Hours Until Morning: 10

I return to the staff break room to retrieve my cheese sandwich and attempt to eat it. I still don’t have much of an appetite, but I’ve got to have some sustenance to get through the night. Also, I want to send

Gabby an update text.

When I open up the fridge, my dinner is now touching the milk that has gone solid, but I try not to think about it. The sandwich is wrapped and inside a bag—it will be fine. The whole refrigerator has a sour milk smell to it. Maybe I really will clean out the refrigerator tonight. It will give me something to think about besides the guy in seclusion who apparently wants to kill us all.

But first, I need to send a text to Gabby.

I follow her instructions the same as before. I get right up close to the window, pressing my phone against the glass. But while the last time I got a couple of bars, this time my phone still says “No Service.” So I can’t receive any of the messages that have come through since I got here, and I can’t send any either.

Great.

I drop my phone back in my scrub pocket and return to my gross sandwich. It’s bread, mustard, and two-year-old American cheese. It might

be the worst sandwich I’ve ever had. But it’s the only food I brought tonight.

As I take a bite of my sandwich, footsteps grow louder outside the door.

I lay down my sandwich on the table. “Cam?” I call out.

There’s no answer.

This time I carefully push back my seat and stand up. I squint at the open doorway to the staff lounge. “Cameron?” I say. When there’s no answer, I try again: “Dr. Beck?”

There’s no answer. But the footsteps grow louder. “Jade?” I say in a choked voice.

There’s no reason to panic. Just because somebody is walking around right outside the door, it doesn’t mean someone is trying to attack me. I’m sure I’m perfectly safe. There’s only one dangerous patient on this unit, and he’s locked in seclusion.

Isn’t he?

I step tentatively in the direction of the door to the lounge. Just before I reach it, a figure appears in the doorway, completely filling the open space. It takes me a second to recognize Miguel, the man who greeted us when we first came in. The guy who thought he was the son of God.

He’s still wearing four T-shirts all on top of each other, adding even more width to his already bulky frame. Except he’s got something on his face now. He has white streaks across his cheeks that look like warpaint. Although when he gets closer, I think it might be cream cheese.

“You,” he says.

I stare at him. “Are… are you okay?”

“No, I not okay,” he says in his accented English. “I told you, my father say I need to get outta here. Quiero ir.”

“I’m sorry.” I look over his shoulder, hoping somebody else is watching this exchange. That it’s not just the two of us alone out here. “I don’t have the authority to let you leave.”

His bloodshot eyes make contact with mine. “You got the code?” 347244. I’ve got it written down in my phone, but I memorized it too.

“No. I’m afraid not.”

“Damn.” His face falls. “We gotta get the code. My father say we gotta get out of here.”

“How about in the morning?” I suggest gently.

“No, you don’t understand.” Miguel grits his teeth. “The morning is too late.”

“But why?” I press him.

“Because my father say Damon Sawyer is gonna kill us all by the morning. Kill us all. Muerto.”

As he utters the words, a sickening thump echoes from deep in the hallway. The whole wall seems to vibrate this time. I’m not certain, but I think it’s coming from Seclusion One.

The man inside is trying desperately to get out. But he can’t. He can’t.

“Excuse me,” I manage. I push past Miguel and race into the hallway, breathing hard. Whatever else, I don’t want to be alone anymore. I’ve got to find Cameron or Dr. Beck or Ramona or somebody. I can’t be the only staff member here. It’s not safe. That much is obvious.

Except the hallway is completely silent. Where is everyone?

I check behind me. Miguel hasn’t followed me. I hear a soft buzzing sound, which means he’s trying to get out but he doesn’t know the code. I hear it a second time. He’s trying numbers, attempting to escape.

I walk briskly through the silent hallways, the fluorescent lights flickering overhead. Granted, it’s late. But it shouldn’t be this quiet on a psych ward. Should it?

I finally run the full loop around the circle, and I come across the door labeled Attending Physician. I don’t want to bother Dr. Beck, but it feels like he ought to know that one of his patients is trying to escape the unit. So after a few seconds of contemplation, I knock on the door.

After a moment of shuffling, the door cracks open. Dr. Beck is standing in the doorway, wearing only his scrubs, his white coat tossed haphazardly on a sofa in the corner of the office that I suspect doubles as a bed on overnight shifts.

“Hi, Amy.” He squints at my face. “You okay?” “Fine,” I lie.

“What’s up?”

For a moment, I stand there, frozen, having forgotten my reason for coming here in the first place. Then it hits me. “That guy Miguel is trying to get out. He’s typing codes in the door, trying to get it to open.”

“Oh.” Dr. Beck shrugs. “Well, that’s okay. He doesn’t know the code, so he’s not going anywhere.”

I feel slightly deflated by his response. I had hoped he’d march over to the door and take care of the situation. But I suppose he’s right. As long as none of the patients on the unit know the code to the door, nobody is going anywhere. The only people who can leave are me, Cameron, Ramona, and Dr. Beck.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Amy?” he asks gently.

“Yes,” I say, although with a little bit less certainty than before. “It’s just hard being here all night. That’s all.”

He nods sympathetically. Unlike Cameron, he’s got the empathy thing down pat. I bet he’s incredible with patients. He’s young, but he’s got the air of somebody who has been doing this for many years. “I get it. I forget how scary it can be the first time.”

I manage a smile. “You were scared on your first night in a psych ward?”

“You have no idea.” He grins at me. “One of the patients—this guy built like a linebacker—followed me around the unit the entire night. He didn’t try to hurt me, but wherever I went, he was there. Like my shadow.” He cocks his head. “In retrospect, he just wanted to talk to me. But I was too scared to realize it.”

“Has… has a patient ever tried to hurt you? Like, physically?”

“Yes.” His brown eyes darken slightly, but he decides not to elaborate. “But that was a completely different situation. Nothing bad is going to happen here tonight. Nobody here wants to hurt you.”

“Except Damon Sawyer,” I blurt out.

Dr. Beck’s eyes widen. “He… you didn’t open the door to the seclusion room, did you?”

“No! Of course not!”

“Good.” His shoulders relax. “Look, it’s unusual to get patients like him here. But he’ll be gone in the morning. And he’s not going to hurt anyone as long as he’s locked in that room. He can’t get out—trust me.”

Except he already got out of the restraints.

Dr. Beck looks down at his watch and back up at me. “Soon everyone will be going to sleep. Try to get some reading done, and if it’s quiet, you’re welcome to sleep in one of the empty patient rooms.”

There is no chance in hell I’m going into one of those patient rooms and sleeping in the bed. No way. I’ll tough it out on the sofa in the lounge.

Cameron is still trying to make nice after what he did to me, so he’ll definitely let me have it.

Dr. Beck goes back into his office, leaving me all alone in the hallway. He’s right. I should try to do some reading and then get some sleep. Soon enough, it will be morning.

I turn around to go back to the staff lounge, hoping to finish my sandwich. But the second I turn around, I realize somebody has been standing behind me.

It’s Jade.