She's gone.

After you guys solved the last riddle, I wondered what they were going to do. I mean, the riddles all have something to do with my..."punishment," right? The smoke led to a fire, the cupcakes led to those razor-bladed unicorns. And now that the answer was "light," I wondered what the heck  was going to happen to me.

It was worse than I anticipated. The next morning I woke up blind.

How the hell they did that, I have no idea. I couldn't see a thing. I had to call 911 and when a doctor looked at me, he said that it was a case of "conversion disorder resulting in somatoform blindness" - what they used to call "hysterical blindness."

This wasn't psychosomatic. This was real. I couldn't do anything. I was in the hospital for about a month and then...then it went away. I could see again.

I went back to Shady Lawn immediately.

It was worse than when I left. The building itself looked...diseased. And it was so quiet. The hallways were dark, since the lights had been broken. The "P"s and "E"s that had been painted on several doors were smeared. I checked in on some patients and they all looked asleep. I couldn't see any other doctors or nurses around.

And then I checked Grace's room and saw that she was gone.

And in her place was a note:

4E59524B2058524456205A4A20474352505655204E5A4B592044524A4B4A2C20505249554A2C204A525A434A2C20524555205446495552585600?

And two files.

Patient 1: Grace Smith

Condition: Dissociative Identity Disorder

History: Ms. Smith came to us after a psychotic break. In her childhood, she would imagine herself to be another person, "Karen," with a brother named "Derek." "Karen" would take all her bad memories away, while "Derek" would provide an escape from loneliness. As she grew up, "Karen" became "Kevin" and her mind began working through her problems, eventually "killing off" Derek. This proved too much for her fragile psyche, however, and "Kevin" took over completely. We have successfully dealt with the "Kevin" persona and brought back Grace.

Patient 2: Robert Zanetti

Condition: Low self-esteem

History: Mr. Zanetti came to us for a job and we have provided him one as an orderly. He suffers from extremely low self-esteem - despite having a degree in English, he has instead worked a series of menial jobs. But perhaps we can put him to good use.


I...I'm supposed to choose between Grace and myself?

How? How am I supposed to do that?