Mental Patient

The Mental Patient is a spooky story about a nurse who helps out an inmate at the insane asylum where she works.

A young woman had just finished nursing school and, in need of experience, volunteered at the mental health clinic near her home. Because it was her first real job, she didn’t have to deal with the really dangerous mental patients. Instead, they assigned her to work with the less violent patients. The suicidal people, the depressed, those who heard voices and those who never said anything at all.

She worked with a lot of mental patients, but her favorite was an old man named Arthur. he was mute. He never said a word. He just sat in his chair and nodded his head. As the days passed by, she became very close to Arthur. He was a very good listener.

She would talk to him for hours and he would just listen and nod his head. She told him about her parents, her friends, all her problems, everything that happened in her life. Most people would have been bored. But not Arthur. He just sat there and nodded as she moaned and complained and told him about all the little things that were bugging her in her life.

Arthur just nodded.

After several months of working with Arthur, the nurse decided that he didn’t belong in an insane asylum. He couldn’t be very happy, sitting in a room by himself nodding all day. That evening, she had a meeting with the supervisor of the clinic. She said that Arthur didn’t pose a threat to anyone and asked for him to be allowed to leave the asylum and live on his own. He was a gentle soul. He was able to feed and groom himself. He deserved to be free.

There’s nothing wrong with him”, she said. “Arthur just nods.”

The supervisor didn’t agree with her, but the young nurse wasn’t about to take no for an answer. Every day, after working with Arthur, she would corner the supervisor and argue with him about the pros and cons of releasing Arthur into the community.

Eventually, the day came when her persistance paid off. The supervisor finally admitted defeat and agreed to let Arthur go. The young nurse was overjoyed and rushed to tell Arthur the good news. She told him he was free now. He could leave the clinic and live on his own.

Arthur just nodded.

She wrote her name and address on a piece of paper and thrust it into Arthur’s hand. She kept telling him that she was really going to miss him. Most of all, she would miss talking to him every day.

The young nurse told him to be sure to write to her as often as possible. She wanted to hear how things turned out for him after his release.

Arthur just nodded.

The nurse went home that evening, feeling very pleased with herself. She had finally managed to get Arthur free from the insane asylum. She told her parents and her sister the good news. Her months of hard work had finally paid off. When she went to bed that night, she fell asleep with a satisfied smile on her face.

In the middle of the night, she was rudely awakened by the sound of screaming. It seemed to be coming from downstairs. Frightened, she gathered her wits about her. She jumped out of bed and bravely crept down the darkened staircase.

There in the hall, she found the bodies of her mother, her father and her sister. They were lying in a pool of blood. As she bent over them, trying to see if they were still alive, she saw a shadow moving across the hallway.

She looked behind her and was confonted by a large figure standing motionless in the doorway. The scream died in her throat.

It was Arthur. He was just standing there, staring at her. His eyes were wild. In one hand, he held a bloody axe. In the other hand, he was holding a piece of paper. The same piece of paper on which she had written her name and address.

The young nurse was shaking with fear. Arthur raised the axe above his head. His eyes were bugging out of their sockets.

“Are you here to kill me?”, she croaked.

Arthur just nodded.