After breakfast, the staff announced that all non-mandatory events had been canceled until further notice. That came as no surprise, especially when the amount of nurses at breakfast had been so limited.

Nice nurse and eighties perm nurse were gone, as were most of the nurses who were at movie night. My best guess was they probably didn’t have enough staff members to efficiently run this place.

Hell, I couldn’t blame them for taking a mental health day. I knew nurse Asshole was a monster, and yet, it still shook me when Josiah stabbed her. To the rest of the staff it probably looked like a co-worker had been assaulted by a patient. Even if they hadn’t liked the woman, that would have probably screwed a normal person up.

But still, if you were going to let them stay home, why was nurse Asshole still here? I couldn’t believe they let her continue to work. I mean how stupid was that? She was the one who had been stabbed. And yet, I know it sounded crazy, but she looked somehow younger now than when I first met her.

Whatever, at least one mandatory event was still on, and it was the one I was most looking forward to. That event was the visitation period. Not for the actual visitation time, because I still had no visitors.

Honestly, had I not found the message from Murph earlier, I probably would have felt like the outside world had forgotten about me at this point. But thanks to him, I knew I had a team out there supporting me and that was a breath of fresh air. Plus, with this new knowledge about the limited staff, the lack of visitors today had begun to feel like a blessing in disguise.

One of the staff members had let it slip that Dr. Klanderman was out for the afternoon on business. With him out, plus the skeleton crew, nurse Asshole was going to be tied up with angry parents who wanted answers for their families safety. That staff was going to be waist deep in complaints once the families found out what happened here. That should keep them busy.

The best part? As far as any remaining staff members were concerned, I was currently “locked” in my room alone. Which meant they had almost no reason to check on me. Fuck yes, finally some alone time.

Alright, so how the hell was I going to get that burn cream? That was the million dollar question. I looked up at the ceiling, hoping to think something into existence.

Hmm, this place had the same type of ceiling tiles as the medical center, albeit with less mold. Were the two buildings built by the same company? Come to think of it, they did share a lot of design decisions in common. Maybe the hospital had hidden rooms too. Was this entire town some giant monster pit?

Wait, what the hell was I doing? I was shutting down, that's what. Why does my brain always shut down when things get hard? This was the ACT test all over again. Only this time, I could retake the test.

My free time was running out and I didn't even have the concepts of a plan. I mean seriously, I had no idea where to start.

Ok, that wasn't entirely true, at the very least, I knew where they kept all the medical stuff locked away. That was something. It was in a closet behind the nurses' desk. Maybe that's why it was so easy to shut down. That room was problematic to get into for a number of reasons.

The first issue was that the door needed a keycard to unlock and only the nurses had those. Given the limited staff, that meant even less key cards to steal. Plus, there were major question marks around my ability to steal things. In a game like Elder Scrolls, my thief ability would have been pretty much non-existent. Although, all of my skills probably would have been pretty much non-existent to be fair. Well that didn't make this seem any easier.

Plus, even if I somehow magically managed to get my hands on a card, that left me with problem number two. There was always someone at that desk, usually watching the area and the cameras to the outside like a hawk. Unfortunately, my charm skill wouldn't have been high enough to charm my way into the room.

If stealing wasn't on the table, and neither was charming, what other options did I have? Ok, think, what would they have done in those heist movies or games? Ocean’s Eleven, Sly Cooper, Mission Impossible… Who was I kidding? I wasn’t Tom Cruise, and there was no way I was breaking into that closet.

Besides, even if I got the cream, who was to say it would even work? The only proof I had was the reaction from the nurse after seeing Courtney's hand and I really didn’t love the idea of risking my cover on a hunch.

If breaking in was off the table, then maybe it was time for a new plan. With the doctor and nurse occupied for the next hour or so, this was my chance to check out the back passageways. Maybe something would come to me with a change in scenery. The secret entrance called to me.

I had a strange feeling these sections were more interconnected than I originally thought. I wheeled my way through until I found a second door at the end of the hallway.

As it turned out, I was right. These tunnels appeared to follow along the whole building. So Dr. Klanderman was able to sneak around without notice. That had to be against some type of law, but I doubt they cared.

The path continued until I reached what should have been Courtney and Aubrey’s wing. I stopped. If they were there, this would have been the best time to talk. Plus, seeing Courtneys face would have been a fun bonus. She was so pretty. Yeah, this detour was definitely worth the risk.

There was a door that stood out from the others. It seemed to have a unique purpose. That seemed like the one to go with. I pushed and watched as it slid open, revealing a closet full of cleaning supplies. Oh wow, so the janitors closets were little two way passages. Were they all that way?

Either way, that was smart. No one would ever think to go looking in there with all of those supplies in the way. I pushed the items aside and wheeled into the hall, cautiously moving until I reached their room. I knocked softly, hoping for an answer.

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There were no sounds on the other end of the door. Maybe they all had visitors. I turned the knob. It wasn't locked. There was no harm in opening it just a little bit to make sure they weren't there, right?. I had gone all this way.

“Hello?” I whispered as I opened the door. It was clear no one was in the room.

Ok, they aren't here. It's time to go. Something kept me rooted to the spot. Slowly, I pushed my way into the room.

What the hell was I doing? This was a total invasion of privacy. No, this wasn't me. Something caught my attention. There it was, just sitting there on a table. It was a blue container with a white lid, and it was calling out for me to notice it. Silvadern.

Shit that feeling was back. It's pull was strong. "No, not this time. Don’t do it! I had to hold on," I said, before I felt myself lose control.

###

My eyes opened wide, revealing some ceiling tiles. Where was I? My back was on something spongy, or maybe springy. It was definitely springy. Oh wait, It was the floor mattress. Good, I had made it safely back to my room. I let out a sigh of relief, before quickly remembering where I had been.

“Oh hell! What happened? Of course I blacked out. This fucking power,” I muttered.

I paused. Something, or rather someone was in my room. I felt it. They were right behind me.

Crap, had I just cursed out loud? Oh man, please don’t be a staff member. Slowly, I turned to see who was in the room. I felt relief wash over me when I finally realized who it was. It was my tall ghost buddy.

“You’re back,” I said, more relieved than I wanted to admit. I had no idea where he had gone, but he looked almost the same. No wait, not the same. There was something different about him, but I struggled to put my finger on it. His flame seemed a bit less bright than before. Maybe that was it. Who knows, Perhaps I was imagining things.

He didn’t respond. I was growing used to the silence. The others were still missing, but if he was back, surely that meant the rest of them would make their way back eventually. Right?

“Well, I’m glad you’re back,” I added, gesturing upwards with my hand. He didn’t smile, but I swear the edges of his mouth twitched.

That’s when I realized there was something in my hand. It was a small cylindrical container with a twist off lid. I didn’t even have to look, but I did anyway. Yep, there it was. The burn cream.

I groaned. “Did I steal this?” I asked him.

He didn’t have to reply, I knew the answer already. I had stolen the container from the girls room. Or, more precisely, blackout-me stole it. I know that the distinction wouldn’t have mattered to anyone else, but it did to me.

Maybe I could return it without them noticing. No, it was too risky. I had no idea how long I had been blacked out for. I mean, for all I knew, the nurses were on their way to get me right now. Still, I had to hide this cream somewhere. There was a vent in the corner, maybe if I was able to unscrew that, I could hide it in there.

I was about to make my move when my foot kicked something under the bed. It wasn’t my laptop—that much I knew, but I was curious to see what it was. I reached down and pulled out a notebook.

A notebook, how had that ended up here? The burn cream was obvious, but this made no sense. Had I stolen this too?

I opened it, hoping for some clue to its rightful owner. The first few pages were covered in doodles. They were of a man with glasses and perfectly quaffed hair. Little hearts surrounded him like little love birds.

Interesting. I had done something like that when I was in elementary school. I had doodled little hearts around a girl from class that I had a crush on. Hold on, why was that in this notebook?

I looked closer at the drawings, my stomach twisted in knots. That doodle, that’s not just some random guy. He was wearing a lab coat. Holy shit, that was Dr. Klanderman. No. It couldn’t be. I flipped through more pages, they were all of the same guy, covered in hearts.

“Oh, gross!” I yelled out.

This couldn’t be Courtney’s, right? Surely she was smarter than to form a crush on a monster like that. My pulse raced at the thought. I knew my chances with her were slim, but...this? Crushing on a literal monster? I mean even looking past the monster thing, he was way too old for her.

Calm down Joe. It might not even be hers. But my hands didn’t listen—they kept flipping pages until I found something worse. It was a table, with neatly drawn columns. There were ten rows on the table. This was clearly a girl's handwriting.

One of the rows stood out to me. It turned out I was in the notebook, but not in the way I had hoped. My initials, JR. They had my blood type correct. How had they gotten my blood type? For concerns, there was only “Asked questions about Wyatt and operation.”

I dropped the notebook like it had burned my hands. My chest felt tight and tears blurred my vision. I had trusted these girls. I really liked Courtney and Aubry. They were supposed to be my friends. My allies. But this? Writing this information down about me like I was some sort of experiment?

I wiped away the tears. Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe there was another explanation. But when I flipped through the rest of the pages, I found nothing. They were all blank.

Screw this. Screw them. I didn’t care anymore. At this point, I wasn’t sure if I was more mad about my name being on this table, or about the girl I kind of liked lusting over an old monster instead of me. It was probably a little of both.

Still, I no longer felt bad about stealing from them. I had a job to do. The men and women in that readme file didn’t flinch when faced with adversity.

They didn’t need friends or allies to do their job. Neither did I. I had to man up and complete the mission. I was going to use this cream to kill the nurse and doctor and save these poor souls.

I grabbed the notebook and the burn cream and took it over to the vent. Unscrewed the cover, and shoved the items into the duct.

My heart was fluttering, the ghost in the room looked at me with visible concern on his face. That was a new look. He just didn’t understand. He never had to plan a murder. I’ll take these two down, and then I’ll go after Wyatt, or whatever monster that girl really was.

With everything stashed away, I leaned back in my wheelchair and stared at the ceiling.

“I’m starting to think you all are the only ones in here that I can trust,” I said to the tall ghost.

I felt my nerves starting to creep in, the realization of how close I was to everything potentially going sideways.

“Listen, I’m going to kill these monsters for you, for Josiah, for all of the people these doctors hurt. Or at least I’m going to try,” I said, feeling the weight of my words as they came out.

“If I’m not strong enough to finish the job. I give you permission to take over my body and finish it for me. You got that?” I asked.

This time, the tall man didn’t just sit there silently. Instead, he glided over to me, putting his hand on my shoulder. I felt the same warm energy that I felt with Nicole.

I was able to feel what he felt. A sense of relief. Of understanding. That calmed my nerves.

“Ok then,” I said. “I'm ready. Lets do this.”