CHAPTER 1 — THE RING OF THE DEAD
The morgue was the quietest place in the entire city.
No laughter.
No conversations.
Only the constant hum of refrigeration units and the metallic echo of footsteps bouncing off cold white walls.
For most people, spending even five minutes there was unbearable.
For Nurse Anna Collins, it had become home.
She had worked the night shift at St. Gabriel Medical Center's morgue for nearly three years. At first, every body frightened her. Every lifeless face haunted her dreams.
Not anymore.
Now she barely looked at them.
To Anna, they were simply paperwork waiting to be completed.
Bodies.
Tags.
Reports.
Nothing more.
At twenty-nine years old, she believed life had cheated her.
She worked twelve-hour shifts.
She barely earned enough to pay rent.
She drove an old car that stalled every other week.
Meanwhile, influencers her age traveled the world.
Former classmates posted pictures from luxury vacations.
Some married wealthy husbands.
Others built successful businesses.
Anna had nothing.
Except resentment.
At first she blamed fate.
Then she blamed rich people.
Finally...
She blamed honesty.
One rainy evening, while preparing a deceased woman's belongings for release to the family, she noticed an expensive diamond bracelet hidden beneath the blanket.
Nobody had listed it.
Nobody seemed to know it existed.
She stared at it for almost ten minutes.
Then she quietly slipped it into her pocket.
The family never asked.
The hospital never investigated.
She sold it three days later.
The money equaled nearly two months of her salary.
That was the moment everything changed.
She convinced herself she wasn't stealing.
"They're dead," she whispered whenever guilt appeared.
"They don't need jewelry."
"The families never notice."
"It's practically abandoned property."
Little by little...
Bracelets disappeared.
Gold necklaces vanished.
Luxury watches found new owners.
Wedding rings.
Designer wallets.
Even expensive cufflinks.
Each theft became easier than the last.
Every successful job erased another piece of her conscience.
Soon she wasn't simply taking opportunities.
She was searching for them.
Whenever a wealthy patient arrived...
Anna secretly hoped the family would forget something valuable.
The morgue became her private jewelry store.
No cameras worked inside Storage Hall Three.
The maintenance department had ignored the broken surveillance system for almost eight months.
Everyone complained.
Nobody repaired it.
Anna silently thanked whoever kept delaying the repairs.
She had become careful.
Professional.
Patient.
And greedy.
Greed always grows faster than fear.
Then, late on a stormy Thursday night...
Everything changed.
At exactly 8:47 p.m., paramedics wheeled in a young man covered with a white sheet.
His identification tag read:
Daniel Harper.
Age: 35.
Cause of death:
Sudden cardiac arrest.
No visible injuries.
No trauma.
Declared dead forty-three minutes earlier.
Even beneath the sheet, Anna could tell he came from money.
His tailored Italian suit alone cost more than three months of her salary.
His leather shoes looked handmade.
A luxury watch rested on his wrist.
But that wasn't what made her stop breathing.
It was the ring.
A thick yellow-gold ring rested on his left hand.
Unlike ordinary wedding bands, this one carried a deep black stone surrounded by tiny flawless diamonds.
It looked ancient.
Expensive.
Powerful.
Anna instinctively glanced around.
The orderly was pushing another gurney down the hallway.
The attending physician was signing paperwork upstairs.
She was alone.
Her pulse quickened.
She casually picked up Daniel's belongings inventory.
Oddly...
The ring wasn't listed.
Someone had forgotten it.
Or perhaps nobody dared remove it.
Either way...
It was worth a fortune.
She searched the brand online using her phone.
One similar handcrafted estate ring had sold for nearly...
Ninety-eight thousand dollars.
Anna almost dropped the phone.
One ring.
Enough to buy a house.
Enough to erase every debt.
Enough to leave this miserable job forever.
She couldn't stop thinking about it.
For hours she pretended to organize documents.
But every few minutes her eyes drifted toward Daniel's hand.
Toward that impossible ring.
Outside...
Rain hammered against the building.
Thunder shook the windows.
Inside...
The hallway grew quieter.
By 11:30 p.m., she was completely alone.
Perfect.
Anna locked the hallway door.
She turned off several unnecessary lights.
Only the dim ceiling lamps illuminated the room.
She slipped on fresh latex gloves.
Not because she respected procedure.
Because fingerprints mattered.
Slowly...
She approached Daniel's table.
His face looked strangely peaceful.
Almost too peaceful.
His skin seemed warmer than most bodies arriving from emergency care.
She paused.
Then laughed nervously.
"It's just because he died recently."
Nothing unusual.
Nothing to fear.
She reached for his left hand.
The gold ring refused to move.
She twisted gently.
Still stuck.
"Come on..."
She pulled harder.
The ring shifted only slightly.
Anna frowned.
She grabbed his finger with both hands.
This time she used all her strength.
The ring finally began sliding over his knuckle.
Just one more pull...
Then suddenly—
Daniel's fingers tightened around her wrist.
Not slightly.
Not accidentally.
His grip was crushing.
Ice-cold.
Unbelievably strong.
Anna froze.
Her mind refused to understand what had just happened.
Bodies don't grab people.
Corpses don't move.
She slowly lifted her eyes.
Daniel's eyelids...
Were opening.
Very slowly.
His pupils locked directly onto hers.
Then...
His lips curled into a faint smile.
In a raspy whisper that echoed through the silent morgue, he said:
"I've been waiting for someone greedy enough to touch that ring..."
Anna let out a scream so loud that it echoed through every hallway in the hospital.
But no one came.
May you like
Because what happened next...
Was far worse than death itself.
