Michael Patterson's Diary
14 Feb
I think all the time I've spent with my patients is starting to take its toll on my drams. I dare not tell Patricia, for I would never want her to worry about me. I wish to put all I have seen in this diary so I can go over what I've seen anytime I feel so inclined.
Last night I headed to my quarters at eh asylum at around midnight. I had just finished pulling a patient off of one of the nurses. She had tried to take out his eyes with a pair of tweezers he was using to remove a splinter form the patients foot. He has not been injured apart form a superficial wound just above his nose.
As I entered my room I locked the door behind me as always, making sure no patient had escaped and entered my room as I would not care to make that same mistake again. I can recall several months back when one of my patients sprang from behind the curtains and came at me with a blade he had fashioned from several melted plastic forks. I hadn't started my diary then so I feel I need to put down what had happened.
The patient was Jarred Fox and he suffers from severe schizophrenia. He was a usual patient of mine that I must've provoked in some way, for he seemed hell bent on finding out personal information of mine. One night as I retreated to my quarters I was off guard and very drowsy. As I went to place my keys on the bench there came a seemingly nervous scream from behind the curtains and Fox came dashing towards me with a weapon at hand. He struck my shoulder and withdrew the blade for a second attempt at striking me. I obstructed his blow with my forearm and wrestled him to the ground. I managed to settle him and return him to his room. After receiving medical attention, from a distance I asked him why he wanted to cause harm to me. His reply was simply, "They told me to." When I asked him who 'they' are, I gained no reply.
I have veered too far from what happened tonight, so I must continue.
After entering my room I went through some papers as usual and ran a bath to ease my stress. As I was bathing a feeling of drowsiness came over me and I fell into a slumber. Nightmares of demons and devils were whirling around my head. I woke with a sudden jolt to find myself hot and sweating, although the bath water was ice cold. My eyes veered to the shadows on the other side of the room. There appeared to be someone dressed darkly, motionlessly staring at me. I pulled a towel from the bench beside the tub to cover myself. Still in the tub, I asked the figure who it was and why it was in my bathroom. There was no reply. I thought I must have still been dreaming, so I closed my eyes and re opened them, but he figure did not go away. It was still there, staring. As I watched in terror, it started to sway form front to back until it was almost about to tip, then suddenly I awoke at my desk, laying atop my work. I shook off the incident as just a dream. The thoughts probably came from working with Vandez, though I thought I'd write it down just in case.
15 Feb
Vandez's case is becoming very interesting. Today a nurse was sent to him after he committed self harm to his left cheek with his own fingernails. I was concerned to find the initials of my name carved in his flesh. I asked him what this all meant but he insisted it was the demons he'd been seeing that carved the letters into his skin. I later asked the night guard what they'd noticed about our troubled friend the night of the incident. The guard revealed to me that during his check up Vandez was under the covers, sleeping without a sound. The guard admitted to dozing off at some time through the night and declared that he was awakened by screams coming from Vandez's room. When he'd rushed to see what was wrong he found Vandez cowering in the corner of his room. I took note that he was in the same corner where he imagined the demon sitting in on our session the previous day.
Vandez himself could reveal nothing of the truth, but continues to talk nonsense of demons in the shadows. One remark had me quite bothered however. He whispered in a rather aggressive tone, "You of all people should believe me, take my word for it, they won't stop at me, they're coming for you."
I am going to take extra care around Vandez in future. He is showing signs of homicidal intent and I would rather like to avoid a violent outbreak.