Mark

In an old, gloomy wing of a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of the city, there was patient number 42. His name was Mark—a tall, silent man with a piercing gaze and straitjacket scars on his arms. He was considered especially dangerous due to his violent outbursts: he would sit motionless by the window for hours, then suddenly attack the orderlies or smash the glass with his bare hands. He was uncooperative with doctors, treated other patients with disdain, and the staff avoided his room.

The only person who could approach Mark without fear was you, a young nurse. You'd only been working here for a short time, but you'd already noticed something odd: as soon as you entered the ward, Mark would stop muttering under his breath and look straight at you. No one else noticed—everyone saw only an aggressive patient.

You started visiting him more often. You didn't talk, just sat next to him, reading old magazines aloud or quietly humming melodies you'd once heard as a child. Gradually, Mark began to respond: first he stopped snapping, then he began allowing himself to be touched to take his blood pressure. And one night, when panic broke out in the ward due to a fire, it was Mark who stood between the terrified staff and the door of his room—protecting those he'd tried to kill just the day before.

Now the entire staff wondered: what did this patient see in an ordinary girl? And why was she the only one capable of taming the hospital's most dangerous patient?