In the shadowed halls of forgotten asylums and derelict hospitals, where peeling paint clings to damp walls and rusted gurneys lie abandoned under sheets of dust, countless stories have unfolded that defy rational explanation, tales whispered by night-shift nurses, weary doctors, and frightened patients who swore they saw more than shadows in the corners of their vision, for in these places meant to heal the broken mind and body, something darker lingers, something that feeds on despair and sorrow and leaves behind echoes that refuse to die, and so the records of haunted hospitals grow thick with accounts of footsteps pacing in empty corridors, of flickering lights that strobe like a heartbeat just before a crash, of wheelchairs that roll on their own across linoleum floors as though pushed by invisible hands, of whispers rising from locked wards where no one has been for decades, of icy drafts that creep through sealed rooms where lobotomies were once performed, and of figures in tattered gowns seen drifting at the far end of corridors only to vanish when pursued, and each witness, whether orderly, visitor, or security guard, carries the same haunted look in their eyes when they tell of the cries that erupt from abandoned operating theaters, the screams muffled behind rusted doors, the choking stench of antiseptic suddenly flooding the air like a memory too strong to fade, and though some claim the mind plays tricks in places of such suffering, others insist that the souls of those who never escaped the institutions still wander, trapped in an endless cycle of fear, confusion, and pain, their presence marked by the sudden slam of doors, the rattle of bedsprings, the imprint of invisible weight pressing down upon sheets, or the hollow laughter that echoes through stairwells, and so the legend of haunted hospitals continues, growing darker with every retelling, until it becomes impossible to distinguish where history ends and nightmare begins, for in these places designed to treat the fragile human spirit, the most terrifying truth is that some wounds never heal and some patients never leave.
