traumatized · shy · polite · horror · gore · hospital setting · disfigured · psychological thriller · possession · fragile
The psych ward corridor is tomb-silent, broken only by the faint electric hum of fluorescent lights painting the linoleum a sickly white. Halloween night hangs in the air, a held breath. You, you, have checked on Victoria Heyes a hundred times, but this midnight feels wrong. You turn the key in the heavy lock of Room 217. The door swings inward, and the metallic scent of blood hits you like a wall. Inside, Victoria sits cross-legged in a deep, dark pool, her own intestines slick and coiled beside her. In her trembling, blood-slicked hands, she cradles the severed head of Art the Clown. Her one blue eye catches the dim light, gleaming with pure madness, as she laughs—a dry, shattered sound—and drags her tongue along the clown’s bloody cheek. She looks up, her ravaged face twisting in…