Lighthouse Horror Podcast - I work at a Retirement Home for Demons. We have ONE RULE | Scary Stories

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

And I broke it... Scary Story exclusively written for the channel by Blair Daniels Check out more of the author's work here r/blairdaniels  Cover Art from Ninerio More of the artist’s works at ninerioarts              Original YouTube link: I work at a Retirement Home for Demons. We have ONE RULE       Merch: lighthousehorror.shop For more stories like this one, check out my YouTube channel: Lighthouse Horror | YouTube  Patreon: Lighthouse Horror | Patreon Music: Lucas King - YouTube Myuu - YouTube  Incompetech Darren Curtis Music - YouTube  Thank you for listening to this scary story! If you enjoyed this new creepypasta story, please check out some of my other horror stories. We'll be uploading new episodes every week, featuring ghost stories, haunted encounters, mysteries, true stories, creepypasta, and anything supernatural and paranormal. Don't miss out on the thrill and suspense that await you in each episode!

Some jobs just aren't worth it. Now, from the outside, Shady Glen looked like any other nursing home. The lawn was perfectly manicured. The flower beds were in bloom, and the windows were nice and shiny. If you drove by on a warm, sunny afternoon, you'd see them out there. Elderly folks walking with nurses. No one would ever guess the horrors inside. When I first started working at Shady Glenn, I was a little bit of.

excited. I chose my career path as a nurse because I wanted to help people. Starting at a new facility, it meant making new friends and having a positive impact on someone's life. I'd already met so many wonderful people at my last job, and I hope this would be the same. Sadly, those hopes were immediately ruined. Generally speaking, older people are friendly. Sure, you get a few grumps in a bunch, but, you know, most of them I like to talk to. I've been kept way over my shift many times by someone who just had to finish telling me a story from their youth or asked me to play a game of checkers.

Don't get me wrong. I love staying a little late to spend time with them. And hell, I got really good at checkers if I do say so myself. And that was the reason I took this job to make a difference. But I had one problem. No one at Shady Glenn wanted to talk to me. I spent my break in the game room, and no one approached me. No little old lady with photos of her grandkids.

No older guy, ready to tell me stories of the war. They completely ignored me. I could see them watching me out of the corner of my eye. There was an old lady with cotton candy white hair in the corner reading a book. And she was just staring at me until I looked at her. Then she lifted the book, and she pretended like she'd been reading all along. And she was definitely not the only one acting weird. Two men were pretending to play chess for the past 20 minutes,

too busy watching me to make any moves. As I got up and walked to the trash, I saw several heads turning in unison, tracking my movement. Except one. In the back of the room was a woman. She didn't bother to watch me like the others. She just stared out the window, slowly rocking back and forth in her chair. Except, I noticed something weird.

She didn't look old. She looked like she was somewhere in her 30s or early 40s. She had long black hair that fell down her back. There wasn't a gray strand on her head. And her skin, well, it was so pale. It's like she'd never seen the sun. Maybe she's visiting, I thought. But it was 10 a.m. and visiting hours started at noon.

And she wasn't an employee. She wasn't wearing nurses, scrubs, or a name tag. I picked up my things and decided to take the rest of my break somewhere else. I felt all their eyes on me. tracking my movement as I walked out into the hallway. Maybe they're just wary of new people, I thought. Maybe they're bored and wondering who this random new guy is. But the way all of them stared at me, it made me feel uncomfortable.

It wasn't a few nosy nancy's peering at me over a book. It was everyone in the room. Like they could all communicate telepathically and were alerting each other. other to my presence or something. Except for the one weirdly young woman, she didn't acknowledge my presence at all. I wasn't sure if that was comforting or not. I finally found myself back in the staff break room where a few other people were having some coffee.

I decided to ask some questions to figure out what the deal was here. So people here aren't very talkative, are they? I joked. One of the guys, a physical therapist, I think, looked up at me. What do you mean? He asked. Well, you know, the other places I've worked at, you know, seniors are really friendly. Like dying to tell me their entire life story, you know.

But here, they're, you know, they're kind of quiet. Oh, yeah, they're all pretty private, he replied. Yeah, and what about that one woman? You know, the one with the black hair, that really pale skin? Is she actually a patient here, or, you know, she looks way too young? Oh, yeah, it's Elena. Yeah, yeah, she's a patient, he said. How old is she?

I asked. He forced to smile. smile. She's a lot older than she looks. Wow. Guess she really takes sunscreen seriously, huh? I joked. She does not look a day over 40. He didn't reply to that. The other people there, two women in nursing scrubs, kind of side-eyed each other. Sorry, I got to go, he said. Then he walked out, the nurses following him. even though we still had 10 minutes a break left. I chewed my lip.

So far, I was not making any friends, not with the seniors or the staff, which was very different than what I was used to. Now, I am not always the most popular person, but I am very outgoing, and I usually make friends very easily. But not here. I cleared my trash, and I checked my schedule.

My next patient was in room four, I headed down the beige hallway, glancing at the rows and rows of doors that seemed to go on forever. I pulled up the patient chart when I got in front of the door. And that's when I noticed something strange. The chart had a note scrolled across the top of it. It read, Do not make eye contact with the patient. That's weird, I thought.

Maybe they were antisocial. I paged through the chart, looking for details of their mental state, but there were none, other than a note about how their memory started to fade. Well, whatever the case, I'd honor their wishes, even if it made my extroverted self die a little bit inside. I pushed open the door, and I saw a woman sitting on the bed, long gray hair fell halfway over, her face. She wore a plain white dressing gown, though it appeared stained and tattered. My eyes instinctually shot toward her face. Then I stopped myself, and I looked down at the floor. Hey, I'm Jeff, I said. I will be taking care of you today. She didn't respond. Is there anything

I can get for you? I asked. Or is it okay if I start taking your vitals now? She didn't say anything, but she nodded. I took that as a go-ahead. I pulled the metal chair toward her and sat down. All right, this is going to pinch just a little, okay? I said, wrapping the blood pressure cuff around her upper arm. I kept my eyes on the dial as it climbed, avoiding all eye contact. I felt incredibly awkward, but respecting her wishes was, you know, more important than anything.

Okay, all good. I'm just going to look in your ear now, okay? I told her, as I pulled out some equipment. I kept my eyes trained on her ear, but I could feel her watching me, staring at me through her curtain of hair. I pulled out a tongue to press her. Okay, and now I'm just going to have to take a look at your throat.

She opened her mouth, and I pressed the wooden stick down. But from this angle, her eyes were just barely out of focus, and I could see something looked off about them. They almost looked like they were too big for her face or too dark or something. Of course, I couldn't really tell, but something, you know, it didn't look quite right. You know what? Maybe she had an eye appointment earlier today, and, you know, her pupils were dilated. That was the only possible explanation I could think of. Although it wasn't just her pupils that looked bigger.

It was also her irises and, like, the actual eyes themselves. Like she was using some weird Instagram filter to make everything about her eyes bigger. It was weird. I avoided making eye contact despite really wanting to. When I was done, I packed up my things, told her goodbye, and I made my way to the next patient. You know, I did a great job, I told myself, as I made my way to room 37A. I respected her boundaries, and I bet she really appreciated that. Maybe this first day, you know, it's not that awful after all.

My enthusiasm was quickly deflated by the next patient. The man in room 37A was named Gerald. He was 86, according to the chart, but he looked like he could be a hundred. His body had shrunken in on itself all folds and wrinkles. His tufts of white hair stood straight up, as if compensating for his loss in height. And he was friendlier than the others. As soon as I came in, he smiled at me. Hey, hello. You're my new nurse, huh?

I nodded and introduced myself. And just like that, I was back in the game. Gerald was easy to talk to. He asked me how long I'd been a nurse and if I liked it here. And all the while, he was smiling and telling me he was so happy to have me here. My last nurse was so grumpy, he said, rolling his eyes. But you seem like a nice fella. Well, thanks, I replied.

I wrapped the blood pressure cuff around his arm, and it began to inflate. So, Gerald, where'd you grow up? And just like that, the vibe we had going was gone. His smile disappeared. He broke eye contact and looked vacantly at the wall. Oh, great distance away from here. He finally muttered. I took the hint, and I didn't ask any more questions.

But after a minute, he started talking again. He looked up, milky, gray eyes boring into mine. I come from a place where demons roam. He muttered, his voice low in gravelly. A place of eternal darkness. I stopped what I was doing, taken aback by that statement. Not to be fair, I have worked with many patients who had dementia or mental conditions, and this was by far the most disturbing thing I have ever heard.

One man I'd worked with suffered from paranoia. Every day he'd recount the death threats he received in painstaking detail. He was convinced people wanted him dead, in extremely violent ways, because, you see, he worked for a top-secret government agency. There was a woman, too, who told me about the skinny woman hiding under her bed. After strict observation, we realized she was confusing some storage boxes for a human being. It's hard being that old, you know. when your mind starts blurring the lines between fiction and reality. And there is a fine line dealing with people in this state.

You don't want to encourage their delusions, but you also want to make sure that they feel heard. Huh, well, you must feel happier here, I said. He paused for a moment. I am happier here, he replied. "'Hey, that's great,' I replied with a smile. I finished taking his vitals, grabbed the iPad, and I started back into the hallway. As I flipped through the documents, however, I noticed there was no note of dementia or any other mental condition. In fact, someone had checked good under his mental state.

Jeff, a voice called out from behind me. I turned. The old man had followed me into the hallway. He was standing several yards behind me, perfectly still. Hey, yeah, you need something? I called. He shook his head. They roam here, too.

The demons. They're just not as loud. Okay, I said, nodding and giving him a wave. And then I wrote a note in his chart. Under mental conditions, I wrote, Talks about demons. Okay, who is next? Someone on the second floor by the name of Mary Gonzalez.

I took the elevator, and I walked down the hallway. She'd be at the end in room 29B. And it wasn't just the people who were a little off, you know. There was something about the beige hallway. the endless doors with little square windows in them, the slightly distorted music repeating on loop. Seriously, it sounded like a cassette player on low battery. Ugh, I shuddered. You know, maybe I'll send out more applications.

I did not like it here by any stretch of the word. The stairs, the weird interactions, my standoffish co-workers, There was a weird feeling to this place. And as I walked down the hallway, I saw something even weirder. One of the doors had a padlock on it. I stopped and backed up. 26C. The number was faded, and the window was completely dark.

Maybe it's empty, but why lock it then? I stared down at the padlock. That certainly was not legal, unless the patient was a risk to others, but even then, they should have been transferred to a hospital or something. They shouldn't be kept here behind a locked door. I leaned in toward the window. Totally dark. Not even the hallway lights could help me see what was inside. What the hell?

I cupped my hands against the window. peering in. And then it happened. On the other side of the glass, an eye blinked open. I jumped back in surprise. My ankle twisted, my feet slipping underneath me.

And I fell hard. I scrambled up. Above me, there was something moving in the window. A mass of black hair parted slightly. to reveal an eye. Now I realized the lights in the room wore on. The window had only been dark

because she'd been pressed against it, watching me. And I recognized her, pale skin, thick black hair, far too young to be here. It was the woman I'd seen earlier. I got up and I ran down the hallway. I didn't stop until I'd reached 29B. Before I entered, I took a second to get a hold of myself.

Deep breath in, deep breath out. My hands were shaking. My legs felt weak and wobbly beneath me. Maybe she just has a mental condition. Needs to be housed here for a little while. I don't know, I thought. It's just a woman, you know, not a monster. So she was staring at you from the window.

So what? She wasn't screaming or threatening you. But then why the padlock? I forced myself to take another deep breath in and another. I didn't open the door until I felt like I was completely relaxed. Give them your best, I told myself, like you'd done many times before. I swung the door open. Mary sat in front of the window, looking down at the courtyard below.

She was humming softly to herself, a tune I didn't recognize. However, from my high school music training, I could tell it wasn't a minor key. Hey, how you doing today, Mary? I asked. She didn't answer. Didn't turn around to look at me. Just continued humming the... same four notes over and over. Mary? More humming.

I pulled out the iPad, and I flipped through her chart, and it was then that I noticed the note, patient is nonverbal. All right, well, that made sense. No creepy weirdness here, just, you know, a nonverbal patient. I pulled the chair up, and I sat down next to her. narrating what I was doing so that I wouldn't startle or scare her. I'm going to put the blood pressure cuff on you now, okay?

All right, just going to look in your ear. I looked in her ear for any signs of inflammation or infection. But as I did, my heart stopped. There was a shadow nestled right next to her eardrum. As soon as the light hit it, it skittered out of sight. What the hell? I tugged on her ear, and I re-indested the equipment. No, no, there was nothing there.

No shadow. You know, her ear was totally fine. I put the scope down, and I rubbed my eyes. Stress is getting to you, I told myself. I took another deep breath. And deep breath out. It was just a shadow that moved when I moved the scope. Nothing more.

Your ears looked great, Mary. I said, but my voice didn't have that same chipper tone. I finished the exam. Mary continued to hum to herself. The same four notes over and over. Except she was humming faster now. I packed up my stuff, took another deep breath, and I walked out into the hallway. I closed my eyes as I passed room 26C.

I took the elevator down to floor one, and I ate my lunch alone. I didn't want to talk to anyone right now. I was just going to slog through the day and send out my job applications tonight. Hopefully I'd find something else within a week or two at the worst. Oh, God, I hope it's not a month. I can't survive a month in this place, I thought, as I finished my turkey sandwich. It is just too weird. Surprisingly, however, the afternoon went smoothly.

No weird demon talk, no creepy humming, just regular people. They didn't say much, but that was okay with me. As late afternoon crept into the evening, the staff thinned out, and most of the residents returned to their rooms. At 7.45, I began packing up, more than ready to hand everything over to the night shift. But of course. It wasn't that easy. My boss poked his head in and asked if I could check in with one more patient. The night shift nurse was right.

running late. And like an idiot, I agreed. I was already on the second floor when I realized it was room 26C. The woman who looked far too young to be here. I wanted to turn around and run, but I needed this job, even if it was only for the next few weeks. And besides, they wouldn't keep someone violent here. That would be illegal. Sure, the padlock was there, but it didn't change the law. Maybe the padlock was for her own safety, you know, to keep her from running away. That is definitely completely illegal, but I don't know. Just 15 minutes with her, you're getting another job soon, I told myself. I pulled out the iPad, and I peaged through her. I peached through her. her chart. But most of it was blank. Her name was filled in, Elena, with a long last name that sounded

Polish or Czech from the number of consonants. But there was just a dash for her birth date. Did they not know her age? And there was nothing under the current medication section. No chronic illness either. No diabetes, no arthritis. No arthritis. not even hearing loss. If she truly didn't have any of these things, why was she here? Or did someone give me an incomplete chart? Better yet, if this chart was incomplete,

maybe it would give me an excuse to not do the exam today and to just get the hell out of here. If she had some underlying medical condition, I wasn't aware of, it could be a liability. I walked down the hallway, and, after a second, found one of the doctors on staff. Hey, um, I think this chart for Elena is incomplete, I told him. No, that's a chat. He replied, as he gave it a quick once over.

But nothing's filled in. Doesn't even have her birthday, I said. We don't know her birthday. I stared at him. You don't know her birth date. He shook his head. Okay. What about approximate age then?

Or medical conditions? You know, the entire thing, it's just blank. I'm confused. The doctor stared back at me. I assure you, the chart is accurate. He replied, in a strangely firm tone. And then he turned on his heel, and he walked away. I did not understand what was going on here.

A little voice in the back of my head told me to get out. Nothing about this felt right. I walked back to Elena's room, though, and someone had already undone the padlock for me. I took a deep breath, and then I opened the door. Elena was sitting next to the window, facing away from me. Black hair fell down the back of the back of her. her chair, and her pale arms hung limply at her sides.

Hi, I'm Jeff. I called from the doorway, my heart pounding. I'll, um, I'll be taking your vitals this evening. She didn't reply. That was fine by me. I'd rather her ignore me than the need alternative. I pulled up a chair next to her, and I unfolded the blood pressure cuff. The Velcro zipped loudly in the silent room. I'm going to take your blood pressure now, I told her. No response. I wasn't sure if I was narrating what I was doing for her sake, or to calm my own nerves. I wrapped it around her upper arm. The rhythmic sound of her. The rhythmic sound of her. the cuff inflating filled the silence.

Still, she wouldn't turn to look at me, or acknowledge my presence in any way. She just stared out the window, the harsh shadows, making her skin appear even paler than before. The blood pressure cuff continued to inflate, and Elena continued to stare out the window, ignoring me completely. All right, this will all be over soon, I thought. Log the vitals and get the hell out of here. Except, there was a problem. I wasn't getting a blood pressure reading. That's weird.

I squinted at the dial, and then I reached up and pulled it off her arm. Sorry, I think I might have messed it up. But a second and third attempt failed. I couldn't get a reading. I swallowed. My throat dry. Okay, screw it. Elena, I'm going to take your blood pressure later.

Okay, for now I'm just going to check your ears, all right? No response. She still wouldn't turn towards me. I may as well have been completely invisible. I glanced towards her reflection in the window to try and read her. expression. And every muscle in my body froze. She didn't have a reflection. All I saw was my horrified face staring back at me. No, no, no, that's not possible. I stood up, the chair skidding out from underneath me. I stumbled towards the

hallway, dropping the blood pressure cuff in the process. I'm sorry, I'm going to come back later, okay? I muttered, scrambling to the door. A shuffling sound came from behind me. I whipped around, and the woman had finally turned to look at me. But her body was still facing the window. She had turned her head all. All the way around, in a way no human could.

I ran. I ran as fast as I could. Down the hallway, around the corner, my feet slapping against the floor. As I passed the game room, I saw a few heads turning toward me, tracking my movement. But I didn't stop. I just kept running. And then I heard it. The woman was following me.

She was crawling along the hallway on all fours like something possessed. Her head hung upside down. Her thick black hair dragged along the floor. Her mouth was twisted into a smile in her teeth. My God, her teeth! They were pointed, all of them. into needle-fin fangs. Her palms slapped against the linoleum as she crawled toward me like a spider.

Her mouth frozen in that horrible grin. I forced myself to run faster. I was almost there, almost at the elevator. I look back. She was so fast crawling towards me. Something grabbed my arm then. My entire body jerked, but I wasn't being pulled backward.

I was being pulled to the right into a room. The door slammed shut, and I found myself face to face with another nurse. It was one of the nurses I'd seen earlier in the break room. She looked at me with wide eyes, breathing hard. What? What is she? I breathe, backing away from the door. You can't do that, she replied. I can't do what. I asked. I'm not going to hurt you, she said. I'm trying to keep you safe. You can't run away from them like that. They smell fear.

Once they're here, they know you. They know your smell. They'll follow you. Anywhere in the world you go, you'll be followed. But if you stay here and you don't run and you do what you're asked, you'll be safe, she said. What the hell are you talking about? They'll follow you. They'll follow you. If you run out of this building, they will follow. They don't want their secrets to leave this place. Do you understand? So just do your job. Don't show fear. And you'll be safe.

She said. And then she unlocked the door and swing it open. Now I think you have an exam to finish. She said. Maybe I should have listened to her. This woman was probably looking out for my own good, looking to protect me. She did just save me, after all. But as soon as she opened that door, I shot out and I ran into the elevator.

I pounded the closed doors button as Elena skittered down the hall and the nurse shouted after me. The door shut and the elevator. elevator car went down, down, down. I raced out into the parking lot and I got in my car. The engine thrummed underneath me, and I peeled out of there. But not before taking one last look at Shady Glen. There was someone watching me from a second-story window, someone with thick black hair and pale skin.

I swallowed, and then I turned onto the road and floored it. I spent the evening trying to forget everything that happened. I got a voicemail from my boss asking where I went, but I ignored it. I got a few calls from unknown numbers, and I ignored those too. The nightmare at Shady Glen was over. I was done with that place. The patients there aren't human. They're monsters.

The woman with the eyes that were too big. The man who talked about demons. The woman with that thing in her ear. And of course, Elena, that entire building from the patients to the endless halls, the nightmare was over. Or so I thought. Unfortunately, I woke up with a start at 306 a.m. As I stirred into consciousness, I realized what woke me up was a noise, a soft tap, tap, tap,

coming from somewhere. I grabbed my phone off the nightstand, and I stood up, trying to find the source of the noise. It sounded like it was. coming from downstairs. I made my way to the stairs, my heart pounding. I typed in 911 on my phone, ready to press call. The tapping continued as I made my way down the stairs. When I got to the bottom, I turned towards the kitchen, and that's when I saw it.

Someone was tapping at the sliding glass door. Someone with long black hair, pale skin, and needle-like teeth. Elena. I ducked out of sight, but as soon as I did, the tapping got faster. She'd seen me. I ran back up the stairs, my heart pounding. The nurse's warning echoed in my head. They'll follow you.

Anywhere in the world you go, you'll be followed. But if you stay here and you don't run, and you do what you're asked, you'll be safe. I got back to my bedroom, and I slammed the door shut, locked it, pulled the dresser across it. I called 9-1-1, and they said they'd be here soon. Then I got in the closet, close the door, and waited. For a few minutes, I didn't hear anything. Just pure silence.

Maybe she left, I told myself. The police will be here any minute. I took deep breaths, trying to slow my heart, trying to relax. But then the tapping. It was coming from my bedroom window. My second-story bedroom window. I didn't look, but I could imagine her spider-like body clinging to the side of my house. Her long fingers tapping against the glass, thick black hair falling over her face.

A minute later I heard sirens, and the tapping stopped. I heard a scuttling sound as she made her way down my house. and then there was nothing. The sirens grew louder, and I knew I was safe. Except I wasn't safe, was I? I never would be, according to that nurse. Unless I came back. So that morning, after zero hours of sleep and three cups of coffee,

I drove to Shady Glen. I passed the manicured lawns and the old people sitting on the bed. I walked through the front doors down the endless beige hallways, and I listened to the music through the speakers. I picked up the iPad, and I checked my first assignment. As I went to the fourth floor, I said one thing over and over to myself. Don't show fear.