Daily Flash Fiction Challenge

The man lay in a fetal position, eyes swinging wildly.

"He's hopeless, doctor." The nurse shook her head. "He can't stand anyone looking at him."

"One last try, nurse. Put him in the green room. No windows. Peace and quiet."

***

The room was painted light green, nothing but a bed and one dim bulb centered on a high ceiling. Within a week, the patient had uncurled, walked around and seemed normal.

He was given a standard meal from the cafeteria and would talk to staff through a closed door. At times, the doctor could open a small sliding window in the door for a minute at a time without incident. The doctor thought that, in time, the man could be cured.

***

The screaming started. It took three orderlies to restrain the patient, who kept screaming, screaming "Stop looking at me. Oh, my god, please get away."

After sedating the man, the doctor, perplexed, wondered out loud, "What could have set him off? There was nobody in the room."

The orderly showed him. A stolen serated plastic knive lay in a corner, blood splattered around it. The man had cut himself and painted a huge bloody eye on the inside of the door, unseen with the door open.

213 word horror story.