Nathan set his laptop in front of him, connected to the cameras he had installed earlier. His hands trembled slightly as he hit the power button, staring at the empty morgue from the comfort of his car.
Nathan’s heart raced as he went through the recordings. The noise was growing louder, coming from somewhere in the morgue. His fingers were shaking as he clicked through each camera, desperately hoping for some sign, something to prove he wasn’t just imagining it.
And then, on one of the screens, he saw a movement. The heavy door creaked as it moved on its own, inch by inch. Nathan’s breath hitched. What the hell is this? he thought, his eyes wide. What he saw next made him freeze in horror.
Nathan’s eyelids grew heavy, his head nodding with exhaustion. After a brutal shift in the ER, the morgue was the last place he wanted to be. But as the youngest nurse at Saint Luther’s, he was always the first to fill in when duty called—even if it meant facing his worst nightmare.
Saint Luther’s Hospital was infamous for its understaffing. With local clinics shut down, patients flooded in—double the usual load. The place was a pressure cooker, and no one could afford a break. Nathan’s first month had been a whirlwind, but nothing prepared him for this.
It hadn’t been Nathan’s choice. Saint Luther’s was the only hospital within 20 miles that accepted his internship. By week two, he was already stuck in the morgue. The dead, the cold, the silence—it was enough to rattle anyone. But little did Nathan know, the cold was about to become the least of his concerns.
It had been a typical day for Nathan—at least, that’s how it felt at first. He spent the morning assisting doctors in the pediatrics ward, comforting worried parents, and keeping the kids calm. Everything was routine, a steady flow of patients and procedures. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Then, the ER doors burst open. A massive influx of patients poured in—a car accident, multiple injuries, chaos. Nathan barely had time to breathe between helping administer first aid and assisting with surgeries. The hours blurred into one long, grueling stretch of exhaustion.
By the time his shift ended, Nathan felt like a zombie. But the morgue was waiting. Reluctantly, he made his way down the cold, dimly lit hallway. It wasn’t the most glamorous job, but it was quiet. And at that moment, Nathan craved silence more than anything.
He took a seat at the desk, his back aching from hours of standing and moving. The room felt strangely still, except for the hum of the fluorescent lights above. Nathan stretched, trying to shake off the fatigue. It was just another night, another round of waiting.
Morgue duty wasn’t complicated. You sat, you waited, and you were ready if someone needed equipment or if a new body arrived. For now, there was nothing to do but watch the clock tick slowly. Nathan let out a sigh, sinking deeper into the chair, his eyelids heavy.
Nathan sat up straight, the rustling sound now unmistakable. It wasn’t the air conditioning. It wasn’t the hum of the lights. The faint movement echoed from somewhere in the room. His heart skipped a beat. He was alone in the morgue. So, where was the noise coming from?
He listened intently, but the sound stopped as quickly as it started. The silence that followed was suffocating. Nathan shook his head, blaming it on his exhaustion. “Just tired,” he muttered to himself, forcing a chuckle and went back to resting his eyes.
Nathan closed his eyes again, letting the fatigue take over. For the longest while, everything felt okay—quiet, peaceful, like any other night. The hum of the lights, the cold air, and the silence were all he needed to lull him back to a dozing state.
But then, the sounds came again. This time, louder. The rustling was unmistakable, echoing from somewhere in the morgue. Nathan’s eyes snapped open. His heart raced as the noise seemed to grow closer. He was alone, wasn’t he? Alone in this cold, desolate room.
He stood up, unease crawling up his spine. The sound was unnerving, as though it was moving around him, coming from different directions. Nathan took a cautious step forward, scanning the space. The room was still—no one was there, no movement. Everything was as it should be.
Nathan hesitated, still uncertain. The sounds had been so real, so tangible. He peered around once more, checking the shadows in the corners. Everything was in place, no sign of disturbance. He exhaled sharply, trying to calm his racing heart, reminding himself it was just the exhaustion playing tricks.
But the chill in the air lingered as he stepped toward the door, deciding to check the hallway. It was empty—silent, just like always. The corridor stretched out before him, leading to storage rooms and the exit. No signs of life, no movement. Just the eerie stillness of the hospital at night.
Nathan lingered for a moment, his breath shallow, before stepping back into the morgue. He locked the door behind him, the faint sound of rustling still haunting his ears. Whatever was happening, he couldn’t explain it. But one thing was certain—he was alone in this part of the hospital, and something didn’t feel right.
The next morning, Nathan dragged himself back to the hospital, his mind still heavy with the events of the previous night. He found a senior nurse in the break room and, after a moment of hesitation, decided to mention his strange experience.
“Oh, maybe your initiation has begun,” the nurse said with a chuckle, clearly amused. “It’s just part of the job here at Saint Luther’s.” She gave him a knowing look, the kind that implied he’d soon understand.
Nathan blinked, puzzled. “Initiation? What do you mean?” The nurse shrugged. “Saint Luther’s pranks are a rite of passage. Every new recruit has to go through it. Things go missing, strange noises, misplaced patient charts..” Her voice was casual, as if she was letting him in on the inside joke.
Nathan’s mind began to clear as he remembered his first assignment to the morgue. The doctor who had warned him with a smile, “Watch out, the morgue is haunted. You never know what you’ll find in there.” At the time, he’d thought it was a joke, just another way to mess with the new guy.
With the nurse’s reassurance, Nathan relaxed. It was all part of the tradition—nothing to worry about. The strange noises, the unsettling feelings—they were all just harmless pranks designed to mess with his head. He let out a quiet laugh, realizing he had been far too jumpy the night before.
That night, Nathan walked into the morgue with a sense of calm. He wasn’t going to let the pranks faze him. After all, it was all part of the job. The strange noises, the rustling, even the eerie silence—he had been prepared for it. He was ready.
As the night settled, the familiar sound of faint rustling echoed in the morgue once again. It sounded like someone shifting, the sound of clothes rustling. Nathan paused, his ears straining. The sound was subtle but unmistakable. He shook his head, dismissing it as another harmless prank.
He closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair, determined to shake off the unease. His eyelids grew heavy, and soon enough, he drifted into a light sleep. The hours passed, and Nathan didn’t even realize when he finally succumbed to exhaustion.
Suddenly, a loud bang shattered the stillness. Nathan’s eyes flew open, his heart pounding. A dark figure appeared in the window panel of the door, sprinting toward the exit. The shape was swift, fleeting—nothing more than a shadow. Nathan’s breath caught in his throat, panic seizing him.
For a moment, fear paralyzed him. His mind raced, trying to make sense of what he had seen. His body tensed, adrenaline flooding his system. But then, with a shaky breath, Nathan calmed himself. “Ha ha, very funny guys,” he said loudly, trying to steady his nerves.
He exhaled deeply, letting the tension melt away. It was just another prank. The figure was probably someone in a dark uniform, messing with him. Nathan laughed at himself, trying to shake off the lingering fear. After all, it was all part of the tradition. Nothing more.
The next morning, Nathan began his shift as usual, but something felt off. As he entered the break room, his senior attendant called him over with a serious look. “Nathan, I need to talk to you,” the attendant said, his tone urgent. “Several bundles of PPE kits and bottles of formaldehyde are missing from the morgue.”
Nathan blinked, caught off guard. “Missing? What do you mean?” he asked, trying to sound calm. The attendant’s frown deepened. “They’ve disappeared. And since you’ve been on morgue duty the past week, I need to know if you’ve seen anything unusual.”
Nathan laughed, brushing it off. “Oh, I know what you’re doing,” he said with a grin, thinking it was another prank. The attendant stared at him, confused. “What are you talking about?” Nathan’s smile faded as he tried to mask his nervousness.
“Isn’t this part of the initiation? The strange noises in the morgue, missing items… I figured it was just another prank.” The attendant’s expression grew more serious. “No, it’s not,” he replied, his voice firm. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but these items are missing, and you need to submit a report on it.”
Nathan’s heart sank. He had been so sure the strange occurrences were just part of the tradition. But now, hearing his senior’s serious tone, doubt began to creep in. He thought about mentioning the dark figure he had seen in the morgue, but he hesitated.
He knew he couldn’t admit to falling asleep, only to be startled awake by a fleeting shadow. The thought of sounding crazy, or worse, like a frightened rookie, kept him quiet. Instead, he just nodded, feeling the weight of the situation sink in.
“I’ll submit the report,” Nathan said, his voice more subdued than before. As he walked away, he couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something wasn’t right. The pranks, the missing equipment—it was all starting to feel like more than just a joke.
Nathan trudged into the morgue that night, his mind heavy with the thought of the missing equipment. He’d had several cups of coffee to keep him alert, determined to face whatever was going on. He couldn’t shake the sense that something was off, but he couldn’t let fear control him.
As he settled into the chair, the silence felt thicker than usual. The faint rustling sound, which he had convinced himself was part of the prank, started again. This time, it was louder, more persistent, and the air around him felt colder. He rubbed his arms, trying to ignore the chill.
He heard a sharp clatter. A clipboard fell from the counter, hitting the floor with a loud crash. Nathan’s heart skipped a beat as he froze, his eyes darting to the source of the noise. He stood up, moving cautiously toward the counter, but there was nothing—nothing out of place. The clipboard was simply on the floor, like it had fallen by itself.
A sense of unease settled deeper into Nathan’s chest. He took a shaky breath and bent down to pick up the clipboard, trying to rationalize it. Maybe it was just a draft, he thought. Or maybe I just nudged it without realizing. But even as he said that to himself, the air around him felt wrong, colder than it had moments before.
He started to return to his seat, but a movement caught his eye. The shadowy figure appeared again, just by the door’s window. It was darker this time, its form more defined—almost as if it were watching him. Nathan’s breath caught in his throat. He blinked, and the figure was gone.
His pulse quickened. It’s just my imagination, he thought, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t alone. The morgue, which had always been a quiet, sterile place, now felt suffocating. He couldn’t explain the sensation that someone—or something—was watching him from the shadows.
By now, Nathan was shaking, his hands clammy. He couldn’t rationalize away everything. The noises, the shadows, the sudden drop in temperature—it was all too much. He could feel the panic rising in his chest. His thoughts raced as he tried to reason with the panic rising in his chest.
The sudden clattering noise echoed down the hallway, sharp and jarring. Nathan’s heart raced as the sound reverberated through the morgue, but he couldn’t summon the energy to check if it was a prank or something else. He quickly shot a text to his supervisor: Feeling sick, going home for the night. Then, without another thought, he grabbed his things and left.
Nathan tossed and turned all night, too spooked to sleep. The noises from the morgue replayed in his mind, the shadowy figure lingering in his thoughts. Every time he closed his eyes, he could feel the weight of the morgue’s cold silence, and every creak of his bed’s frame sent him into a panic.
By morning, he had gotten no sleep. He sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the floor, replaying the events in his mind. The rustling, the shadows, the temperature dropping—the whole night had felt wrong. It didn’t feel like a prank, but the thought of ghosts was too much to bear.
His mind wrestled with the dilemma: Could it really be ghosts? The rational part of him rejected it, but nothing about last night had felt natural. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was on the edge of something terrifying. One thing was certain, though—he wasn’t going to let this thing haunt him, not this early in his career.
That morning, Nathan decided he wouldn’t just sit back in fear. He stopped at a hardware store before heading to work, picking up motion sensors, cameras, and a few microphones to set up his own investigation. He was determined to get to the bottom of what was happening in that morgue.
At work, during his lunch break, Nathan discreetly installed the cameras and motion sensors in the morgue. He placed them in corners, behind equipment, ensuring no one would notice. The sensors were meant for tracking pets, but he figured they’d do the job just fine for detecting movement, whether it was a person or something more sinister.
He finished up his task quickly, keeping an eye on the clock to avoid suspicion. His hands shook as he adjusted the cameras, a mixture of fear and determination driving him. He didn’t know what he was about to uncover, but he couldn’t live in fear anymore—not without answers.
That night, Nathan decided against entering the morgue. He trudged down the hallway like any other night, but instead of heading for the door, he turned and made his way to his car, parked behind a tree near the exit. His laptop sat on the passenger seat, its screen glowing faintly.
He couldn’t bring himself to return to the morgue—not after everything he’d experienced. Part of him thought that whatever was haunting the place might reveal itself more freely if he wasn’t physically present. The other part of him, the part drenched in fear, was simply too terrified to go back inside.
Nathan set his laptop in front of him, connected to the cameras he had installed earlier. His hands trembled slightly as he hit the power button, staring at the empty space of the morgue from the comfort of his car. For a while, nothing happened. Just the silence of an empty room, the occasional flicker on the feed, and the eeriness that hung in the air.
Maybe I’m overreacting, Nathan thought, trying to calm his racing heart. It’s just a prank, something I haven’t figured out yet. But the longer he watched the screen, the more his doubts began to grow. The morgue seemed too still, too quiet. He’d heard the noises, seen the shadows. But now… there was nothing.
He leaned back in his seat, frustrated. Maybe the ghosts only show themselves when someone’s in there, he reasoned. They wouldn’t act up if I’m sitting here like a fool in my car. He glanced at the time, feeling the hours stretch on. Still nothing. Maybe it was all in his head. Maybe he’d been chasing shadows.
As the minutes ticked by, Nathan’s mind started to wander. Why am I even doing this? he thought. If I’m really just imagining things, then I’m wasting my time. He was about to give up, preparing to head back inside when the microphone feed suddenly picked up a sound.
The zipper. It was faint at first, but unmistakable—the slow, deliberate sound of a zipper being undone. Nathan froze. His breath caught in his throat as he quickly switched to the microphone feed. This is it, he thought. Something is happening. His eyes flicked from camera to camera, but still, he couldn’t see what was making the noise.
Then came the familiar sound of clattering. Nathan’s heart raced as he searched the feeds. The noise was growing louder, coming from somewhere in the morgue. Please let there be something on these cameras, Nathan begged himself. His fingers were shaking as he clicked through each camera, desperately hoping for some sign, something to prove he wasn’t just imagining it.
And then, on one of the screens, he saw it—the morgue cabinet slowly opening. The heavy door creaked as it moved, inch by inch. Nathan’s breath hitched. What the hell is this? he thought, his eyes wide. What he saw next made him freeze in horror.
Nathan felt a cold chill sweep through his body as he saw a black figure crawl its way out of the morgue cabinets. His pulse raced as the figure walked through the morgue, almost blending in with the shadows.
Nathan watched in utter horror, his heart hammering in his chest as the black figure moved slowly through the morgue. It blended into the shadows, its shape barely discernible, yet its presence was undeniable. His eyes were glued to the screen, unable to look away, even as terror gripped him.
Then, as if in some horrifying synchronicity, two more figures crawled out from different cabinets, their bodies contorting as they moved with unnatural ease. They moved like shadows, their movements deliberate and eerie. Nathan felt his throat tighten, a cold sweat forming on his skin.
Every muscle in Nathan’s body screamed at him to move, to do something—anything—but he couldn’t. His fingers trembled as he reached for his phone, his mind screaming for him to call for help, but his body refused to obey. He was frozen, completely paralyzed by the sight before him. He couldn’t look away.
The figures’ movements were slow and precise, but each time they shifted or crawled, Nathan’s stomach twisted in knots. The fear he felt wasn’t just physical—he was terrified by the impossibility of it. He was seeing things that couldn’t possibly be real, yet everything about the figures screamed that they were.
The seconds felt like hours as Nathan sat in the car, the screen flashing images of the shadowy figures creeping through the morgue. His breath was shallow, his mind racing to comprehend what he was seeing. The terror kept him rooted to the seat, but then something shifted.
One of the black figures started making its way toward the cabinets. Nathan watched in disbelief as it reached into one of the drawers, pulling out bottles of formaldehyde with a slow, deliberate motion. His eyes widened in confusion. What were they doing? What was happening?
Then, to his growing horror, the other two figures did the same. They reached for boxes of PPE kits, stacking them methodically, moving with purpose. The sight sent a shockwave through Nathan’s brain.
Nathan’s fear morphed into confusion. What he was watching no longer made any sense. The figures weren’t haunting the morgue; they were acting as if they had a goal—an intention. They were gathering tools, preparing to leave. Nathan felt an urgent need to stop them, but he had no idea how.
His mind scrambled for a plan. He couldn’t just sit there and watch this happen. They were getting closer to the hallway, and Nathan’s mind snapped into action. He started his car and sped toward the exit, heart racing as he quickly parked it horizontally to block the door.
Once Nathan blocked the exit, panic consumed him. He had no time to think—just instinct took over. He couldn’t take on all three figures alone. His heart hammered in his chest as he scrambled to figure out what to do next. The only thought that made sense was to get help.
He flung open the car door and bolted toward the hospital’s security desk, his breath coming in shallow gasps. The cold air bit at his skin, but nothing mattered except getting someone to listen. His legs burned with the urgency of his sprint, his mind whirling in a haze of fear.
When he finally reached the security room, he was out of breath, his body trembling. “There… three black shadows… near the morgue…” he gasped, barely able to catch his breath. His words came out in frantic bursts, but he could barely make sense of them himself.
The security guards looked at him, confusion painted on their faces. “What are you talking about?” one of them asked, trying to process his words. Nathan’s pulse raced, his panic escalating. “Please! Just go to the morgue! They’re—black shadows—stealing stuff!” His voice was on the edge of hysteria, and desperation rang in every word.
Finally, something in his panic seemed to ignite their response. The guards exchanged glances, then sprang into action. One grabbed a radio, instructing others to head toward the morgue. Nathan, still breathless and wild-eyed, followed them as fast as he could, his feet stumbling beneath him.
As they reached the morgue, the figures were still there, moving stealthily in the shadows. The officers moved swiftly, surrounding the figures. The tension was thick, like a countdown to something inevitable. Nathan watched in horror, unable to take his eyes off the figures as the officers grabbed them.
The hoods came off, revealing something far worse than any ghost—men, wearing black bodysuits, their faces hidden beneath tight masks. The officers hauled them up, revealing what Nathan hadn’t expected: the thieves had been hiding in the morgue, using body bags as cover.
The officers soon uncovered the extent of their operation. These criminals had been sneaking into the morgue under the guise of corpses, hiding in plain sight. When night fell, they crawled out of the bags, taking various morgue equipment and other medical supplies, selling them on the black market. Nathan’s mind reeled. He had thought he was witnessing the supernatural—but this was much worse than any ghost.
The operation had been ongoing for months, unnoticed by anyone except Nathan. The morgue, isolated and rarely checked, became a perfect hiding spot for the thieves. The hospital, overwhelmed and understaffed, never thought to question the missing supplies. It wasn’t until Nathan, with his fresh eyes, started to notice the anomalies.
For his quick thinking, Nathan was commended by the hospital. They recognized his courage in uncovering the thefts and rewarded him for his initiative. But despite the praise, the real reward came in the form of relief—knowing that he had faced something terrifying head-on and put a stop to it.
As Nathan drove to work the next day, a sense of peace settled over him. The morgue, once filled with dread, no longer haunted him. The shadows had been cleared, and the weight lifted. For the first time, he felt ready to face whatever came next, knowing he could handle it.