note: this episode includes the death of an elderly patient in a care facility setting.

Some buildings are different at night. A nursing home at 3 a.m. is one of them.

In our first episode, we hear from Renata — a night shift nurse who spent nearly four years on the overnight at a long-term care facility in the midwest. She was practical, grounded, not given to imagination. And then, for seven nights in a row, an elderly patient in Room 14 started waking up at exactly 3:17 a.m. — staring at the same corner of the room.

Renata told herself it was sundowning. She almost convinced herself, too.

Then she noticed the marks on the floor.

Third shift tales collects stories from the night shift — the kind people mention once, in hushed voices, and never bring up again. Names and some details have been changed at the request of contributors.