Working the Night Shift - 1. Chapter 1 - Working the Night Shift

I graduated with a nursing degree in May, and then I took off a couple of weeks to unwind before I started looking for a job. I wasn’t sure if this delay hindered my chance to procure a job, but I didn’t get any response to my letters of application for the first few months. I was becoming discouraged and anxious at the same time, but after three months of silence, I finally received a phone call from a prospective employer. After an initial phone interview with the personnel director, I was invited to come in for a more in-depth interview for a job at the Valley View Nursing Home.

After meeting with the Healthcare Administrator and the head nurse, I wasn’t overly optimistic. They were both very businesslike and didn’t show very many emotions or give me any signals, so I had no idea if they were impressed with my credentials. After sitting around for a few more days waiting to hear back from them, my phone finally rang and I was offered a position.

I took it without hesitation, since I was desperate, although it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. However, the pay was decent and I’d be gaining experience in the process, which would be a definite plus if I decided to look for another job. This position would also allow me to support myself and not have to rely on my parents, because I’d soon have to start paying on my educational loans. For those reasons, I didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

I was assigned to start on the overnight shift, which didn’t bother me. I figured the patients would be sleeping most of the time, so with the exception of emergencies, I thought this job should be fairly easy. Even so, I showed up more than an hour early for my first shift, since I wanted to get a rundown on the patients and their problems from the previous shift before I started work. I walked up to the nurse’s station and introduced myself.

“Hi, I’m Royce Hunter and I’ve been hired to work the overnight shift. I thought I’d come in a little early so I could pick your brain about the patients and whatever else I might need to know.”

“Hi, I’m Pam Yoder and it’s nice to meet you, Royce. Let me show you what you’ll need to know about the nurse’s station first. As you can see, we have a monitor set up for each of the four major areas of the nursing home so we can keep an eye on the hallways. It’s so we can make sure that no patients are wandering around the halls when they should be in bed, and it’s also to help us keep an eye on the visitors.

“You may find this hard to believe, but we’ve caught a few visitors sneaking into the rooms of patients, other than the person they were there to visit. They were doing this so they could steal things from the patients that weren’t in their rooms at the time. The patient may have been using the recreation area, receiving some type of therapy, or just taking a nap when the theft occurred. No matter how it occurred, we’re trying to stop those incidents from taking place.”

“I appreciate the information, but I doubt I’ll have any problems with visitors, considering visitor hours will have ended by the time I start my shift. However, I may have to worry about patients wandering the halls and sneaking into other rooms.”

“You’re probably right, but I thought you should know about this, because you may not always be working the night shift. I merely wanted you to be aware of those problems in case you were transferred to another shift.”

“Thank you. I never considered that, since I’m just starting work here.”

“Now, let me get back to showing you the nurse’s station. This particular monitor scans the hallway of the critical care unit and that’s where we house the patients in the worst condition. I don’t want to alarm you, but quite a few of the people that work here have seen shadow figures moving around in that area on the monitor. There’s also a little girl that shows up occasionally as well.”

“You mean she wanders in here from outside?”

“No, that would be impossible, since all of the doors are locked as soon as visiting hours are over and a guard is stationed at the employee door 24/7. She merely appears. We were surprised the first time someone saw her, and then eventually she just vanished.”

“Did you do a search of the premises and look for her?”

“Yes, we did, but I didn’t mean she went somewhere else and was hiding. She completely disappeared right before our eyes.”

“Ohhh, I see. You mean she’s a ghost. In that case, have you ever had any children assigned here temporarily as patients and possibly one of them died?”

“No, we’ve never had any patients that were younger than in their fifties.”

“Hmmm, if you’re suggesting that this place is haunted then maybe there’s another explanation for it. Could the little girl be a patient who was suffering from dementia before she passed away and merely took on the younger persona she’d reverted back to in her mind?”

“That’s very possible. A lot of patients have died while they were here, since we cater to the elderly and many of them come to us in very dire condition. It’s just a fact of life, but why would anyone choose to stay here after they died?”

“I’m not certain, but it’s possible that those who are suffering from dementia are confused about who they are and what happened to them, so they don’t even realize their dead. It’s also possible that others feel they have nowhere else to go,”

“Yes, we have patents that never receive any visitors, so they might feel they don’t have anywhere to go.”

“That’s a very sad.”

“Yes, it is. So, do you think it’s possible that the ghost of one of the patients is still hanging around here that appears as a little girl?”

“We’ve debated this question and have come up with two possible answers. It’s either as you’ve suggested and it’s a deceased patient that reverted back to her younger self, or it might also be a young girl who lived around here before she died and has remained in the area ever since. Her house might have even been on this very spot prior to the nursing home being built.”

“In that case, is she wearing period clothing?”

“Yes, in fact she is. Have you ever seen the animated Disney movie Alice in Wonderland from the 1950’s?”

“Yes, I saw it on video when I was a kid.”

“Well, the little girl appears to be dressed similarly to what Alice was wearing in that film.”

“Ok, so maybe she did live in this area before the Nursing Home was built.”

“I agree, but I think I should get back to explaining a few more things to you about your new job. Now that I’ve told you about the monitors, I want to point out the wall behind us. This light,” she said as she pointed to it, “will go on if someone hits the call button in their room or if someone who’s being monitored has an emergency.”

“In other words, you’re saying that someone needs to be at the nursing station at all times to monitor that light.”

“Yes, and if it lights up, you’ll be able to narrow it down to which room and which bed by looking at this panel,” she stated as she pointed toward the panel below the warning light. “You’ll need to go there as quickly as you can to determine what the problem is. Other than that, I believe you’re ready to get started.”

“Thank you for pointing these things out to me. Will anyone else be working with me during my shift?”

“Yes, you won’t be working alone.”

“Ok, that’s good to know.”

“It’s now time for me to make my rounds and check that every patient is in bed, so why don’t you walk with me and I’ll be able to give you some other information that you should know as we go along.”

“That sounds good to me.”

As we walked, Pam told me about the patients in each room before we entered, and if the patients were awake, she’d introduce us. When we came to one particular wing, she stopped and turned to offer a word of caution before we entered.

“This is the critical care wing I was telling you about when we were looking at it on the monitors.”

“You mean the one with the ghost of the little girl and shadow figures.”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Has anyone ever seen any of those things in person when they’ve been in this wing or did they just spot them on the monitors?”

“Occasionally, someone has actually seen them in this area, so try not to panic if that happens to you.”

“I’ll do my best.”

We had stopped at a few of the rooms in this wing already and were just about to leave another of the rooms when a male patient grabbed ahold of my scrubs. When I stopped and turned toward him, he gave me the ‘come here’ signal with the index finger of his other hand, so I bent down so I could hear what he wanted to say.

“Beware of the man dressed in black and wearing an old fashion long suit jacket and top hat. He’s collecting souls.”

This was more than a little bizarre, so at first I thought the meds the man was taking had caused him to hallucinate. It’s also possible that he merely had a bad dream about this and now believed it was real, but I didn’t have time to think about this for very long. It’s because Pam had stopped and addressed me in a firm tone.

“Royce, we must keep moving if you want me to tell you about everything else before I leave.”

I merely nodded, and hurried to catch up with her. When I did, I thought I should apologize. “I’m sorry, but that patient grabbed ahold of my scrubs and wouldn’t let go, so I thought he might be having a problem. I merely stopped to see what he wanted.”

“Sometimes they do it because they’re lonely and just want to talk to someone, or maybe they just don’t want to be alone and desire a little company for a while. When that happens, you can’t allow it interfere with your job unless you’ve finished everything else already.”

Even though I had temporarily dismissed what the patient had said, it still bothered me, so I thought I’d ask Pam if she had any idea what the man was talking about. The thing was, I couldn’t do it right way, since I didn’t want to interrupt her. She was still telling me even more information that I needed to know, so I decided to wait and ask her later. For now, I concentrated on what she was saying and put the man’s comment out of my mind.

When Pam stopped to talk to another patient, I made up my mind that I was going to return to the critical care wing later, after Pam had gone home so I could ask the man what he meant by his comment. I still thought what he said was pretty bizarre, but I wanted to see if he could explain his claim and tell me what he meant by it.

Pam and I didn’t happen to see anything unusual while we were in the critical care unit, such as shadow figures or the little girl, and this relieved me slightly. At least now I knew it wasn’t something that would happen every time I was in that wing.

As soon as Pam finished her rounds, we made our way back to the nurse’s station, and as we approached the area, I saw another woman waiting there. Pam immediately walked up and greeted her, and then she turned toward me and introduced us.

“Royce, this is Crystal Simek, the other person that will be working with you. Crystal, this is Royce Hunter. He’s starting the overnight shift with you, and since he arrived early, I’ve given him a brief tour and rundown about the most important things he’ll need to know.”

“Thank you, that will help a lot,” Crystal replied.

“And after going around with Pam and hearing about the shadow figures and the ghost of the little girl, I’m not sure if I like the idea of starting work on the overnight shift on Halloween.”

“Oh, it’s not Halloween yet,” Crystal challenged.

“No, but it will be in another hour,” Pam stated. “That means you’ll be working the last seven hours of your shift on Halloween.”

“Ahhh, you’re right, but it never dawned on me to refer to it as the Halloween shift until Royce brought it up,” Crystal admitted. “I mean, I’ve only been here for nine months, so I’ve never worked the shift on Halloween before.”

“Well, good luck to both of you and I hope the night remains calm and quiet for you.”

After Pam left, I chatted with Crystal for a while and told her about myself, and I also had a chance to learn a little about her as well, besides the fact that she’d only been working here for nine months. She told me about her academic background and what she thought about working at the nursing home. When she finished, the conversation turned back to me.

“Did Pam show you the monitors and the wall?”

“Yes, she did.”

“And did she tell you about the critical care wing?”

“Yes, she did that as well.”

“Ok, and since you mentioned the shadow figures and the little girl, I take it that Pam told you about them as well, or did you see them while you were walking around with her?”

“She told me about them, but I didn’t see anything while we were in that area. However, it brings me to a question I’d like to ask you. Have you ever seen a man dressed in black and wearing a long old fashion suit jacket and a top hat in that area?”

“No, I haven’t, and I don’t recall anyone else mentioning anything like that either. Why are you asking about it? Did you see something like that?”

“No, but when Pam and I were coming out of one of the rooms in the critical care unit, a male patient grabbed ahold of my scrubs and told me to beware of him because he’s collecting souls.”

“That’s really strange and I have no idea what he was talking about.”

“Ok, but if you don’t mind, I’d like to go back and ask him if he can explain what he meant by that comment.”

“That’s fine with me, but you’d better take one of these radios with you, just in case the warning light comes on and I need you. As far as I’m concerned, though, you can have that wing all to yourself.”

“Does it mean you’ve seen something there before?”

“Yes! At first it was just dark shapes moving about, but then I saw the little girl.”

“Pam told me about her and said she was dressed like Alice in the Disney cartoon, Alice in Wonderland.”

“I guess that’s a good way to describe her, because she was wearing a full-length ruffled apron over her dress, but she didn’t have blond hair like Alice. The ghost had brown hair with a ribbon in it, and she was also younger than Alice. I’d say she might have been either six or seven-years-old. She also had a strange expression on her face, like she was confused.”

“That might be important to know as well. Ok, I’m going to walk back to the critical care wing and see if that patient is still awake.”

“Better you than me,” she scoffed as I walked away.

When I arrived at the man’s room, I saw his eyes were open so I walked over to his bed and asked my question. “What did you mean by what you said to me earlier?”

“The man dressed in black and wearing an old fashion long suit jacket and top hat is collecting souls.”

“Yes, I know that’s what you said, but what does it mean?”

“I’ve had two other roommates in the short time I’ve been here and they weren’t in this room for very long before they died, and both times he came into the room and collected their souls. For all I know, he might have even killed them, so I won’t sleep at night, because I’m afraid he’ll think I’m dead and try to take my soul too. He might even try to kill me, so I stay awake so I can fight him off. I sleep during the day when there are more people around instead.”

“How do you know he collected their souls?”

“I saw him pulling their souls behind him as he walked out of here.”

“What is he doing with their souls and where is he keeping them?”

“I don’t know what he did with them after he left the room and went into the hallway, but that’s your problem, not mine.”

“Well, don’t worry about that man then, because I won’t let him steal your soul.”

“I’m not sure you’ll be able to stop him.”

“Why not?”

“Because he’s a spirit, and unless he at least partially materializes in front of you, then there’s probably nothing you can do about it.”

“Then how were you going to stop him if he came to collect your soul?”

“He materialized briefly before he did that, but when they left, they were just shadow people.”

“Ok, but I still promise to do my best to stop him.”

When I left his room, I headed down the hallway and was planning on returning to the nurse’s station, but as I walked along, I scanned the area around me looking for shadow figures or the man in black. I wanted to see if I could spot any of them to help me make sense of what the patient had claimed. Was there really a man in black, and if there was, where might be he keeping the souls he collected?

I didn’t happen to see any ghostly figures or locate anyplace where the man in black might be keeping those souls, at least not until I spotted something I hadn’t noticed before. Near the end of the hallway leading out of the critical care unit, I saw a solid wooden door. Although I assumed it was probably just a storage closet or janitor’s room, I decided to check it out just the same.

As I pushed the door backward, I spotted a couple of push brooms, two dust mops, and two regular mops hanging from metallic wall mounts off to my right. Next to them was a small utility sink with a black hose attached to the spigot, and beside the sink was a mop bucket and wringer. However, across from those items I saw a set of stairs that led from the room and went down to a lower level.

I hadn’t even realized the nursing home had a basement, since from the outside the structure appeared to be all on one level and most likely constructed on concrete slabs. Curious about what might be down there, I located the switch that turned on the light over the stairway, as well as the lights on the lower level, and then I cautiously made my way down the stairs.

When I reached the bottom, I noticed a large furnace that presumably heated the entire building, and not very far from it was a high-volume hot water heater. As I continued to scan the area, I looked up and noticed there were multiple water and sewage pipes running along the ceiling and going in every direction as they made their way to and from the various rooms. I also saw there were other items stored along the walls, although I didn’t bother to stop and investigate those areas at this time, because I chose to say something out loud, just for the hell of it.

“If there are any souls down here that would like to be released so you can cross over to the other side, please come forward so I can see that you are here.”

I had barely finished speaking when a plethora of ghostly human forms, all elderly men and women, began to materialize right in front of my eyes. As soon as they appeared, they started moving toward me, and at the same time I spotted another shape out of the corner of my eye as it rushed in my direction.

“NO!” the voice commanded, and it sounded as if it was as cold and deep as the grave it came out of. “You can’t… have them. Your soul… is mine!”

It appeared as if it was taking a great deal of effort for it to speak, and that might be due to the fact that it hadn’t spoken out loud very often during the many years since his death. That’s because I recognized the figure was obviously the man in black that I’d been warned about.

He lunged at me, and without any warning thrust a hand into my chest. Even though I didn’t feel his hand enter my body, there was a coldness that chilled me to the core and took my breath away. I thought he was reaching for my heart or lungs so he could rip them out of my body, but that didn’t happen. Instead, he appeared to be searching for something else – he was trying to collect my soul.

“NO!” another hollow sounding disembodied voice countered. “You can’t… have him.”

When I looked up, the other figures that had been moving toward me earlier were transforming into younger versions of themselves. As soon as they’d completed the transition, they rushed my attacker and started pummeling him with their fists. A few others were grabbing ahold of his arms and attempting to extract his hand from my chest.

As soon as it came out of my chest, the other spirits wrapped their arms around the man in black’s arms and legs and lifted him off the ground. Even though the man in black continued to struggle and attempted to break free of their hold, there were just too many other spirits for him to overcome.

This led me to wonder why the other spirits had never done this before, and after thinking about it briefly, I thought of a possible explanation. It was because the man in black was trying to steal the soul of a young, living person, not someone on the brink of death.

Just as when we’re engaged in a fight or dealing with a dangerous situation, our adrenal gland starts pumping more adrenaline into our bodies, which gives us a surge of strength. I felt something similar must be happening here. Since the spirits are dead, I assumed the spiritual equivalent of an adrenaline spike was what allowed them to revert to their younger selves instead, and now they were capable of dealing with the problem.

As I watched, they began to carry the man in black away from this area, and when one of them turned his head and noticed I wasn’t following, he beckoned me with a wave of his arm. After thinking about it briefly, I realized that only the man in black had tried to do me harm and the other spirits had protected me, so I caught up with them.

I continued to follow them until they reached the far end of the basement, and that’s when I spotted a rectangular metal container with a domed lid that was sitting in a dark corner. As I moved closer, one of the spirits used his hand to summon me forward, and then he pantomimed that he wanted me to lift the lid.

I wasn’t sure if this would even be possible, but then I noticed the container wasn’t setting against the wall. There was a sufficient gap behind it that would allow enough space for the domed lid to open before it hit the wall, so it was technically doable. However, I was concerned if I had the strength to lift it.

It took every ounce of strength that I possessed to lift the lid, since it was so heavy, and after struggling with it for a bit, I finally got it open. I quickly glanced inside and spotted the skeletal remains of a person dressed in the same fashion as the man in black, so I assumed it was his body in the coffin.

I didn’t have long to think about it though, because my thoughts were interrupted. The spirit that had summoned me to follow them got my attention again, and this time he signaled that I was to step aside. Confused, I did as he wanted, and when I was out of the way, the spirits that had been carrying the man in black tossed him into the coffin.

He quickly got up on all fours and attempted to get out of the coffin again, but the other spirits surrounded the coffin and were preventing him from escaping. At that moment, the same spirit that had led me there pantomimed for me to close it. Since the wall had prevented the lid from opening all the way, it was much easier to close it, and it slammed shut with a loud metallic thud.

At this point, the spirit that had been letting me know what he wanted me to do, now motioned me to follow him again. He led me over to a workbench, and when we arrived there, he pointed at an open padlock that was setting on top of the workbench. This time he indicated that he wanted me to pick it up, and when I did, he motioned me to follow him again. I followed as he led me back to the coffin in which they had just trapped the man in black.

I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do, so I hesitated, and that’s when he pointed toward a hasp that had been welded onto the container. I hadn’t noticed this before when I opened and closed the coffin, so it must have been rusted against the lid. When I closed the coffin and the lid came down with a thud, it must have broken the hasp free.

While I was considering this, the spirit was very animated as he tried to get my attention, and when I finally looked up at him, he pointed at the hasp and the padlock in my hand. He wanted me to place the hinged half of the hasp and securely place it over the rounded piece, or the staple. Once that had been accomplished, he indicated that I should use the padlock to seal the coffin shut.

As soon as the coffin was secure, that spirit and the other spirits all began to disappear. I assumed this meant they were finally able to move on, at least I hoped that was the case, but I didn’t know for certain. This type of situation had never been covered in any of the nursing courses I’d taken, so I’d spent a good deal of the time acting on instinct and faith.

As I made my way up the stairs, I turned off the lights and exited the small room. I was once again standing in the hallway of the critical care unit.

As I thought back upon everything that had just happened, two thoughts suddenly crossed my mind. I wanted to know who the man in black was, when he was alive and why I hadn’t seen the little girl with the other spirits. I’d probably have to do some research in order to discover the answer to these questions, and it might help me learn why I hadn’t seen the little girl. The only thing I could think of was that her spirit wasn’t one of the souls the man in black had collected. It’s possible that she had already been there before he arrived.

This conclusion was reinforced when I realized the girl was the only spirit the other workers had seen that wasn’t merely a blur or a shadow. They had seen her in detail, so she was obviously stuck here for a different reason, but what was it?

The shadow figures seen previously had obviously been those whose souls that the man in black had collected. If that’s the case, then presumably the staff will no longer be seeing the shadow figures roaming about.

Before my shift ended, I made a point to return to the room of the patient who’d first warned me about this situation. I told him he no longer had to worry about the man in black and he had nothing more to fear. Since he didn’t appear to believe me and wasn’t reassured by my words, I explained what had happened in the basement. After hearing what I had to say, he appeared to relax and acted relieved, since the problem had been resolved.

I, however, wasn’t about to let it go so easily. I had a lot more questions that I wanted to find the answers to. Who was the mystery man in black and why had his body been placed in a lead coffin? I also wanted to discover how he had been able to collect the souls of the patients who had died at the nursing home?

On my next day off, I went to the local library to do some research and I decided to use the address of the nursing home as my starting point. When I asked the librarian how I could peruse older copies of the local newspaper, she told me it would depend on the year it was printed.

“Newspapers from 2000 to the present are stored digitally and I’ll provide you with the address of the website and provide you with a temporary password so you can access them on your laptop. If the newspapers you are seeking are from the 1960s to the 1990s, then they are stored on microfiche. I will be happy to show you how to access them and the machines you can use to read the information on them.”

“What if I want to look at newspapers that are much older than that?”

“In that case, copies of the newspapers from the 1950s are stored on 35 mm rolls of microfilm. The library also put the newspapers from January of 1900 to December of 1949 on rolls of microfilm as well. If those are the newspapers you are looking for, then I’ll be happy to show you how to locate the microfilm and attach the roll to a microfilm reader.”

“What if I’m looking for newspapers from the end of the Civil war to 1899? Where would I find that information?”

“Anything older than the 1900s and going back to the 1860s is a little more difficult. The library still has the original printed copies of those newspapers, but they are kept in large binders that are stored in a temperature-controlled room that is also monitored for humidity. If you wish to access those newspapers, you’ll have to follow some strict rules.”

“Like what?”

“First of all, you’ll have to be accompanied into that area before you can access those newspapers. You’ll also be required to wear a pair of white cotton gloves, and you’ll have to handle those newspapers very gently. If your chaperone feels that you aren’t adhering to these rules, he or she will trigger an alarm, and then you will be removed by a security officer.”

I was thrilled that the library still had the older copies of the local newspaper and I agreed to follow the rules. She took me back to that room and had one of the staff there assist me. After I told her that I wished to examine the copies staring in the 1870s and then I’d keep going until I found the information I was looking for.

“Maybe I can help you. Why don’t you tell me what you’re looking for?”

I told her I was looking for information about the buildings and people that lived on or near the site where the nursing home was now located.

“It might be very difficult to find anything like that, but I’ll bring the first binder to you.”

I started by perusing multiple years’ worth of the newspapers that had been printed right after the end of the Civil War. I figured it was most likely the time frame that would align with the attire of both the man in black, and the little girl, so it would be the logical place to start. Not only did I have to wear the white cotton gloves in order to handle these old and yellowing items, but I also had to be extremely cautions when turning the pages.

I was there for so long that I had several different chaperones working with me, and after several hours of searching through multiple editions of the newspaper, I spotted a sketch of the man in black on the front page of one of the copies. I eagerly read the article that went with the drawing, and before long I had the answers to most of my questions.

The article stated that the man’s name was Amos Dauberman and he was the local undertaker from 1863 and into the 1870s. What made him unique was that many of the services he offered were unusual for that period of time. In addition to making both coffins and cabinets in his workshop, the same services offered by most other undertakers of that time, he also offered some additional services. He would volunteer to retrieve the body from wherever the person had died, and then he’d wash the body thoroughly. He would also dispose of the clothing that the departed had been wearing at the time of death, because most people would defecate and urinate as they passed away.

Once the body was clean, he would dress the deceased in clothing provided by the family. He would then trim the moustaches and beards of the men who had them, and he’d shave the rest of the men to make them appear more presentable. After placing the body in the casket, he’d use a minimal amount of makeup on the women to make them appear more beautiful. He’d also comb the hair of the men and brush the hair of the women.

He would do something similar with the bodies of infants and children that had died, and occasionally he would place the child’s favorite toy in with the body. This was done to make it appear that the children were only sleeping.

Most of these services would be performed at the deceased’s home, although usually in a separate room, for modesty reasons. It was also due to the fact that there weren’t many funeral homes around at the time, so the viewing of the body and the funeral service would take place at the deceased’s home. This would happen in the parlor, and following the service he would offer to transport the body from the house to the cemetery.

He was able to do this in style, and not on some buckboard, because he owned an elegant horse-drawn hearse that was painted black. When he transported the body, he would wear a pair of black trousers, a long black suit jacket, and a top hat, the very same garments he was still wearing.

The article stated that since he performed these services at the home of the deceased, there were several occasions when a member of the family accidentally blundered into the room where he was working. During one of these instances, the intruder claimed that he had caught Amos doing vulgar, unnatural, and unspeakable things to their loved one. Although, the newspaper didn’t go into the details about what that was, it appeared to be enough to concern the other residents.

It was said that Amos was able to talk his way out of these incidents, but as time went on, rumors began to spread throughout the community. This made people suspicious about hiring Amos, but they didn’t have any alternatives, so the started keeping a closer eye on what he was doing.

Since he was no longer able to do anything to the bodies he was preparing for funeral, it seems that he turned to murdering vagrants and desecrating their bodies. He was caught, however, and under very intensive interrogation by the local authorities, Amos eventually admitted to what he’d been doing.

He said he was fascinated by the idea of the human soul and wanted to find out if he could actually see or capture the souls of those he had killed. He would cut open the bodies and rummage through the various organs as he sought the source of the elusive soul. It was apparently what he’d been doing with the bodies he’d been dealing with as an undertaker, but since those bodies had been dead for many hours before he was hired, he realized there was less of a chance that he’d locate the answers to his questions.

After being found guilty of several counts of murder and mutilating a corpse, he was condemned to death. As sort of a practical joke, the sheriff gave him his undertaker clothes to wear to the hanging. As soon as his body was declared dead, it was immediately placed in the lead coffin that had been donated for his funeral, and it was promptly locked. It seems that someone wanted to make certain that he didn’t return from the grave.

In retrospect, it seems as if that was a wise precaution. It may have been the result of his own death that he discovered the source of the human soul, and once his soul had been released, he passed the time by collect the souls of others.

When it came time to bury the coffin, the townspeople complained that he shouldn’t be buried in the local cemetery with their loved ones. They debated this topic ad nauseam, but they eventually agreed he should be interred on the same tract of land where his carpentry shop had once stood. They were able to do this because someone had torched the building after he was arrested and no one wanted to purchase that despised piece of land.

Upon further investigation, I discovered that his former business and gravesite had been located on a small strip of land where the nursing home was built later. It was during the construction process, as they were leveling the uneven land, his coffin was inadvertently disturbed. Since no one in the local area had ever seen a lead coffin before, especially one that was padlocked shut, they began to speculate what was inside. They wanted to discover who or what was so dangerous that others were afraid the body might escape.

Since there were no warnings or inscriptions on the exterior of the coffin, most people believed this was probably the result of an ancient superstition. The local townspeople began to suspect that the deceased might be a zombie or possibly even a vampire, so they agreed there was probably nothing dangerous inside and cut off the padlock.

I determined later that the lead coffin must have trapped Amos’ soul inside and it was released when the coffin was opened a century and a half later. Since he was already at the future location of the nursing home, and since they didn’t want to relocate the heavy coffin a great distance, they agreed they would place it in the unfinished basement of the nursing home.

Even though no one knew it at the time, that was a grave mistake, and that’s no pun. Since Amos was already at the location of the future nursing home, and he would have unprecedented access to the souls that died here, he remained. Even though the coffin had been closed again, he was already out and doing what interested him. He found it very easy to collect their souls when they passed, because they were too old and infirmed to resist.

This answered a great many of the questions I had about the situation at the nursing home, but I didn’t share this information with anyone else. I merely went down to the basement on my days off carrying a chisel and a hammer so I could leave a warning inscription on the outside of coffin. “Herein lays the body of Amos Daubermman, a very evil and dangerous man. Open this coffin at your own peril,” and then I added the current date.

As far as I know, no one at the nursing home has ever seen anything unusual or unexplainable again, except for the little girl who appears there from time-to-time.

Seeing my research about the man in black had taken so long, I didn’t have the time to do an investigation concerning the girl. It’s possible that one day I’ll find the time to see if I can discover her story as well. However, for now my best guess is that this is due to either her age or possible low IQ, so she’s oblivious of her fate and current status. For that reason, she has presumably chosen to remain close to the last place that she called home, even if the area has changed dramatically since she was alive.

THE END