he had seen in her. She was pretty enough, having inherited her 

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If you would like to read more, Nurse is available as part of AnAnthology of Those Who Walk Among Us, and also as a stand alone title at Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, iTunes, and Nook.