Nightshift

The Beginning

Before I even begin my story, I think it'll help to get some background on what this is all about. I can't remember all the details and specifics, but I know it goes something like this:

Back in the 1960's, there was a surgeon by the name Judd Mertion. He was well known and liked by all his co-workers and patients. He strived to be successful. He helped each and every one of his patients with undoubtable excitement. Seriously, this guy was passionate.

Very passionate.

Many thought of him to be on the odd side, but it never changed the way people adored him. Toward the end of his career, people started to notice that Mertion began to stay later than his shift required him to. Some even claimed to have seen him sneaking around in the morgue at late hours of the night. Turns out (after being caught a few weeks later), Mertion was actually going into the morgue to do something quite disturbing. He knew the morgue staff's last shift ended at 9pm, so he waited until after then to sneak downstairs. Meriton would then creep into the morgue and open the doors to the freezer to view the recently deceased. He would take them out one by one, and dissect their bodies. He pulled limbs apart, savored in the smell of their decomposing bodies. Meriton would cut the muscle out of the forearms, delicately sliced them, and set them on a plate (which he later wrapped and brought home). No one knows why he took them, they were the only part of the bodies he took. He frequently would cut out organs, dissect them, and observe parts that had started the decomposing process. Anyway... you get the point. This guy was seriously fucked up. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. After Mertion finished lacerating the limbs on the bodies, he took body parts from all different people and connected them to other bodies. He would literally stitch one man's arm to another woman's body. Not that it was an easy feat, mind you. After death, skin becomes hard and very difficult to stitch together. Meriton had to be very careful in this procedure. He then proceeded to play with them like life size Barbie dolls. He achieved his sexual fantasies with the violated decaying bodies.

Eventually, somebody checked the security footage and saw what he had done. Meriton had a bad feeling that someone knew. He headed to the morgue one final time, took all of the bodies out and laid them on the floor. Completely naked as well, he took a pistol and shot all of the bodies point blank in the head. Meriton went on to slice his palms open. In his own blood, he wrote: "GONE, BUT NEVER FREE." With determined hands, he took the pistol to his own head. To protect the hospital, all records of him and what he'd done, were burned.

The ending of the story of course, always ended with, "Mertion is still lurking these halls somewhere... waiting for his next patient..." That's what the older employees would tell me anyways. I always thought, that's the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard. Well, I'll tell you something.

Seeing is believing.

My Story

Senior year. You're either deciding what college to go to, or finding where the next party is at. In all honesty, I was worried about the party. I wanted to have fun my senior year before growing up. Isn't that what we all want? But to party, you need money. To get money, you. need. a. job. Cue the dramatic music. Has the story scared you yet? No? Okay.

On a serious note, I really needed a job. One of my friends told me about a job at the local hospital that paid 14 dollars an hour. A pretty good gig if you ask me. Especially for a part time student like myself. Nevertheless, I took the job without a question. My job was to basically just answer phones then transfer them to whomever. However, it was exhaustingly boring. I worked the night shift on weekends, from 5:00 - 10:30 pm. Being the new employee, everyone tried to scare me with the urban legends and ghost stories of the hospital. I wasn't one to ever fall for those stories, because I was usually the one making them up. I knew exactly all the twists and turns, and how precise you had to be with getting every single detail right, every time I told it. You couldn't get caught slipping up, then none of your stories will be believable. Either way, these stories that they told me didn't raise a single hair on my neck. Plus, they were all different variations, which made them unbelievable.

After I finished my training, I got to work by myself. I was pretty excited, considering the lady that trained me was a real stickler. It was nice to look forward to doing things on my own time, without anyone hovering over me.

It was a Saturday night when it happened. Everything was normal and boring as usual, until a little after 9:00pm. Strange stuff started to happen, that I didn't take much notice to. A couple of lights flickered, something crashed in the basement, footsteps with no one there... You know, the normal scary stuff. I thought it was just Carl the security guard trying to get a reaction out of me. After all, he was the one who told me about Judd Mertion. 10 minutes later, a thought occurred to me. If Carl wanted to scare me, wouldn't he have jumped out by now to laugh at me? The thought unsettled me a bit, so I decided to give him a call on the phone he carried with him. It rang and rang. I was about to hang up, when I heard the slight click that indicated that someone was on the other line. I was quiet, and all I could hear was harsh breathing and what sounded like water dripping in the background. I know that old fucker was around the corner laughing his ass off. "Knock it off Carl," I said, with a slight chuckle. I hung up the phone and shook my head. If he was going to scare me, he was going to have to try a lot harder.

I waited for a couple more minutes, while I glanced around, waiting to see him pop out and say "boo." Screw it. I looked at the clock and locked up my computer and headed toward the stairs. There was construction work from earlier that day, so I grabbed a metal pole from the pile. Plus, I thought it would be ironic for me to jump out with it and scare him instead.

Down the stairs I went, every god damned step had to make a loud echo in the stairwell. I made my way to the basement door and suddenly a concerning feeling washed over me. I couldn't explain it, and I still can't to this day. It was this sense of absolute dread, it almost suffocated me as I reached for the basement door handle. I slowly took my first step into the empty hallway. My foot seemed to land with an amplified thud. I took a look around, as expected, all I saw was empty conference rooms and offices. Everything was silent, except for the continuous tick... tick... of the wall clock to my right. It all of the sudden felt as if I was in slow motion. "Damn security guard," I muttered under my breath as I had no one else to blame for how I felt. I continued down the hallway, the green hospital walls and flooring made me exceptionally dizzy and close to vomiting. What the hell was wrong with me? Something about the dim lighting and increased smell of decay messed with my head. I kept walking, taking slow and deliberate steps. Around the first corner, something suddenly clanked loudly to the floor. Instinctively, I ran and pressed my back to the wall next to the corner. God damnit. I shook my head and tried to regain my composure. Controlling my breathing proved to be quite the challenge. I raised my metal bar carefully into swinging position. Anticipation got the best of me, and sweat began to pool on my face and neck. Anxiously, I spun around to see the open hallway. There, in the middle of the floor, was a small black object. Cautiously, I reached down and turned the thing over in my hand.

Carl's phone.

What the hell... I slowly stood and laughed like an idiot, thinking this was all just a bad joke. I glanced around in the offices nearby. Down the hallway, I heard limping footsteps coming toward me. I glanced over and saw Carl come into view, breathing hard.

"Carl?" I whispered, looking at the blood that rushed down his face. He got closer and roughly grasped my arm. I could feel him shaking.

"We have to go. Now." Carl rasped, while he lead me to a room I haven't been in before.

"What the hell is going on?" I muttered to him, while he fumbled with the keys to the door.

"He's coming for us," he coughed, and threw the door open. I stumbled in after him, the door shutting with a slam behind me. The room in front of me was pitch black. The air felt so moist, that I could almost reach my hand out and feel it. It was in that moment that I noticed that the smell from earlier, had suddenly intensified. It overcame me and made me gag. I covered my nose with my shirt to try and block it out.

"Carl!" I cried, while my free hand searched for anything I could grasp on to.

"Over here, little lady," Carl whispered, from somewhere to my left. I turned and started toward him, I felt completely lost.

"Where's the light switch?" I called out, as I stumbled aimlessly through the dark. "SHIT!" I cried when I stubbed my damn toe on a metal desk of some kind. "Carl? Where are you?" I realized that everything was eerily quiet. The smell of decay got stronger. I froze when I heard some shuffling close by my right ear.

Drip... drip... drip...

At this point, I didn't even know if I was breathing or not, or if my heart was still beating in my chest. I put my hands over my ears and tried not to cry. I felt a wall behind me, and slowly slunk to the floor in defeat. Just then, the lights turned on. I squinted and glanced to my left. There was old freezers, some of which you would see in a morgue. It began to click in my head, when I looked up and saw it.

There, in front of me, was Carl.

He stood with a knife in his right hand, his left palm bled and dripped down to the floor at a steady rate.

Behind him, was a dozen roughly stitched bodies scattered on the floor, with bullets in their heads.

I glanced back up at the man that I knew as Carl, who was now wearing a surgical mask and scrubs.

I watched as his faced changed to an older and different man, whose face twisted into a smile.