St. Anne’s Mercy

In Minneapolis Minnesota a long abandoned hospital was under reconstruction. The hospital, St Anne’s Mercy, was original founded in 1802. The hospital housed the quarantined patients suffering from illnesses such Yellow Fever, smallpox and leprosy. It also housed the mentally ill and abandoned of all ages for many years.

In 1924 the hospital was converted into a high security insane asylum until 1957, before it was shut down after a tragic accident claimed the life of a nurse and two small children in an unexplainable fire. The nurse was found standing in the room where the fire started, her features burned beyond all recognition. She pointed to the men who found her and let out a loud wail before she dropped to the ground, dead. Her injuries proving fatal. The bodies of the children were never found.

As of 2006 the hospital was purchased and slated for reconstruction as a fully functional general hospital.

Floor by floor the hospital was cleaned and restored. After a few days of work the construction workers began reporting strange sounds, smells, shadows and a sensation of being choked by smoke. As the work continued bizarre accidents began to plague the construction crew. Light bulbs would shatter without reason, small electrical fires would start in wires and outlets in the walls despite the brand new equipment, the elevator doors wouldn’t open and would frequently get stuck between floors and one unfortunate worker apparently fell to his death while trying to repair the faulty elevator. His body was found splayed and bloody at the bottom of an elevator shaft, a look of horror frozen on his face.

While still under construction o hospital was opened to the public as an emergency room. The hospital staff was free to roam about all floors and wings of the hospital with the exception of the children’s wing, which was far behind schedule.

Many worker’s refused to continue restoring the children’s wing. They’d call in sick or quit, each worker claiming that they felt as though their lives were in danger.

Soon patient’s began to complain about odd sounds emanating from the vacated children’s wing. Complaints of children playing loudly were common, then reports of screams and cries for help began to disturb the peace. The doctor’s and nurse’s insisted on hiring additional security to monitor the wing and refused to allow the staff to use the empty wing for storage, unless they had someone watching them.

Several security cameras were installed in the wing, one in each hallway, one for both elevators and one on the emergency staircase. The security guard hired to watch the monitors began complaining of headaches, nausea, nightmares and paranoia.

After only six days the security guard was found hanging in his office, after he had attempted to scratch out his own eyes. The screens on the monitors had been broken with some black paint smeared over the display, and the recording videotapes had the film pulled free of the case and waded up all over the office. There was a piece of paper found in the security guard’s hands which read simply: “She’s still looking”.

The hospital staff reviewed what little security footage that was salvaged and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary during the first night with the exception of the lights occasionally flickering.

But on the second night there were brief glimpses of two small children playing in the hallways, the children were horribly burned and had black dots where their eyes should’ve been. The staff could hear them laughing as they played, even after the tape had stopped playing.

On the third night the elevator doors began to randomly open and close without provocation. Some of the staff claimed to have seen a bloodied hand reach up and through the opened doors as if it was attempting to claw its way to freedom.

During the fourth night a weeping shadowy figure began roaming the halls. The figure was dressed in scorched rags and had black tears running down her face. As she roamed aimlessly she would occasionally stop and look directly into the cameras before letting out a shriek of emotional pain.

The fifth night of footage showed a gurney with a zipped body bag rolling down the hall. This footage was especially grainy and damaged, but there was no mistaking the image on the screen.

On the sixth night, the night the guard hanged himself, the footage was oddly clear. The gurney and body bag rolled back down the hall without provocation. But the body inside the bad slowly sat upright, its head turning in the bag to look at the camera. The footage suddenly cut to static and when it cleared the body bag was now standing up next to the gurney. Static hit the screen once more and body was now closer to the camera. From inside the bag the body let out a horrible wail of pain that grew louder and louder as it began twitching and walking directly toward the camera. The video stops playing. There is no additional footage.

The hospital staff who witnessed the footage began complaining of the same symptoms as the security guard: headaches, nausea, nightmares and paranoia. One by one each witness began suicide attempts, sometimes successfully.

As a precaution the witnesses to the footage were committed to mental institutes for their own protection and the children’s wing of the hospital was walled off.

The staff still claim to hear laughter and screams coming from beyond the wall.