Overnight Shift

 

Overnight Shift

I work as a resident treatment worker, in a psychiatric group home. I’ve been working in this field since the day after my 18th birthday, I’m now almost 21. My current set of clients are all men, ages between 30-60. There’s 5 of them in one house, with a 1-5 staff to client ratio, meaning it’s just me with them when I’m working. All of my clients are diagnosed with schizophrenia. When I first started, one of my former clients was telling me about a man he see’s walking around in the dark. With the nature of my job, it’s not abnormal for my clients to say things like this, as they are many times experiencing active hallucinations, delusions and paranoia. I work every shift depending on staffing demands, but I prefer overnights as that leaves me with more time in my day. I’ve been working in this specific house since June, and I’ve been on/off the overnight shift every couple of weeks. Every single night I see a ghost. At first, I thought it was my clients waking/wandering in the middle of the night. But I’d see it, and it would always be a quick pass, so I’d do room checks, just to verify everyone is in bed. They always were. After the first couple times I started to become very suspicious, as it wouldn’t be unusual for a client to do something “out of the ordinary” such as wandering the halls. I kept trying to catch what I was seeing, assuming it was a client. Let me interject, I’m not afraid of any of my clients, I’ve worked with over 100 people facing these challenges, and I’ve been attacked by many them on several occasions, and it’s something to be prepared for not afraid of. I have extensive training in crisis de-escalation, hand to hand combat, and hands on restraint. I’m 6’2, and 220 pounds. I’m also not afraid of ghosts. I’ve always been fascinated with the paranormal. Point being, I wasn’t walking into this situation scared, I’ve seen some pretty “terrifying” things in this field. Anyway, after my first week on the overnight, and seeing glimpses of this figure passing by multiple times a night, I was fully convinced it was a ghost I’m seeing and not a client, so I began to look forward to seeing it, as I like the paranormal. I eventually brought it up to the other overnight staff, and she said she saw it too, but never really thought much of it. It was never a bother until tonight. I just got back on the overnight after a 2 month stretch on day shift, that client that first told me of the ghost was discharged early on in that two months. So it had been a while since I had heard of or even thought about it. I just finished my hourly rounds, and I was working on service documentation. It’s after 3AM, and I’ve got my AirPods in listening to music as I write. The light in the kitchen flashed, so I look up. I catch a brief glimpse of a figure walk towards the living room from the kitchen. I put my documentation in the desk, and leave the office shutting and locking the office door behind me, protocol as meds, records, and service documentation are kept in that room. As I round the corner to the living room, the kitchen lights flash again but I see nothing, so I go back to the office. As I’m unlocking the door, the house begins to shake. Like earthquake shake. I live in Iowa, earthquakes don’t exist here. It scared me. Like a primal instinctive fear. I make my way into the office, and the service documentation I had just put In the desk, is now all over the floor. Like someone threw the stack up in the air. Standing there puzzled, trying to make sense of what just happened, the house starts shaking again. When it stopped, I immediately did rounds to check on my guys. Everyone was in bed asleep. Dumbfounded, I go pick up all my papers. I called the sheriffs department, to verify it wasn’t an earthquake as I’d have to notify management, and follow natural disaster protocol. They definitely thought I was insane. Anyway yea I can finally say a ghost scared the absolute hell out of me, I didn’t know they could shake houses.

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