“Forgive the intrusion,” he murmured to the unconscious man. “I need to protect these people. I need to protect you too.”
He sealed the grate and left, feeling the weight of the door closing behind him like something irreversible.
The footage waited until morning. Conrad brewed coffee with hands that trembled slightly and locked himself inside his office. He downloaded the files, opened the first recording, and pressed play. For hours, nothing happened. A nurse adjusted blankets. Machines beeped. Lights flickered with the rhythm of electricity. He felt foolish for allowing his imagination to run rampant.
At precisely 3:51 a.m., the screen changed. The overhead lights flickered as though struck by static. A bluish glow pooled near the ceiling. Logan’s eyelids fluttered, something that should have been impossible given his neurological state. Conrad leaned closer, breath held.
Logan’s body remained still, but something seemed to rise. A silhouette. A shimmer. A translucent figure with Logan’s features, but tinted in pale moonlight. It moved toward Marina, who slept upright in the chair, exhaustion claiming her. The figure extended a hand and touched her gently on the crown of her head. There was no violence. No intimacy. Only contact, like a parent waking a child from a nightmare. Marina flinched, but did not wake. A surge of energy rippled through the monitors. Heart rate. Brain activity. Everything spiked.
The figure returned to the bed and lay down, dissolving as it aligned with the physical body. Conrad sat very still. He replayed the scene repeatedly, unable to accept what he saw, yet unable to deny it existed. Later that afternoon, he summoned Detective Rhea Dunham of the Denver Police Department. She watched the footage twice, her jaw tightening.
“I have never seen anything like this,” she said quietly. “I cannot classify this as a crime. I also cannot pretend it is normal. We need to isolate the patient and limit access until we understand what is happening.”
The hospital complied. Room 614 was sealed. A new wing was prepared in the older part of the facility, where fewer visitors would wander. Logan was transferred under supervision. His family was informed that there were concerns about environmental contamination. The truth was not disclosed.