The Key Jangler

Visiting Hours

At the hospital, Morgan sat at Taylor's bedside next to Officer James. The police had since ruled Morgan out as a person of interest. Before being put into a medically induced coma, an officer had the great idea to show Taylor photos of people who may have attacked her.

Morgan was happy that the police were doing their job right this time but also sad and a bit angry that it took her friend being viciously attacked for them to stop stalking her.

The Chief walked in and took his hat off in respect. The cops in the room stood at attention. He placed his hand on James' shoulder and said: "Son you did well. You've saved a life and your partners were able to rule out some suspects. You're back on the case and I'm here to promote you to Detective James Brown!" The cops, nurses, and medical staff all stood and clapped.

Chief Jim Brown fastened a medal on James' uniform.

The Chief put his hat back on and said "Now James, I want you to work more closely with the students in our collective efforts to catch this killer and bring him to justice. You have the department's full support."

"Thank you, sir, I won't let you down." They both firmly shook hands.

More clapping ensued with a few cheers from the other officers in the room.

Morgan reluctantly clapped along.

After all of the police left, Morgan stood by Taylor. She mostly slept at the hospital, in the hallways, and eventually in a bed next to Taylor's. Morgan lay there for what felt like days with scores of visitors coming in and out of the hospital room to visit Taylor. She nodded off to sleep...

Morgan was suddenly awakened by the sound of cackling laughter. She turned to see Taylor sitting straight up in her bed splattered with blood. With a huge creepy grin on her face holding an oversized red key. She kept laughing hysterically pointing to it and holding it above her head. Morgan started to scream but her screams sounded muffled as if moving through water. The sound of metal keys jingling together suddenly pierced through the laughter and screaming and a deep sinister voice echoed: jingle jangle... die, die my angel.

Morgan completely terrified, practically jumped awake, this time in her dorm room bed. She was quickly relieved that it was just a nightmare. Her thoughts slowly flooded back into reality. Morgan remembered that she hadn't been at the hospital for very long. She remembered leaving the hospital right after James' promotion. She remembered she went to a few bars in town and got shit-faced drunk and took an Uber back to her dorm.

She knew she was dealing with her negative emotions in a bad way and something needed to change.