[Music] I've worked in psychiatric hospitals for years but nothing prepared me for the mirror Ward they call it that because every room is lined with mirrors not just one or two every single wall from floor to ceiling is covered in smooth polished glass when I first started my rotation there the explanations sounded Ridiculous by facing themselves literally from every angle supposedly it was groundbreaking Innovative but standing in those rooms I felt like I was inside a kaleidoscope my reflection stretched out in every direction countless versions of myself staring back slightly distorted the air felt wrong in there stale heavy the ward was small just six rooms tucked away on the farthest wing of the hospital hardly anyone ever talked about it and only a handful of staff were assigned to it on my first day I asked the head nurse why they needed so much secrecy for something that was just experimental she didn't look at me when she answered it's not about secrecy she said it's about safety and if you want to stay safe don't linger in the rooms longer than you have to don't look at the mirrors for too long and if a patient mentions seeing something notify the attending psychiatrist immediately I laughed nervously thinking she was joking but her expression didn't change the first few days passed uneventfully though the ward had an unnerving Vibe the patients were quiet too quiet and most avoided eye contact not just with staff but with themselves they wouldn't look at the mirrors wouldn't even glance at their Reflections then there was MrGrayson in room four he was in his 60s admitted for severe paranoia he spent most of his time sitting in the middle of the room rocking back and forth I remember the way his eyes dotted around like he was trying to track something I couldn't see one day during rounds I found him standing perfectly still in front of a mirror his nose was almost pressed against the glass his eyes wide and unblinking MrGrayson I called out gently he didn't answer I I stepped closer reaching out to tap his shoulder but he spoke before I could touch him it's not me he whispered what's not you I asked confused he pointed at his reflection that it's not me I stared at the mirror trying to see what he meant his reflection moved as he moved blinked as he blinked it was identical MrGrayson I think you're just tired I said trying to sound calm but inside my stomach was in knots no he snapped his voice shaking it's smiling I froze um uh um it wasn't his reflection wasn't smiling but for a split second a flicker so brief I almost convinced myself I imagined it it did that night I couldn't sleep Grayson's words looped in my head it's not me it's smiling when I returned the next morning his room was empty at first I thought he'd been transferred but when I checked his file there was no record of a transfer no discharge paperwork he was just gone I asked the head nurse but she wouldn't look me in the eye sometimes patients leave unexpectedly she said her tone flat what does that mean I pressed she didn't answer over the next week three more patients disappeared always at night always without explanation their rooms were left exactly as they were except for one detail the mirrors they looked cleaner sharper somehow like the glass had been polished to Perfection it wasn't just the patients staff started noticing things too my reflection felt off it was subtle at first a delayed blink here um a slight tilt of the head there one night while I was cleaning room three I caught movement out of the corner of my eye I spun around but no one was there the room was empty but in the mirror my reflection was still turning I bolted out of there my heart pounding so loud I thought it might burst I told myself it was a trick of the light that I was imagining things but deep down I knew something was wrong with those mirrors DrPeterson the attending psychiatrist started spending more time in the ward after the disappearances he claimed he was reviewing the data but I could see the tension in his face one night I found him in room six staring into the mirror doctor I called hesitant he didn't respond I moved closer my hands trembling uh DrPeterson finally he spoke there in there he said his voice Hollow who's in there I asked my throat dry he turned to me his eyes bloodshot the ones who disappeared they're not gone they're trapped before I could respond he grabbed my arm whatever you do don't look too long it lets them see you that was the last time I saw DrPeterson the next morning his office was empty his car was still in the parking lot but no one could find him room six was locked and the mirrors inside were covered with thick black tarps but the other rooms were still open still occupied the final straw for me came a few nights later I was doing my rounds checking each room when I heard a sound faint and rhythmic like fingers tapping on glass it came from broom 2 when I stepped inside the patient a young woman named Claire was sitting cross-legged on the floor she was staring at the mirror tapping her fingernail against it Claire I said keeping my voice steady she didn't look at me they're almost through she whispered who's almost through I asked stepping closer she tilted her head toward the mirror us I looked at the glass and my blood ran cold her reflection wasn't sitting cross-legged it was standing its head tilted in the opposite direction its eyes locked on me I left the hospital that night and never went back but the mirrors stayed with me sometimes when I catch my reflection in a window or a dark screen I think I see it move just a little too late and sometimes I think it's smiling some Reflections aren't meant to be faced in the end the mirror Ward wasn't just a failed experiment it was a warning a mirror doesn't just show you who you are it reveals what you've ignored what you've buried and sometimes what's waiting for you on the other side we like to believe we're safe that the boundaries between us and the unknown are unbreakable but what happens when the barrier is as fragile as glass what happens when the things staring back at us aren't Bound by the same rules the truth is some places some ideas and some experiments are better left alone because when you go looking too deeply into the void void it starts looking back and sometimes it doesn't let go never underestimate what hides behind a reflection it might just be waiting for you to look a little too long I never should have taken this demolition job at the old Riverside State Hospital the money was good double my usual rate but now I know why no other contractor would touch it what we found in that children's Ward I still hear the laughter in my dreams and lately the laughter has been getting closer it started 3 weeks ago standard procedure assess the building structure check for asbestos the usual stuff the hospital had been abandoned since 1974 just another casualty of the deinstitutionalization movement the main buildings were what you'd expect peeling paint broken windows graffiti everywhere every room rre of mold and Decay except except for the children's Ward that Wing was different while everything else crumbled around it that section looked almost preserved the paint was still fresh the windows were intact even the children's drawings were still taped to the walls the colors as bright as the day they were made my crew said it felt like walking into a time capsule if only we'd recognized that for the warning it was the first red flag should have been how none of our equipment worked properly near the West Wall brand new tools would die for no reason batteries drained in minutes even our phone would shut off only to turn back on with their photo galleries filled with pictures of empty playground swings my crew kept complaining about cold spots even in the middle of July then Jimmy my best demolition guy swore he heard singing coming from behind the wall a children's nursery rhyme he didn't recognize something about Ring Around the doctor and All Fall Down we finally broke through last Thursday the wall wasn't on any of the original Blueprints and behind it I God I still can't believe what we found a perfectly preserved playroom like someone had sealed it up and thrown away the key everything was exactly in place colored blocks stacked in Towers half finished puzzles on the tables tiny chairs arranged in a circle like the kids had just stepped out for a moment a toy tea set was laid out the plastic cup still half full of what looked like water we later tested it and the cups were filled with water and the liquid hadn't evaporated in 50 years the creepiest part no dust not a speck like time had just stopped in there and the walls the walls were covered in handprints small handprints at Children's height some looked like they were made in paint others I don't know how to describe it some look like they were made in paint others I don't want to think about what made those other marks we found the log book next tucked away in a nurses station the last entry was from October 31 1973 it mentioned something about containing the incident and sealing away the contagion but what really got me was the patient list 17 children all listed as discharged on the same day no follow-up locations no parent signatures nothing just 17 names and beside each one a single red mark I would have walked away right then but the bank wanted video documentation for the insurance so I set up security cameras standard procedure for demolition sites that night reviewing the footage from my truck I saw it at exactly 3:17 a. m. the playroom lit up the toys started moving on their own you could hear children laughing playing singing those old nursery rhymes but the cameras showed empty rooms then then one of the um then one of the uh then one of the Rock horses you know turned toward the camera and in one of the rocking horses um uh turned toward the camera um no I can't describe it I won't describe it I won't describe it but it it smiled at me uh I and uh its teeth there were too many teeth I submitted my resignation the next morning let someone else deal with this place but here's the thing that keeps me up at night I checked the county records those 17 kids no death certificates no transfer records nothing it's like they just vanished and now every night at 3:17 a.
m. my phone rings when I answer I hear children laughing they keep asking me to come play with them they say they're lonely yesterday I drove past the hospital the demolitions been postponed indefinitely some issue with the permits they say but I know the truth through the chain link fence I saw tiny handprints on the third floor Windows of the children's Ward and they were on the inside of the glass fresh ones different ones every day the hospital's still standing and sometimes when I drive past at night I see lights in those windows and if you listen carefully you can hear them singing they're still there those 17 children still playing still waiting and now they know we found them I've been getting calls from other construction companies asking about the job I tell them all the same thing double pay isn't worth it some places should stay sealed up some stories should stay buried and some games some games never end the weirdest part I just checked my phone's call history every night at 37 a. m.
there's an incoming call the number matches the hospital's old phone line the one that was disconnected in 1974 last night I made the mistake of answering on speaker phone the children's voices came through clearer than ever what did you leave us we miss you come back and play we say saved you a special seat in our Circle you know what haunts me most it's not the laughing or the handprints or even those late night calls it's something the old maintenance man told me before he died last week yes died they found him in the playroom sitting in one of those tiny chairs a smile Frozen on his face before that he told me children's souls are pure they don't know how to lie how to pretend or how to leave things unfinished when a child's game is interrupted it never really ends I understand now what he meant those 17 children weren't just trapped in that hospital they were trapped in a moment in 1973 someone decided these kids were too troubled too difficult too inconvenient they sealed them away behind that wall probably thinking they were containing whatever incident they feared but they didn't understand the most terrifying truths about children ah their innocence is their power adult Spirits might Haunt from anger or Revenge but children they haunt because they simply don't understand that they're gone to them it's still playtime it will always be playtime and now that we found them they want new friends to join their Eternal game last night I saw my 5-year-old daughter talking to her tablet the screen was black but she was laughing when I asked who she was talking to she said my new friends from the hospital they taught me a new game she turned the tablet toward me in its black screen I saw Reflections 17 small figures standing behind me when I spun around no one was there but in the tablet they were waving this morning I found her playing with a familiar looking toy tea set one I know we didn't own the cups were half filled of something that looked like water she says her new friends brought it they want me to join their tea party tonight at 3:17 a. m. my daughter's been singing their nursery rhyme All Day ring around the doctor Pockets full of pills ashes ashes we sealed the walls the doctor tried to cure us all but now it's time for him to fall the most innocent things are the most dangerous because innocence doesn't know when to stop should I have taken the night shift it seemed harmless at first until I found myself alone in the dark questioning every Creek and Shadow around me was Black Ridge psychiatric hospital just a job or was it a crumbling Monument to something long for Goten with its endless Halls damp walls and the faint metallic Tang in the air like old blood it felt like a place that refused to let go of its Secrets it was supposed to be routine quiet rounds sedated patience and long hours to get through alone but nobody told me how alive the building felt at night they didn't mention The Whispers The Shadows that didn't belong or the name I'd come to dread DrWhite the first thing I noticed about Black Ridge was the silence not the peaceful kind but the suffocating kind where every sound feels Amplified unnatural my footsteps echoed down the empty corridors as I walked behind Karen the dayshift nurse who was supposed to hand off duties to me she seemed tense avoiding eye contact as she explained the protocols medication schedules patient checks and a few tips for avoiding trouble W see she said abruptly her voice dropping do your rounds there quickly don't linger i' frowned why what's the issue with Ward C Karen stopped walking her grip tightening on the clipboard she carried she glanced at me her eyes heavy with something between pity and fear just follow the SCH ual you'll be fine I should have pressed her but I didn't maybe I didn't want to know by the time the Clock Struck midnight I'd settled into the rhythm of my shift WS A and B were uneventful patience sedated room silent except for the occasional soft snores or the mechanical beep of monitors I took my time checking vitals and jotting notes trying to shake the unease that clung to me since Karen's cryptic warning but the longer I delayed the heavier the thought of Ward SE weighed on me the hallway leading toward sea felt colder I told myself it was just the building and Black Ridge was ancient after all but the drop in temperature made my breath fog in the stale air the hum of the overhead fluoresence grew louder almost oppressive as I approached the heavy metal door that separated Ward SE from the rest of the hospital I hesitated staring at the worn brass plate that read Ward C my hand hovered over the door handle and for a moment I thought I heard something a faint rhythmic humming soft and distant I shook it off and pushed the door open the air inside was different heavy wrong it was like stepping into another world entirely the lights here flickered more often casting strange jittering Shadows on the walls the doors to the patient rooms were solid metal with small reinforced Windows they felt less like hospital rooms and more like cages the first patient I checked was a man named heral he was in his 40s his chart marking him as paranoid and prone to Violent outbursts but tonight he was still lying on his bed with his hands folded neatly across his chest his eyes were open staring at the ceiling but he didn't move or acknowledge me as I entered I took his vitals quickly and left my pulse quickening as I moved to the Next Room the second room was similar the patient a woman in her 30s sat motionless her gaze fixed on the corner of her room she whispered whispered something under her breath a string of incoherent words that made my skin crawl I didn't ask her to stop I didn't want to hear more by the time I reached room 307 the humming I dismissed earlier had returned louder now and unmistakably coming from inside my hand shook as I pushed the door open she was sitting on the edge of her bed her back to me the patient chart said her name was Eleanor a woman in her 60s who'd been committed decades ago for delusional psychosis her frail shoulders Rose and fell as she hummed the sound vibrating low and deep sending Shivers up my spine it wasn't a tune I recognized and the melody felt wrong like it wasn't meant for human ears elanar I said Softly stepping into the room I'm here to check on you are you all right she stopped humming abruptly and turned to look at me her movements were slow Jerky like a puppet on strings her eyes met mine wide and bloodshot and she smiled faintly DrWhite is coming she whispered I froze who's DrWhite her smile widened revealing teeth yellowed with age 3:00 she said her voice trembling he always comes at 3 a chill ran down my spine I glanced at the clock on the wall it was 12:45 a.
m. the rest of the shift dragged on but the feeling of unease never left I tried to convince myself Eleanor's words meant nothing just the ramblings of a troubled mind but the humming followed me faint and persistent echoing in the back of my head at 2:45 a. m.
I made my way back to Ward sea for another round the air grew colder with each step and the hallway seemed darker than before the emergency lights casting long flickering shadows as I entered the humming stopped silence fell so complete it felt like the entire building was holding its breath that's when I heard the footsteps they were slow deliberate and impossibly Loud against the lenium floor I turned toward the sound my flashlight trembling in my hand a figure stood at the far end of the hallway just Out Of Reach of the light he was tall his broad shoulders covered by a pristine white lab coat he didn't move didn't speak hello I called my voice cracking who's there no response uh the figure tilted its head almost curiously and stepped closer the light caught his face and my breath hitched his skin was pale almost translucent stretched tightly over sharp angular bones his eyes were sunken black pits that seemed to absorb the light and his smile it was too wide too sharp revealing rows of needlelike teeth DrWhite he rasped his voice echoing unnaturally in the empty hole I stumbled backward my flashlight slipping from my grasp the beam rolled wildly across the walls casting grotesque Shadows that seemed to dance and twist in time with the figure's movements when I looked up again he was gone I didn't finish my shift that night I ran straight to the security office desperate for proof of what I'd seen But when I asked the guard to pull up the footage the hallway was empty no figure no footsteps nothing when the morning staff arrived I confronted Karen she listened silently her face pale and drawn you saw him she said quietly it wasn't a question who is he I demanded what the hell is going on in this place Karen hesitated glancing around as if afraid someone might overhear DrWhite was real he worked here decades ago back when the hospital ran experiments unethical ones he did things to the patients things that no one talks about they say he died here but some of the patients she stopped herself shaking her head some say he never left I quit that morning but even now years later I can't escape the memories late at night when the world is quiet and the Shadows grow long I hear it the humming and and when I do I know he's still out there waiting for 3:00 I left Black Ridge psychiatric hospital that morning and never went back but the truth is I never really left the memories of those long suffocating hallways and flickering lights follow me everywhere a haunting shadow that refuses to fade I don't know what I saw that night whether it was a ghost a demon or something worse but I I know it was real and I know his name DrWhite there's a weight to that name now something heavy and unshakable it doesn't feel like just a name it feels like an invocation a doorway to something that should stay closed I've tried to tell myself it was all in my head a trick of the Mind brought on by exhaustion and fear but then I hear the humming faint and distant in the dead of night when I'm alone it seeps into my dreams into the spaces between waking and sleeping pulling me back to that cold red liid hallway the patients knew him somehow they still know him their Whispers weren't ramblings they were warnings DrWhite wasn't just a man he was something darker something the hospital tried to arrange face but couldn't his presence lingered feeding on the Despair and fear that soaked those walls like blood into fabric he wasn't just haunting Black Ridge he was Black Ridge its heart and its secret bound together by whatever atrocities had been committed in his name I can't help but Wonder was I marked that night did he see me does he know my name the way I know his sometimes I feel like he's watching just beyond the edge of the light waiting for the right moment to step forward and when the clock strikes three I wonder if I'll hear those deliberate footsteps slow and steady coming for me it started with the snowstorm the forecast had warned us but no one thought it would be this bad by the time I arrived for my shift the parking lot was buried and the wind howled so loud it drowned out the sound of my boots crunching through the snow the hospital looked like it was holding its breath standing against the storm inside it was no better the air was colder than usual and the fluorescent lights buzzed like they were on the verge of dying the hallways were eerily quiet and the usual hum of activity from the patients felt muted we'd gone into lockdown that afternoon the heavy steel doors sealing Us in to prevent anyone from wandering Into the Storm it was standard protocol for emergencies but it made the hospital feel less like a place of healing and more like a prison my first first inkling that something was wrong came during my rounds um Room 112 was assigned to Sarah um a patient with a long history of schizophrenia and paranoia um she was usually calm sitting on the edge of her bed uh murmuring to herself about angels and Devils but tonight she wasn't in her usual spot she was crouched in the far corner of the room her arms wrapped tightly around her knees rocking back and forth her head snapped up when I entered and her eyes God her eyes were bloodshot and wide like she hadn't blinked in hours Sarah I said softly stepping closer are you all right they're coming she whispered her voice trembling they're already here who's here Sarah she didn't answer her gaze dark Ed past me focusing on something over my shoulder her body stiffened and she started to shake I turned expecting to see a nurse or maybe another patient but the doorway was empty when I turned back to her she was smiling by the time I finished my rounds the tension in the hospital was palpable more patients were acting strangely some muttering incoherently others refusing to eat or move from from their beds one patient MrDavis had taken to staring at the ceiling his mouth moving silently like he was praying to something only he could see at first the staff wrote it off as Cabin Fever The Storm was unsettling the lockdown wasn't helping and we were all on edge but as the night wore on the symptoms became impossible to ignore patients who were normally nonviolent began banging on their doors screaming to be let out others scratched at the walls until their fingers bled uh their nails breaking off against the plaster one nurse swore she saw a patient in room 204 standing in the middle of his room his head tilted back at an impossible angle Whispering something in a language she didn't recognize the Turning Point came around midnight I was in the breakroom trying to warm my hands with a cup of stale coffee when the over headlights flickered for a moment everything went dark and the only sound was the storm raging outside then just as suddenly the lights came back on but something was wrong the emergency alarms had started blaring their shrill cries echoing through the Halls the lockdown doors slammed shut one after another trapping us inside over the intercom a garbled voice repeated the same message over and over containment protocol activated do not exit do not engage I ran to the nurses station where the rest of the staff was gathered the head nurse Linda was frantically typing into the computer trying to disable the lockdown what's going on I asked out of breath Linda shook her head her face pale I don't know the systems locked me out we're completely SE heed in then the scream started the sound came from The West Wing where the high-risk patients were kept it it wasn't just one person screaming it was a chorus dozens of voices wailing in unison I grabbed a flashlight and followed Linda and a few others toward the noise the hallways were freezing now our breath VIs ible in the dim light the closer we got the more I wanted to turn back something about the sound wasn't right it wasn't just fear it was joy we reached the west wing and stopped in our tracks the patients were out of their rooms standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the hallway Their Eyes Were wide unblinking and their mouths hung open in Twisted grins they swayed slightly like they were listening to music music only they could hear back to your rooms Linda shouted but they didn't respond instead one of them a man named Jacob stepped forward his movements were jerky unnatural like a marionette being yanked on strings he stopped a few feet from us and tilted his head his smile widening they've come he said his voice layered like two people speaking at once and you've let them in Jacob lunged at Linda before any of us could react his hands clawing at her throat she screamed as we pulled him off her his strength far beyond anything a man of his size should have had as we wrestled him to the ground the other patients began to move their footsteps synchronized their grins never faltering we barricaded ourselves in the nurses station Hearts pounding the patient's laughter echoing outside what the hell is happening one of the nurses whispered tears streaming down her face I didn't have an answer through the small window in the door I saw them the patients weren't trying to get in they were just standing there staring at the glass their eyes seemed to Glow in the dim light and their lips moved silently as if chanting I turned to the security monitor hoping for some clue some explanation what I saw made my stomach drop the patients weren't alone Shadows moved in the corners of the screen darting in and out of view they didn't have human shapes just dark writhing masses that seemed to seep out of the walls and Floors wherever the Shadows touched the patient movements became more ere IC their grins stretching wider Linda gasped pointing at the screen look at room2 Sarah was there but she wasn't alone her reflection was in the window staring back at her but the reflection wasn't copying her movements it was smiling by 3:00 a. m.
