File 26-C · Night staff
Night Shift Log: When the Lights Go Out
From Orderly, badge 13 · Recovered Oct 19, 2026 · Fiction
Thursday · 7:12 pm
Dr. Darling taped a new memo to the break room door. On Thursdays the institute runs dark: Thursday, October 22 and Thursday, October 29. He calls them Blackout Nights. No hall lights. Each group of visitors gets one light. One.
7:30 pm
Doors open. First group signed in. Four college kids from Columbia, one light between them. The tall one held it. The tall one always holds it.
8:05 pm
The light makes it worse. You see a little circle of floor and nothing else. Everything outside the circle can see you just fine.
8:40 pm
A group asked me if the patients are allowed to grab them. Told them the truth: nobody in here touches you. They don’t need to. The dark does the work.
9:15 pm
Somebody yelled I WANT OUT. Walked them to the nearest exit. They were laughing by the time we got outside. Most of them are.
10:30 pm
Closing time. The last of the line came through anyway. Doctor’s orders: nobody already in line gets turned away. He wants every subject he can get.
10:58 pm
Lights up for cleanup. Found a light on the floor of the . Batteries dead. Nobody signed it out.
Going home. Not taking the back hall. — Orderly, badge 13
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