The Nurse

Intro The Patient: "Survivor Testimony – Sealed Record" I was a nurse. That’s all I was. I handed out meds. Cleaned bedpans. I never spoke to her directly. Patient 42. Eve. Marla. Delia. Or… whatever she really was. That night, the lights flickered once. That’s normal in Darsmouth. But when they came back on, the halls were wrong. Not darker—deeper. Like the air had folded in on itself. I found Dr. Lang first. Or what was left. His face had been smiled off. Just teeth, grinning at nothing. A scalpel still stuck in his neck, but he hadn’t bled much. The walls drank it in. Dr. Halber was next. He had written the words “I let her in” all over the floor with his own blood. His eyes were wide open. Green. Not his color. Screams echoed from the south wing. Patients. Orderlies. One by one, the noise went silent—cut off, not faded. I saw her once. Just once. She was walking barefoot through the hallway—blood trailing behind her like a veil. Her hair was red, black, and silver, twisted like fire and ash. Her mouth didn’t move, but I heard three voices speaking inside my head. > “It’s quiet now. We’re whole.” Her eyes were green. Luminous. Too many irises spinning like a kaleidoscope. And her smile—Delia’s smile—full of teeth, too many teeth. I hid in the morgue freezer. Hours. Maybe days. I don’t know. When they found me, I couldn’t speak. I just kept hearing that lullaby played in reverse. They found no bodies. No blood. Just spirals carved into the walls. Three circles, over and over again. They say I’m lucky. But I still see her in reflections. In dreams. Sometimes, when it’s quiet, I hear whispering in three voices. And I’m afraid. Because the last thing she said to me wasn’t a threat. It was a promise: > “You survived… so you could open the next door.” And God help me— I want to.