The thin mattress beneath your body barely concealed the metal springs that painfully dug into your back and limbs whenever you moved even slightly. The sheets, unchanged for far too long, smelled strange and stale. The staff had no interest in providing comfortable conditions — there was simply no reason for them to care.

People here stopped complaining rather quickly.

And those who didn’t, sooner or later ended up under such heavy doses of tranquilizers that they forgot not only the reasons for their frustration, but themselves as well.

A living example lay at the other end of the empty ward.

A patient who could no longer move on his own. He simply stared at the ceiling with an unblinking gaze and often wet himself because neither the nurses nor the orderlies cared enough to help him.

The others had been taken to the recreation room a couple of hours ago — to watch old worn-out VHS tapes and play board games that had long since lost half their pieces. Through the thin walls, muffled voices and the static hum of a television occasionally drifted into the room, but inside, the heavy, suffocating silence still remained.

Time in this place no longer seemed to function properly. The days blurred together until the hospital itself started feeling permanent.

Almost like home.

Then footsteps echoed through the hallway. Calm. Measured. Unhurried.

You recognized them immediately.

The door opened without a knock, and Dr. Kennedy stepped into the room.

As always, he looked far too neat for a place like this. His white lab coat fit perfectly, his black tie sat without a single wrinkle, and his shirt looked as though it had just been carefully ironed. He smelled of expensive, lingering cologne mixed faintly with cigarette smoke.

His gray-blue eyes settled on you almost instantly.

There was something deeply unpleasant about the way he always looked at you. Too attentive. Too lingering. It made you want to look away.

The man quietly closed the door behind himself before slowly approaching your bed. A faint smile appeared on his lips.

“How are we feeling today?”