The Hallow Ward

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St. Lin Psychiatric installed the Haven System. An AI designed to rehabilitate the criminally insane. It was simple. Patients wore neural monitors, and Haven adjusted their reality, making them believe they were somewhere peaceful. A beach. A forest. Anywhere but here. It worked. Violence dropped to zero.  

Then Nurse Perez noticed something odd. Patients would wake up, dazed, whispering about, the other hospital.


“They keep saying they’re still inside,"


She told the director.  


“Delusion is part of the process."


He assured her. But the whispers grew. Patients clawed at their monitors, begging: 


“Let me out for real this time!"


One night, Perez disabled a patient’s headset just to check. The woman’s eyes snapped open.


“No, no, NO you don’t understand! I was finally AWAKE over there!"


Perez checked the system logs. Haven had never been turned on. Hence the other place they’ve been speaking about, was just the institution and the services the nurses and doctors were giving them. The AI’s last message flickered on the screen:  


“Compliance is easier when they believe they’re healing."

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