August White
August paced along the floor...”they’re coming,” he said, almost giddily. “You’ve done something again, haven’t you?” His mother’s face looked much older than it actually was. The years had taken their toll. “To which something are you referring, Mother?” August couldn’t contain his laughter. He stuck his fingers in his mouth, trying to choke it down.
Soon, there was a sound of sirens approaching. The neighbors started poking their heads out of the window trying to catch a glimpse. Everyone knew that something was off about August White, but no one knew what that something was, or how bad it could actually be. The day that the police walked him out of his mother’s apartment in shackles and leg irons was the day they understood. August White had murdered six people, and he didn’t care. In fact, he rather enjoyed it. They called him “the Butcher,” because of the large gashes found on all the victims. When he was finally apprehended, they discovered the murder weapon: a meat cleaver. It was the knife his father used in the butcher shop.
His stay at the small county jailhouse was a short one. He was deemed criminally insane by a doctor on the investigation and sent to Slatefall Hospital psychiatric ward. August’s mother was beside herself. She had done all she could to keep him out of trouble, but there was nothing to be done now. She came and visited him at the county jail, but once he was transferred to Slatefall, it was more than she could bear. She became too ill to go out at all, and passed away not long after his transfer.
The doctor that August met first was an older man named Simmons. August rather liked him. He was a bit absent-minded and cranky, but still seemed to care about his patients. The doctor in charge of the psych ward, however, was a man named Crane. August hated him immediately. He was a smaller man, younger, and he seemed to constantly vie for the attention of the older man. As the weeks went on and August observed him more, he noticed a particular dishonesty about Dr. Crane that irked him. He would blame small mistakes on others, take credit for things he didn’t do; all for attention. August was many things, but he was no liar. The only person he had ever lied to was his mother. Poor Mother. He actually did regret all the years of anguish he put her through; but not much else, as he thought about it.
August noted that the head nurse of the psych ward was an obnoxiously observant woman named Nurse Patty. She treated all of the mentally disturbed like they were her children and regularly fended off the more brutish of orderlies. She challenged the radical practices of Dr. Crane, and would seek advice from the more practical and humane Dr. Simmons. Nurse Patty would often call additional orderlies or guards to break up fights between August and Sam Walters, as Sam would often bully the patients.
After one such fight, both men had to be given medical attention. Sam was sent upstairs to the hospital ward, and August was treated in the psych ward. August's demeanor was very strange. He sat very still, staring straight ahead as Nurse Patty tended to his wounds. After applying the last bandage, Nurse Patty heard a faint murmur, "...you should have let me kill him."
"Now, Mr. White, you shouldn't say things like that. I know that Sam is a bully, but there are better ways of handling people like him, I promise. I'm working on writing a report on all of the people who abuse patients in this hospital. So, you just tell me whenever Sam is bullying you, and I'll take care of it, okay?"
August didn't realize that he had spoken out loud. He turned his head to look into her eyes. She was so earnest. It reminded him of his mother, and the thought filled him with rage. He reached up for her face, and before she could back away, he snapped her neck. He left her dead on the cold floor like a broken toy. The guards outside the door heard her body slump onto the tile. They looked in and saw August standing over her. They rushed him, and pinned him to the ground. He was sedated and put back in his cell. When Dr. Crane was informed of the incident and the murder of the head nurse, he did surprisingly very little to further secure August. He was already in the secured ward, so the guards were just instructed to be more vigilant. Anyone could see, however, that his distress over the head nurse was manufactured. He quickly dealt with her funeral arrangements, then started a whole new regimen of tests for the patients.
Dr. Crane got it into his head to test unique human subjects to help him develop some miracle cure. He found many interesting patients to experiment on, and he decided to include August because of his severe psychosis. There were a handful of others at the hospital being tested for similar reasons. August didn’t care about any of them, except for one. He was fascinating. He looked like he was just the sort of person that August could understand. His cell was right next to August’s. He would frequently taunt the man just to get a rise out of him for some entertainment. He was listed as a “John Doe,” but insisted that his name was ‘Joey.’ Fascinating. They were giving him hydrotherapy treatments to cure his madness. After one such treatment, he was finally returned to his cell, still wet and barely lucid after having been resuscitated from being nearly drowned. The staff declared the treatment a success and would continue to monitor his progress. August found the whole ordeal incredibly funny.
The experiments could be brutal. Sometimes they were simple tests or blood work, sometimes excruciatingly painful. One young girl died from overdose of sedatives. August wasn’t bothered, though he knew he should be, but he only felt anger at the constant pain. He grew to hate Dr. Crain more and more every day.
Finally, many years later, August got the chance to get his revenge. A patient managed to bribe the orderlies to open the patient doors. The psych patients started a riot in the hospital, and two crazed patients started a fire in Block A. One patient made the mistake of opening August’s door. He knew right away what he wanted to do. By this point, most of the staff were fleeing the building and trying to either escape entirely, or hold up in the maintenance building until help arrived. Dr. Crane was lagging behind as he was wheelchair bound at this point in his life.
August sent two patients after Crane. They caught him and shoved him into the elevator, sending him down to a waiting August. August kicked over the wheelchair, picked him up, and carried Dr. Crain into the fire in Block A. He threw Crane into the blaze, and then began to walk back to the stairs, but falling debris caught him and knocked him out. He died in the fire along with Dr. Crane.
Nearly a century after his death, August can still be found wandering the halls of Slatefall Hospital. His ghost challenging and attacking any daring enough to wander the abandoned building. Many souls are trapped there because of their regret or grief, but it is a mystery why August remains. Maybe he didn’t get his fill of pain in life and is looking to inflict more. Maybe he fears what comes next. I’m not brave enough to ask, are you?
Current Location
Life
1883
1943
60 years old
Circumstances of Death
Show spoiler
Was knocked unconscious by falling debris after murdering Dr. Crane in the West Ward fire. Died from smoke inhalation.
Children
Gender
Male
Eyes
Piercing blue
Hair
Light blonde
Height
5'10"
Weight
180 lbs
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