The Red Devil

Outside the rain lashed the windows of the hospital, decades of dirt running down and gathering on the cracked sills. Inside a draft caused the blinds to rattle, an eerie sound in the late evening. Nurses were gathered by the main station, evening rounds complete, and most of the occupants dozed, medicine coursing through their veins, and tiredness coursing through their heads.

Amanda shifted to get comfortable, neither side better than the other, the cannula in her left arm aching after the long chemo session. She was exhausted, however the doxorubicin was causing her mind to race, a euphoric feeling as they energised every cell in her weak body. From bitter experience she knew sleep would come, but had to get through this ride first.
Eventually her eyelids started to close as shadowy figures moved amongst the beds, through the ward, carrying clipboards and jugs, but in her drowsy state Amanda ignored them. 
Finally, it overtook her, and she nodded off. 
‘No, I’m not thirsty’ she mumbled, responding to the elderly nurse stood at the foot of the bed.
The lady had been standing there when Amanda had woken, the only light coming from the dim strips running down the centre of the ward and the light the nurse held.
Amanda slightly sat up, and rubbed at her arm, groggily looking around the bed. Her head was pounding, and every breath felt like it was catching, each intake more painful than the last. The nurse didnt respond, pulling her cloak around her neck and drifting away. Amanda slumped back, and felt the sleep returning. The last thing she saw was the nurse hovering around the lady in the bed next to her.
It was early the next morning when she awoke properly. The ward was alive, the curtains drawn around the bed next to her, and anxious cries the noise that had woken her. Fairly soon, the occupant was moved very quickly across the ward, and into a neighbouring smaller room, where staff rushed in the door, equipment trollies pushed ahead of them.
‘How is she?’ Amanda asked her attendant when she was brought her next tablets.
‘Not good I’m afraid to say. You however are looking well - a good nights rest after the treatment for a change?’
‘Apart from being woken by your colleague’ Amanda replied, ‘Would have minded her not standing over me’
‘I’m sorry for that, who was it? I’ll make a note’
‘The older lady. She checked on me before talking to the others as… Dave what are you doing here?’
Her relatives had turned up to visit, and the conversation was forgotten. After two hours of chat, and a short walk to the cafe to get a coffee that Amanda knew she wouldnt keep down, her brother and his wife left, and Amanda settled back into her bed. She was tired again, and after taking her next pot of drugs, closed her eyes, and tried to sleep, as the ward again descended into silence.
Her arm was still aching, and her legs felt swollen, whilst her chest was on fire. She tossed and turned as much as she could, and eventually sat up, pulling at the cord on the nurse calling alarm.
‘Can I get a drink of water?’ she feebly asked the nurse who came, barely able to lift her head from the pillow. She felt as though a heavy weight was pushing her down into the mattress, and she sank further and further, as the lights flickered, then dazzled brightly, blinding Amanda into closing her eyes.
‘Let me help you there’ said a voice, and Amanda looked up to the dark cloak of the nurse she had seen the night before. The lady put down her lamp, and reached out to help Amanda sit up, her strong arms reassuring. The nurse eased Amanda into a wicker chair on wheels, slowly pushing the patient towards a brightly lit doorway. A figure stood just beyond waiting, a silhouette not defined enough for Amanda to recognise.
She looked back over her shoulder and saw a group of people gathering around her bed, curtains being pulled around a prone figure still lying in her nightgown. She could just make out frantic cries, and watched as the bed was wheeled into the side room, trollies with equipment urgently being retrieved.
Amanda turned back, and sat relaxed in the chair, waiting to reach the door. A calmness spread over her, as her heart finally stopped.