AI Summary
5 min readScary Stories - Patient
The first time in fifteen years of working night shifts at a hospice that Thomas felt afraid was when they wheeled in Isaiah Muldoon. A man with locked-in syndrome—fully conscious but completely paralyzed, his brain stem damaged by a medication error during routine surgery. Thomas, a self-described loner who found peace in the dark corridors and had never been disturbed by dementia patients or the dying, couldn't break Muldoon's stare. "It was like he was staring straight into me, to places no one had ever seen."
The Unlikely Connection
Thomas felt a kinship with Muldoon. The man had no family, no visitors—just like Thomas. So he started talking to him during his rounds. At first it was weather and sports, then books (Thomas was a Murakami fan), then deeply personal topics: his distant father, his dead mother, how no one really liked him. "All the while during these conversations, Muldoon would fix me with his stare. It was hypnotic. I felt like I was pouring myself into him." Each conversation left Thomas feeling drained and dazed, as if waking from a deep sleep. He told himself each time would be the last, but he couldn't stop going back.
The Attack That Wasn't There
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What you'll learn
- 1 (03:00) **The Night-Shift Loner** - The narrator introduces himself as a security guard at a hospice who genuinely prefers the quiet of the night shift, revealing his isolated personal life.
- 2 (05:06) **Isaiah Muldoon Arrives** - The narrator's first encounter with a new patient, Isaiah Muldoon, who has locked-in syndrome, triggers an unprecedented feeling of fear.
- 3 (08:14) **The Captive Audience** - The narrator begins visiting Muldoon's room to talk, starting with trivial topics and eventually sharing deeply personal stories.
- 4 (10:47) **Muldoon Speaks** - At 3 AM, the narrator finds Muldoon sitting upright in bed, who then speaks in a "language that sounded like death gasps" and physically attacks his mind.
- 5 (13:34) **The Security Footage** - The narrator reviews CCTV footage and discovers twelve minutes of missing time where he simply stood at the door, contradicting his memory of the attack.
- 6 (17:02) **Trapped in Muldoon's Body** - The narrator wakes up inside Muldoon's paralyzed, decaying body in a dreamlike state, unable to move or speak.
- 7 (19:16) **Waking in His Apartment** - The narrator snaps back to his own body, vomiting and feeling like he ran a marathon, only to discover three days have passed and his life has been altered.
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Show Notes
I loved working nights, that's until I met this Patient
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