I am not insane.
At least that’s what I keep telling myself. It’s perfectly normal to be afraid of the dark. The dead. The dead that lingers in the dark. I’m not usually one to question my sanity, but as I sit here in the parking lot of a closed retail store, rain pattering on my windshield, the only thing I can really question is my sanity.
I’m a forensic pathologist and I worked my ass off to get here. Damn proud of where I am. The only real downside to the job is I spend most of my time in the morgue, and for the hospital I’m at, well for most hospitals usually, it’s in the basement.
You see I don’t really have a problem with that, the dead are dead. I find that being able to provide closure to the families of the deceased is fulfilling: you don’t know how much of a long way just being able to provide a “why” to the death of a daughter, a mother, a son, a father, goes. And that’s what I do.
The only real issue with the place is it hasn’t seen a fresh paint job in at least 100 years, so everything is a bit dated. It also has that constant smell of formaldehyde which I can only describe as burnt vinegar- but the place provides for the job and that’s all that really matters.
My day usually starts with a body. I perform the autopsy, examine it, do the paperwork, CT scan. This means I usually spend at least half the day in the morgue, and the rest of it in the opposite room separated by a hallway and double doors.
The office room is laid out so that I can peer through the windows of the doors and have a view of the morgue. My technician is usually still working when I file the reports so it’s helpful to still have an idea of what’s going on should I need to go inside.
That’s a peer into my life for the past 5 years, not accounting for the decade of study before that.
And after what happened, and what is continuing to happen, I question if this life is still for me.
I’ve been assigned to afternoon duty for a while now, it usually starts at around 4pm and ends at about 2am so i’m in the morgue until the late hours of night, and although my morgue technician is usually with me, I often stay later than they do in order to file the reports. Without them there the only noise that fills the room is the strong, persistent buzz of the incandescent light bulb which gives me the ability to see.
Yesterday was a particularly difficult start to the day. My technician, Ned, was late and that had placed the job of the body preparation, and the autopsy to myself. This set me back hours, and when he finally arrived at 6pm I was in the middle of the autopsy. I remember being mad but I was relieved that he had shown up at all. The rest of the day after that was fairly normal, except at around 1am Ned began to feel a bit ill. Considering we are amidst a pandemic, I requested that he go home for the day, as all I had left to do was store the body and file the reports.
Whilst wheeling the body down the hallway to the storage room, I saw Ned walking towards me, his walk was uncanny, it’s almost as if his joints weren’t bending the right way for a normal stride. He walked right past me without a single look in my direction, the exit to the morgue and to the main hospital floor is opposite the storage room, so I wondered why he was even coming from this way at all. Didn’t think much about it though, I stored the body, went to my office, and settled in for a particularly late night.
About 30 minutes in, I realized I had forgotten a report in the lab. Going to the lab from my office allows you to have a view into the hallway, this hallway isn’t straight as it curves off heading toward the storage room, placing the doors to the body storage out of sight. I glanced toward the end of the hallway as I made that short transition from my office to the lab, I noticed that the hallway lights from right around the corner were off. Electrical faults are bound to happen, but at this moment I did not care. I usually did not have a problem with the body storage, but at this moment, with the lights off, I can only say that evil was emanating from around that corner and I could feel its presence fill the entire hallway. I stared at it for what felt like eternity, and could swear I had seen something momentarily peek out from around the corner.
As quickly as that feeling came, it faded. The lights buzzed back on and all was well, I was tired and It felt right to laugh about how stupid that was. Getting scared at lights turning off when I knew that the morgue probably hasn’t been renovated in my lifetime. I grabbed the missing report and went back to work. I would be lying if I said I just continued, a shiver had lingered… It was almost as if it was a drop in temperature… The presence felt in the hall never went away, it just faded, backed away and now resided behind me.
It was now around 3am, the heaviness of the day was starting to sink in and I figured I could just finish the final report tomorrow. I went to the file closet, back turned to the office door, when I heard some noises, the noises were soft at first, but they eventually grew louder. The unmistakable thumps of someone walking along the tiled floor, sounding as if the feet were soaked. I paid no attention to them at first, I figured it was my heart pounding in my head, but it stopped, and it had stopped in front of my door.
Evil emanated from behind me, the same evil felt in the hallway earlier that night. I was scared, truly in fear, but I could not help but turn around. The only thing I could see through my office door was that the lab lights were off and something was shuffling around inside it. For a brief second, it looked at me, it’s face looked like Ned’s but it’s eyes. It had none.
At this point I did not care about anything, I booked it, I dashed out the office door and ran up the fire stairs to the main hospital floor, then all the way to my car.
I could hear something behind me for that entire time, chasing, its footsteps matching mine with every stride, and the only way to tell that something was there was the distinct sound of wet sounding footsteps.
This brings me to where I am now: at a closed retail store parking lot, in my car, in the rain. I post this here to cry for help, I truly believe that as soon as I leave this car, something is out there, something from the morgue that isn’t supposed to be here is going to hurt me. Please, help me.