Chapter Text
He almost slipped over onto his face as he bolted down the old hospital hallway. Slamming into the closed doors at the end of the corridor only to find that they were locked, clutching at the swinging doors trying his hardest to tear them open. He suddenly realised what his mistake had been in taking this way instead of the elevator. The hospital was being used for storage as the renovation was being carried out from the ground up.
“Ah, there you are.” The smooth velvety voice called only a few feet away from him. “Please, do not go any further.” He had not heard anything approach; the doctor only appeared. It was a joke that the staff had told. Doctor Jonathan Emmet Reid, the night doctor, always kept a tight leash on this place. The man would materialise out of nothing and vanish the same way. Tom had informed him of this doctor because he was weird. At first, he would have called Tom a dumb ass because the man always liked a good story, but Geoffrey Edward Richardson heard people out because the crazies spoke more truth about the darkness of humankind.
Tom William was his friend who worked as a nurse at The Mercy Hospital. This hospital was 60 years old and now being used for rehabilitation on the lower floors, dementia patients on the second, was old folks home on the third and fourth and the others were storage.
Geoffrey worked in the rehabilitation part of the hospital but had known Tom before working here; Tom had only been happy to hear that his old friend had taken a position in the same building as himself.
Geoffrey mostly worked mornings until the afternoon and Tom had a few different hours, because of being a nurse, but sometimes they would have lunch together, Tom would end up talking about the night doctor. Tom was just as bad as the older nurses they just loved to gossip, but he would swear that it was only because of the weird stuff that man did.
Geoffrey had, of course, given in to the curiosity about this man, and Tom was happy to share. The man known as Jonathan Emmet Reid was an incredible studied surgeon and doctor, he drove a 1962 Vintage Rolls Royce Phantom with pitch-black windows, arriving to work at six pm and always going by the back door which was the door to the morgue. People said that when meeting him upon entering, the man still smelled of smoke but didn’t smoke. He could make people feel comfortable or uneasy in an instant, and once the man’s mind was made up, it was final. The man dressed like an old school gentleman, elegantly tailored suits, incredibly well put together man and he acted like a gentleman of fairytales too, he didn't even know what the round orange ball in the sky was because he was so fucking pale.
Tom said that the man knew too much as well, which Geoffrey’s response was don’t you want your doctors to be the best. Tom was like yeah, but this Jonathan knew more than doctors should know. He was strong too, one time one of the patient's drug-affected grandchildren had visited and lost their shit over something and Jonathan had more or less just flicked the man into a wall and knocked the idiot out cold. Jonathan never needed assistance with the patients and never wanted it. He solved every problem that came his way, nothing was ever too hard for this man, and he always got his way.
Geoffrey had said that he wished that his department had more people like that man. Which Tom had only said that the two of them would only end up butting heads, as Geoffrey was the man who got things done in his department. Geoffrey would never meet the man, of course, and he just laughed at Tom’s misfortune of feeling left in the dark with this mystery. But soon the trouble was to be Geoffrey’s in the form of staying back to hang out with Tom after work.
Tom was meant to be down to see him in his office after work, but it was late, so Geoffrey went up to Tom’s department in the old folks home. Geoffrey knew the code for the night door, so he just let himself in, mistake number one. Geoffrey started walking towards the nurse's office in the middle of the floor. That’s when he heard a voice right behind him, Geoffrey didn’t want to acknowledge that he had a gut instinct that something was off the moment that he had arrived on the floor.
“Excuse me, but you should not be on this floor at this time of night.” An elegant but posh voice spoke.
Geoffrey wasn’t spooked; no one seemed to scare him. Geoffrey never understood it himself, his parents had always said that he was a bit weird, but they loved him. Other family members had called him an old soul in a new body, but Geoffrey was born just knowing things. He could fight from day one; he knew London like the back of his hand even though his family had moved from Dublin to London when he was thirteen. Geoffrey was also unfortunate in sleeping at night, only getting four hours of sleep when he did and weird dreams plagued him, but with age, he had learned not to talk about it.
He never wanted to talk about it anyway, some of the nightmares were painful or just sad. He had also started to forget about the dreams, they were only vivid until the afternoon, and then everything would be normal again.
Geoffrey turned around to meet the elegant tailored, pale assed, piercing blue eyes doctor himself. “I’m sorry, I am just here to see nurse Tom William,” He said. The man didn’t speak; he looked to be in some shock, but that did not stop him from placing his hand upon Geoffrey’s arm and enclosing it in a tight grip.
“Dr Reid.” Geoffrey thought that he sounded questioning, but was sure that he spat and his facial expressions felt angry.
“I…..Oh my.” The doctor nervously laughed.
“Dr Reid, I see you’ve met Geoffrey,” Tom said, sounding winded from running down the hallway. “Doctor Jonathan Emmet Reid, Geoffrey Edward Richardson.”
“Geoffrey Edward Richardson, it is such a pleasure to meet you.” Dr Reid replied, now shaking his hand, there was something wrong about the man’s smile.
“Yeah……You too.” Geoffrey didn’t like this.
“Well, I’m done now. Goodnight Dr Reid.” Tom bowed towards the doctor. “Come on, Geoffrey. We don’t want to be late.”
“Have fun gentleman and do not drink too much.” The doctor said as their hands separated.
“Sure.” Geoffrey noticed how cold the guy's hand was, it had been like ice. Tom had started pulling Geoffrey away because he couldn’t take his eyes off the man, standing there in the dark hall almost blending in.
“That was so fucking weird.” Tom spluttered out, once they were outside in the carpark. “You were all fucking mad, and he was so pleased with himself. What the fuck happened between you two?”
“I don’t know, but there is something off about that man,” Geoffrey said, looking up at the old building all lit up with the lights. He could feel something watching them from up there.
“Of course, there is something off with that man. Don’t you listen to me.” Tom preached. “I told you he was a weird one.”
“Leech.” That word he hadn’t thought of in years now. He was so glad that he didn’t work night hour, he would never see that weird night doctor again.