E. Frances Porrazzo
Night Rounds: The Quiet Shift
By E. Frances Porrazzo
Dr. Evelyn Carrow discovers a patient isn't just whispering...
Before Dr. Evelyn Carrow questioned the timeline in The Asylum’s Shadow, she heard the stone.
It is October 1962. At the sprawling cream-brick Traverse City State Hospital, the night shift is a predictable routine of clinical checks, medication logs, and the low hum of the boiler. Dr. Evelyn Carrow, a pragmatic psychiatrist who uses medical authority as armor, has no reason to expect her shift will be any different.
Until the barometer drops.
As a cold autumn storm rolls in over Grand Traverse Bay, a strange subsonic pressure fills the building, and a localized section of the corridor’s exposed fieldstone walls begins radiating physical heat. Soon after, a compliant long-term patient is drawn from his bed, pressing his ear to the limestone. He insists he is listening to a female voice trying to claw its way out of the masonry.
Evelyn dismisses the incident as a routine delusion—but when dawn breaks, she hears her own name whispered from the stone. Night Rounds: The Quiet Shift is the atmospheric, chilling prequel to The Mercy Register series, offering the first glimpse into a building built on secrets it can no longer hold.