The Patient

by Jasper DeWitt

My fiancée, Jocelyn, a puckishly intelligent, ferociously conscientious, and radiantly beautiful trust-funder who moonlighted as a Shakespeare scholar, was still mired in her doctoral thesis on the women in King Lear.

If you’ve ever spent time in New England during spring, you know that the weather often turns ugly with no warning because, with apologies to Forrest Gump, the climate in New England is like a box of shit: whatever you get, it’s gonna stink.

demarcated

Bruh

Out of respect for her and for her family, I’ll call her Nessie,

YOU NAMED MY NURSE AFTER THE LOCH NESS MONSTER?!

I remember the conversation distinctly. Nessie was sitting in the hospital cafeteria, holding a paper cup full of coffee in her surprisingly firm hands.

Gently, I put a hand on her arm.

Now she only looked haggard.

Joseph E. M—— had been first admitted in 1973 at the age of six,

On a personal note, I wish only to comment that one therapy session with this boy made me more tempted to break my 20-year Alcoholics Anonymous pledge than any other experience I have had in that time.

I stood there and stared at the abomination that had once been my mother.

effluvia

Ok

perdition-laced

....

feculent,

Chill

You just want to prove you’re King Shit of Fuck Mountain.

His madness is contagious. I’ve seen it destroy my colleagues and even the man who mentored and groomed me for the job I hold today. And it almost destroyed me.”

portended

Right

This particular monster truly believes that he needs to be constantly exposed to bad thoughts in order to survive, the same way you or I need food. As a result, his sense of empathy has evolved to be able to figure out how to trigger psychosis within seconds of meeting someone.

Without proof

But...there is literally a body in the wall

And no, we did not apprehend him. Joe has escaped.”

But then I had to come along and tell it that not only did I believe it wasn’t human; I knew it wasn’t. Which meant that I must have freed it to assume the most effective shape, whether it was a monster, a person, or the wave of piss and blood I had felt in my dream.

Finally, thank you to every Reddit user who up-voted this story when it made its debut in December of 2015. Without you, The Patient would never have been finished.