Chapter Text
To Mr Larry Ganem
Men of Letters headquarters
Lebanon, Kansas
Waverly Hills Sanatorium
Louisville, Kentucky
The 20 th of August 1951
Dear Larry,
As we had agreed upon, I am writing to report my observations after almost three months here at Waverly Hills. The sanatorium is a five-story building, very functional, and it is equipped with all the latest innovations a phthisiologist could hope to find in an establishment that treats about a thousand patients a year. The new antibiotics used for the last few years have brought about a true hope of curing patients who, only a decade ago, would have been doomed in the short term. However, the drugs are not a complete panacea, and sadly we still lose almost a dozen patients each month from this terrible disease.
Consequently, our death rate remains significant enough for paranormal activity to be, as you had suggested, higher than in a standard hospital.
I already observed several phenomenons that indicate a ghost activity. Cold spots are frequent in the patients’ ward, in spite of the high temperatures throughout the summer. I suppose it will be harder to rely on that in the coming months. Unexpected smells are hardly something I can take into account in a medical facility, where they tend to occur for various natural reasons, but the electrical devices are behaving in a way that cannot be explained by deficient installations. Almost all of them – the x-ray machine, laboratory appliances, even the refrigerators – have malfunctioned since my arrival.
The lights flicker on and off almost every other evening in the dining-room, and the janitor has no idea what is causing it. The poor man keeps climbing on ladders to test the light bulbs, without any success so far.
I have specifically asked to be accommodated in the main building, on the floor right under the open-air treatment balcony and the patients' rooms, unlike most of the staff members who have their personal quarters in smaller (but older) buildings in the park, at a short walking distance. This way, I am able to routinely check the corridors at night, and I have caught sight of air disturbances several times.
The most significant event happened last week. I was patrolling the fourth floor and I was turning left to enter the women's ward when I saw, a few feet ahead of me, a white female silhouette entering the nurses’ office. When I reached the room, it was empty and seemed undisturbed, but it was freezing, in a very sharp contrast to the hallway I had just left.
Since this sighting, nothing of importance occurred. I do not think this ghost is posing an immediate threat, but I remain alert about any new development of the situation.
I enclose to this letter a list of the men, women and children who died here in the last year, with the burial location. In case something unfortunate happened, you would still have a basis on which to start your research; but please know that I am not worried and feel in complete control of the situation for now.
Apart from my work as a member of our esteemed society, my life here is quite pleasant, and as a doctor I couldn't ask for a more stimulating employment. Each of the multiple cases is a challenge to fight and vanquish the terrible scourge that is tuberculosis, and the latest discoveries, of which I try to remain informed, are promising. I can only hope that my work will contribute to both my fields of research.
I do hope this letter finds you and all our members in good health. I will write again in a few weeks, or sooner in case of any new developments.
Yours sincerely,
Castiel Novak M.D.