When I was in the third grade all of the boys in my class were addicted to wrestling. We all wanted to grow up to be strong and famous wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin or the Rock. I was no exception.

Every day at recess, my friend and I would practice different moves that we caught on television the night before. We were big fans of a specific move called the samoan drop. It was where you took your opponent and flipped them over your shoulder then slammed them to the ground.

Unfortunately, while practicing that drop, one of the playground supervisors saw us and mistook casual fun for a serious fight. That march to the principal's office, with her hands wrapped around our shirt collars, was one of the first times I had been in serious trouble without understanding why.

This march was eerily similar. I had no idea where we were going. However, It was obvious that I was in trouble and I had absolutely no idea what it was that I had done.

That trip as a child ended in me getting interviewed by a school resource officer and receiving three days of in school suspension, despite my friend and I holding strong that the entire encounter was a big misunderstanding. I was hopeful that this time, I would be able to properly defend my case.

Unfortunately, with how crooked the doctor had already proven to be, my chance to get out of this without some level of punishment seemed unlikely.

The nurse wheeled us into the last room at the end of a long hallway. There was something about the crooked smile on her face as she unlocked the door that gave me an uneasy feeling. That combined with her curly black hair, crooked nose, and orange tinted skin caused her to give off real Sanderson sister vibes.

This room was white walled like all the others, with white tile on the floor. It was similar to the cafeteria, only this place had nothing in it outside of a single sheeted mattress on the floor and a chair in the corner.

While the mostly empty room was already concerning on its own, it was nothing compared to what the nurse held out in front of me.

There, in her wrinkled hands, were a freshly unpacked pair of blue scrubs. They looked to be exactly my size. Well fuck. This might be worse than a simple in school suspension.

“Why do you have those?” I asked, feeling the nervous tone in my voice.

“Listen young man, my job is to get you ready for treatment. My notes state that you need to wear these, so how about we stop this little game of twenty questions before it starts. Don’t make this any harder than it needs to be.”

“What the hell do clothes have to do with treatment? Wait, what treatment? ”

The nurse didn’t respond right away. Instead she revealed a button in her hand that she had clearly just pushed.

I pictured myself giving her a pile driver. It put a brief smile on my face before I was quickly brought back to reality. I couldn't believe it, but I was beginning to miss Agatha from Ravenwood Medical. At least she was just mean and not a potential accomplice to evil. At least I don't think she was.

I watched as nurse assholes smile quickly vanished and was quickly replaced with a scowl. It was clear that her patience was wearing thin.

“Just do what I ask and put on the clothes,” she said.

That button press must have signaled an alarm somewhere, because before I knew it, two burly looking men blasted through the door. They walked up next to me, their muscles flexed to assert their dominance.

Well that was completely unnecessary. They certainly didn’t need two of these body builders. Although it was flattering that they were so concerned about me that they sent both.

“Mr. Raymond, I am not the doctor, I’m simply here to ensure you are ready for treatment when he does show up. If you don’t comply, I will be forced to make Miles and Mikael intervene. Trust me when I say they will not be nearly as nice as I am.”

“I doubt that,” I whispered under my breath.

Out of alternatives, I took the scrubs and tried my best to put them on. I was certainly in no hurry.

Plus, It was surprisingly hard to change from my wheelchair, even without three people watching.

On top of the three living humans, there were also two spirits in the room with us. At least the spirits had the decency to look away as I changed. Like all of the other spirits in this place, they looked to be completely unaware of their predicament.

I did take note that one of them appeared to have been an old basketball player, as he stood just under seven feet tall. I tried to not stare, but I found that extremely difficult given how large he was compared to the other men in the room.

“What are you looking at?” the nurse asked. She was looking at the spot where the man stood.

Shit, she caught me. The good news was she clearly had no idea they were here. Maybe that leverage would help me get out of this. At this point, it was all I had to go on.

The door swung open and Dr. Klanderman stepped in. He flashed a quick smile in my direction before walking over and whispering something into the nurse's ear.

She returned with that same unnatural looking smile. Maybe that was just her face? If so, I felt bad for the woman. That was a smile only a mother could love and she seemed old enough for that to seem unlikely.

Dr. Klanderman on the flip side was a relatively young looking man. His chiseled jawline, perfect five-o'clock shadow, and seemingly professionally quaffed hair matched the aura of importance he carried. He wore a dark and expensive looking black suit jacket that sat on top of a buttoned up light blue shirt. Literally the only thing about the man that didn’t seem perfect was the black rimmed glasses he wore. Even those I expected were merely for show.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Raymond. How are you doing this fine afternoon?”

“I’m alright. May I ask why I’m here?”

“Straight to the point. I’ll be honest, I appreciate that. You have no idea how tiring it is to exchange pleasantries all the time.”

He walked over and grabbed a chair with one hand while pulling out a small item from his pocket in the other. He pressed a button on the back of the item and a light flipped on. It appeared to be a small flashlight.

He pulled up next to me and shined the light in my eyes. The brightness caused me to involuntarily flinch and pull back. What was he doing?

“Try and look at my ear if you wouldn’t mind,” he asked.

I tried my best to look where I thought his ear would be, but the light made it impossible to see.

He flipped sides, assaulting my other eye with his light. Why was I getting an eye exam? My eyes weren’t the greatest, but this didn’t seem the proper place for this. Something in the reflection of my eyes must have caught his attention. He turned to look toward the location of the large ghost man.

“Interesting.. Very interesting.”

Shit, did he see the ghost through my reflection? No, that'd be crazy.

“Tell me Mr. Raymond, have you been seeing things lately?” He asked, pulling back the light and slipping it back into his pocket.

“No, nothing out of the ordinary,” I replied.

I wasn’t about to tell this monster my secret. I did notice the tone of the ghosts in the room had shifted. They still looked lost, but now there was a hint of fear in their faces that hadn’t been there previously. They seemed terrified to be in the presence of the doctor. I couldn't blame them, I was terrified too.

Dr. Klanderman raised an eyebrow, “Are you sure? The nurses have brought up some concerns about your behavior recently. So if you're not seeing things, have you just been talking to yourself?”

“What no? I mean,” I stumbled. I had not been ready for that rebuttal.

“What do you mean? Please inform me.”

I caught my eyes shift toward the large ghost man and back to the doctor. What do I say?

Before I could react, he yelled out. “Ok nurse, we’re ready.”

I turned just in time to see a needle go into my arm. She injected me with something. I knew she couldn’t be trusted.

This needle was different from the one the doctor used on Josiah. It was too short. Did needle size matter?

“What the hell!?” I yelled.

“It’s fine, Mr. Raymond. This is all part of the process.”

The orderly's picked me up out of my chair and moved me over to the bed. I threw a punch at them. Wait, no I didn't. My arms didn’t move. Why didn’t my arms move?

“Your mind might be racing right now. Don’t worry, that’s just a side effect of the drug we’ve given you. It’s mostly just sodium thiopental with a few other minor tranquilizer type drugs mixed in. It should be fully in your system in a few minutes.”

He walked over and stood over my now restrained body. “What are you doing?” I yelled.

“This is part of your treatment Mr. Raymond. It’s something my family has used for generations. It allows us to unlock the hidden thoughts in your mind.”

With that, the two men walked out of the room, closing the door behind them.

“This isn’t ok, you can’t do this!” I pleaded.

“Oh, but I absolutely can. You see, you’ve shown some signs of schizophrenia. Don’t worry, you won’t remember any of this.”

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The doctor chuckled, “Do you have any idea what the street name of sodium thiopental is Mr. Raymond?”

I remained silent. I wasn't about to let this man have the satisfaction of knowing how much I feared him.

“Truth serum,” he replied. There was a hint of annoyance in his tone.

He pulled out a small notebook and pen, then moved closer to me. “Now, let's see what’s really going on in that head of yours.”

My eyes went wide. Oh shit. Did he say truth serum? No, there was no way that stuff was actually real, Right?

###

I blinked twice. I was looking up at the ceiling. Wait a minute, why was I looking up at the ceiling? It felt like I was lying on a bed. I looked down, expecting to see the bed they had assigned to me.

Instead, I realized the floor was only a few inches below me. Ok, so not a bed, it was just a mattress on the floor. This clearly wasn’t my room. It was way too small. Where was I? Maybe it was a nurse's room. I must have fallen and hurt myself

Slowly I forced myself to sit up. That small motion proved surprisingly challenging. The room was spinning. My head was killing me.

With every ounce of effort I forced myself to sit vertically. I yawned. Wow, I don’t remember ever being this tired before. All I wanted to do was take a nap.

Had I jumped? This was nothing like my previous jumps. This one felt different, heavier. Oh man, I hope I didn’t kill someone. After reading about Marcellus, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I did something horrible.

I looked around. There was no one else in here with me and zero signs of a struggle. That was good. Ok, so if I didn’t kill someone, what happened?

This place felt familiar. It was a similar room to the one Josiah had. At least I thought it was. The last time I was in his room, it was while I was in the void, so it was hard to be sure. Details were easy to lose in that place.

Unlike Josiah's room, this one had only a single mattress on the floor and a chair in the corner. If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn I had stumbled into a drug den.

Ouch, there was something wrong with my arm. I reached my hand up to grab the spot that ached. There was something there. A small bump, just under the skin, like something had been injected. Or maybe I’d been bitten by a spider. The room was full of cobwebs after-all. It seemed this specific room hadn’t been used in some time.

I didn’t feel any spidey powers kicking in, so my money was on something worse. That was unfortunate. Ghost powers plus spidey powers would have been an awesome combo. I could fantasize about being spider ghost later. Right now, I had to focus on reality. Something bad happened to me. Maybe I was drugged?

My eyes caught sight of my arm. Where the hell was my hoodie? I looked down. I was in blue scrubs. Oh shit, they made me an eloper. What the hell, why had they done that? I was supposed to get out of here tomorrow.

Had they drugged me and changed my clothes? That couldn’t be legal. Wasn’t there a rule against that kind of thing? I tried to speak, just to make sure I could still form words.

“Basketball,” I muttered.

Okay. That was a win. My voice still worked. That was a relief. Why did I say basketball? Whatever, it's not important, I shouldn't question the victory. I still needed to figure out what had happened. That's all that matters. I had to know what they’d done to me.

“Holy crap!” I shouted as a figure materialized beside me out of thin air. It was a ghost, just like Nicole. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to that.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” I snapped, my voice sounding sharper than I intended.

Wait, this guy looks familiar. At least I think he does. He was so tall, he should have been impossible to forget. Where had I seen him before? Was he famous? Why couldn't I make the connection. Oh shoot, you're staring. Stop staring at him.

“Can you hear me?” I asked, my voice cautious. For some reason this ghost looked different than all of the rest in this place. He looked to be aware of his condition, but I didn't want to get my hopes up.

He didn’t answer, at least not with words. But I could feel it. There was a ghostly connection between us, like the one I had with Nicole. Finally, I found one that might be able to help me. He wanted me to follow him.

Where did my wheelchair go? I wasn't going anywhere without it.

“I can’t follow you,” I said. “They took my chair.”

His facial expression shifted to a look of desperation. There was no chance he would let this go.

“I’ve been stabbed,” I added, trying to reason with him. “I can’t stand up.”

His hand stretched out toward my chest. The last time a ghost touched my chest, my body was possessed. Is that what he was trying to do?

That didn’t go so well the last time. Eh, fuck it. What did I have to lose? I had no leads. Who knew how much longer I had until they made me a mute.

“Ok, I’m in,” I said. I had no idea if he needed my consent or not.

With his hand, he reached down and touched my chest. I felt that spark, the same one as last time.

Suddenly, like magic he was gone. I looked around, there was zero trace of the tall man anywhere in sight. He would have been a difficult one to hide.

I tried to open my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. In fact, my mouth didn’t move at all. This power was definitely not my favorite. Still, it must have some use. It almost worked when Nicole tried to stop her dad. I felt tears start to trickle down my eye at the thought of her.

I guess I still controlled my sadness. That was something. I wanted to wipe the tears away, but my arm wouldn’t move.

At least his plan worked. He was possessing me, and all it took was for him to touch my chest. I sure hope he needed that consent to take over. I would hate it if any ghosts could just hijack my body as the wished.

I had boundaries. Or at least I wanted boundaries. At this point, I’m not sure what I had. I felt less and less like myself with each passing hour.

He stood up, and to my surprise, I felt no pain. No sharp stab in my leg, no throbbing in my shoulder, and my headache was all but gone. I couldn’t control my body, sure, but at least I was spared the agony for now. I had to celebrate the small victories and at this point, five minutes without pain was certainly a victory.

There was so much cool shit I could do if I felt no pain. Maybe this power wasn’t so worthless after all. I could turn myself into the next Evel Knievel. Old Joe was no daredevil, but maybe this new Joe could be. There were countless possibilities.

The ghost took a step forward and groaned in agony as he put pressure down on my leg. Never mind, apparently, he wasn’t immune to the injury after all. Based on what I was hearing as I walked, this was going to hurt like hell when I got control of my body again.

When we reached the bathroom, he tripped, grabbing the sink to steady himself. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror—and my eyes widened. Woah, I'm glowing. So I glow when I'm possessed? This made me look exactly like one of them. I'm not sure how I felt about that. At least I looked cool.

He quickly turned away from the mirror and fumbled with the towel rack, pushing a button I hadn’t noticed. A section of the wall slid open, revealing a hidden passage. That must be how Dr. Klanderman escaped. The ghost peered inside the passage, as if confirming something, and then, in a voice that was mine, but wasn’t from me, he whispered, “I’m sorry, please save us from the monsters.”

And just like that, he was back standing next to me. The connection severed. Oh shit, this was going to hurt. I dropped to the floor, biting down on my arm to keep from screaming. The pain rushed back in waves, my leg feeling like it had been shattered in multiple places. How had he walked on this for so long?

He wouldn’t have gone through all that pain if this wasn’t important. I had to figure out why. Slowly, I dragged myself down the hallway.

We stopped just in front of a door that looked different than all of the rest. I pulled myself up, gripping the handle to steady myself. This was it, this was what he wanted to show me. I pulled down on the handle and twisted, pulling the door back to reveal a room.

The room was extremely dark. A small window let in just enough light between that shown in the cracks between furniture that I was able to find a light switch.

I flipped it on. What the hell was this place?

It looked like the room I was just in, but this one was full of junk. It was stacked from floor to ceiling. It was clear the room hadn’t been cleaned in a long time based on all of the dust and grime buildup on the furniture. There were desks and beds that looked older than me.

I turned to the ghost, leaning my arm on the door for support. “This is what you wanted me to see? This was worth all of that pain and suffering? I don’t get it!”

He just stood there as if he was all out of clues to give. Well that was unhelpful. How was a storage room useful for me?

I crawled over to one of the desks and opened up one of the drawers. To my surprise, they weren’t empty. There were dozens of papers and journals in here.

I picked one up and turned to look at the title. It was called “The Effects of Sodium Thiopental in PTSD War Veterans.” What the hell was sodium thiopental? I put the book back and moved onto another drawer.

This drawer was filled with the shit from the hospital. Blankets and pills with the hospital's name on them. The blood was missing. I guess it probably needed to be stored cold. This room was pretty warm and stale. It also smelled like sour milk.

Still, whoever stole from the hospital must have had some connection to this place. It had to have been Wyatt. Who else would have done it?

I tried one more drawer, in it was a collection of needles and a notebook. They weren’t like the needles Dr. Klanderman had used that night. It was hard to see in the void, but those were much larger needles. No these were different, but still for some reason oddly familiar. I had seen one of these before. But where?

I pushed them aside and focused on the notebook. This looked familiar too. Like I had just seen it recently. I opened it up to the last page.

Holy shit, this page was about me.

> Patient name: Joseph Raymond

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> He knows about Wyatt. I always knew our involvement with that man’s crazy plan was going to ruin everything good we had going.

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> I have my suspicions of what he might truly be, but I was unable to obtain confirmation. It's possible the patient doesn't know what he is yet. If that's the case, we should count ourselves lucky.

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> Still, until today, I had assumed they were a thing of legend. Simply nightmares our families told as we grew up to keep us in check.

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> If he is one of them, we need to be on high alert. I've alerted the leaders. We can't afford to let him out. If we do, there is a good chance he will ruin everything.

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> For now I’m going to attempt a full brain dive and reorganization. I know there is a large risk, but it is a calculated one. It’s the only way for Wyatt's plan to succeed and for us to finally be free.

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> Our only complication is that cop. She was with him when they brought him in. She must have a connection. We will need to deal with her. Then we will be able to eliminate the patient with less questioning.

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> Post op note: Brain alteration appears to have been a success. I tried to get more from his memories, but unfortunately there seemed to be a block in his mind that I was unable to pass. I will do further observation soon.

This page opened up so many more questions about my situation. Apparently he thinks I'm something dangerous. I wonder if he's right. Marcellus had turned into a killer. Either way, if he's scared of me, that's good news. I also found out that these men report to someone. What had I stumbled onto?

I reached up, there was a bump behind my ear. Did they really go into my brain? That's not ok.

In front of me, a smaller spirit appeared. He looked familiar. Wait, was he in the room with us when they did this? I vaguely remembered a second ghost. He looked exhausted, like he had just run a marathon. I felt his warmth and then I knew.

The doctor was doing something to me, something I wasn’t supposed to come back from.

I put the book down and turned toward the taller ghost. “Your friend… you both saw what they were doing to me. That’s what made you remember, wasn't it. He did this to you too."

I then turned to the smaller ghost, "And you saved me. Didn't you. When they tried to mess with my head? That's why he couldn't get any more information out of me. You were guarding my secret.”

The tall man didn’t nod. He didn’t have to. I knew his friend had saved me. Protected me.

"Thank you," I finally said. I couldn’t let them down. I had to free them. I had to free all of them.

Dr. Klanderman and his eager nurse thought they’d won. They thought I was a shell now. What they didn’t realize was that I was still here, and that was the edge I needed.

I looked back at the tall ghost. "I'm not sure if you can, or if it's even possible, but I need you to try and get all of the other ghosts to remember. I'm going to need them."

With that, I gave him a nod, then dragged myself back to the bed. It was time to see if my acting skills were as good as I hoped. I needed them to believe they’d won.

I needed to play the part, because if they believed that? I’d get my chance. Unfortunately, I had to act soon before the person in his notes took out Naomi.