The Psyching: A Short Thriller by Freida McFadden

 
    Tonight I am the medical student
on call on our locked psychiatry unit at Overlook Hospital. That
would be bad enough in itself. I mean, being locked up for 24 hours
with a bunch of crazy people is not my idea of a good
time.
    But there’s something much worse going on
tonight.
    I’m not a superstitious person. I don’t
believe in black cats, broken mirrors, or rabbits’ feet. Well, I
believe all those things exist, obviously, but not that they’re
associated with any sort of luck in one way or another. But it’s
hard not to get a little bit creeped out about tonight.
    Exactly ten years ago tonight, two
medical students were on call with a psychiatry resident, just like
tonight. The unit was locked, just like tonight. And in the
morning, the janitor came in to clean the resident room and it was
discovered that the resident had hacked to death the two medical
students, then killed himself.
    Here’s to hoping history doesn’t repeat
itself.
     
     
    3:30 p.m.:
     
    “ Are you excited about
tonight?”
    It’s irritating how amused our resident Jack
seems about the entire thing. He has literally been talking about
tonight nonstop for a week. I think he’s looking forward to
it.
    “ Sure,” I mumble, mostly because I
don’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that I’m creeped
out.
    “ You know,” Jack says, “enthusiasm
makes up about half your grade…”
    I just glare at him.
    “ Don’t worry,” Jack says. “I won’t
let anybody murder you.”
    I fold my arms
across my chest. “You know that 10 years ago, the resident was the one who
killed everyone.”
    “ Right,” Jack
says. “You didn’t let me finish. I was going to say that I won’t
let anyone murder you besides
me .”
    He’s hilarious. Absolutely
hilarious.
    “ Who are you on call with
tonight?”
    “ Danielle Gerard.”
    “ You and Danni,
huh?” Jack smirks to himself. “The two of you are going to be
together all night long ? That is adorable .”
    He acts like we’re going to spend the night
making out or something.
    “ Don’t worry,” he says again. “I
would definitely kill Danni before I would kill you.”
    I don’t doubt that’s true. I’m pretty sure
almost every resident has wanted to kill Danni Gerard at some
point.
    Jack chuckles to himself. “Come
on, Wendy, you’re not seriously worried, are you? I mean, that
resident 10 years ago had a lot of serious issues. I’m totally
normal though.”
    I raise my eyebrows at him. “Are
you?”
    Jack Lawson has been my resident for two whole
weeks. I don’t know if I would describe him as normal, but I
probably wouldn’t characterize him as homicidal either. Or even
psychopathic. I would mostly say that he needs a haircut and a
shave—his brown hair is just a little bit too shaggy to be
professional, and he sports a 5 o’clock shadow every day until the
midafternoon, when it becomes a full-on beard. His green scrubs are
really wrinkled, even for scrubs.
    “ Totally normal,” he assures
me.
    “ Don’t people go into psychiatry
as a way of dealing with their own psychiatric issues?”
    “ Some people,” he admits. “But a
lot of us do it because it’s an easy residency and we’re totally
lazy.”
    “ And you’re lazy?”
    “ God, yes,” he says. “Have you
learned nothing in the last two weeks?”
    I guess he’s right. He does seem incredibly
lazy.
    “ Anyway,” Jack says, “I’m hoping
this is going to be a quiet call. Be warned that if things get
really quiet I may disappear to go work on my novel.”
    I stare at him. “You’re writing a
novel?”
    Jack nods. “When it becomes a bestseller, I
can quit medicine and live off the profits.”
    “ Good luck with that.”
     
     
    4:15 p.m.:
     
    “ I’m scared, Wendy.”
    Danni is staring at me with her big brown doe
eyes. I start feeling irritated. There are 45 minutes before our
call officially begins, and I’m already panicked enough without
having to comfort Danni.
    “ There’s