A MEDICAL-SUPERNATURAL THRILLER
Excruciating
THE CURE FOR PAIN IS IN THE PAIN
A respected nurse anesthetist. A priest haunted by an impossible past. A hospital concealing something far more sinister than medical malpractice. As suffering becomes the gateway to an ancient evil, the line between healing and torment begins to disappear.
ABOUT THE BOOK
THE STORY
Matthew Rix is a gifted nurse anesthetist whose life begins to collapse beneath the weight of grief, addiction, betrayal, and guilt. As his career unravels, a series of disturbing events draws him into a world of medical corruption, unexplained suffering, and supernatural evil.
What first appears to be a personal breakdown soon becomes something far more terrifying. Inside the hospital’s cold corridors, Matthew discovers that pain may not simply be a symptom to treat, but a doorway through which something ancient is trying to enter.
matthew rix
Matthew Rix has spent his career placing others beyond the reach of pain. But after the death of his young son, he can no longer escape his own.
Once defined by military discipline and clinical precision, Matthew now hides an opioid addiction, a broken marriage, and a life steadily collapsing beneath grief and guilt. Behind the surgical mask, he remains capable and controlled. Outside the operating room, he is barely holding himself together.
Then, during a routine procedure, Matthew sees hospital CEO Jonah Cromwell transform into something inhuman.
No one else witnesses it.
With drugs in his system and his sanity already in question, Matthew cannot tell whether the vision is a hallucination or the first sign of an ancient evil moving through Benevolent Manor Hospital. As corruption, violence, and supernatural forces begin to converge, he becomes the one witness no one is likely to believe.
To survive, Matthew must confront the pain he has spent years trying to numb.
the descent
GRIEF
ADDICTION
BETRAYAL
THE VISION
THE CONSPIRACY
THE ABYSS
THE ACCUSATION
INSIDE BENEVOLENT MANOR
Marisol Cordero is found murdered in the parking lot of the Clover Leaf Tavern, with another body discovered nearby. Her secret relationship with Matthew Rix and the angry messages on her phone immediately draw investigators toward him.
But the case shifts when hospital CEO Jonah Cromwell publicly reveals the cause of Marisol’s death before police have released it.
Matthew and Marisol hide a relationship built around grief, desire, and shared opioid use, placing both of their careers at risk. At the same time, Jonah Cromwell conceals his involvement with Abigail Apollyon, a travel nurse whose control over him grows through humiliation, expensive gifts, and blackmail. Inside Benevolent Manor, intimacy becomes another form of leverage.
Fentanyl and other controlled medications are disappearing from the operating room. Matthew secretly diverts medication intended for patients, conceals loaded syringes beneath his scrubs, and injects himself while responsible for patients under anesthesia. When hospital leadership learns about the diversion, the missing drugs become evidence that can destroy careers, control witnesses, and redirect suspicion.
Detectives Will Chung and Elijah Gaddie begin reconstructing the night of Marisol’s murder through phone records, payroll times, hospital security footage, and conflicting witness statements. Matthew’s affair and addiction make him an obvious suspect, but his hospital alibi complicates the case. Attention gradually turns toward Jonah, whose knowledge of unreleased evidence, nervous behavior, cleaned office, and inconsistent explanations suggest that Benevolent Manor is hiding more than anyone first believed.
Hidden behind encrypted files is the Benevolent Manor Medical Executive Committee Charitable Donations Fund, a forgotten Swiss account originally intended to support charitable work. After discovering that the account has grown to more than one hundred million dollars, Jonah begins secretly withdrawing money to satisfy Abigail’s escalating demands. What begins as concealed theft develops into blackmail, fraud, and a threat capable of bringing down the hospital’s leadership.
Meet the characters
Everyone connected to Benevolent Manor Hospital carries a private wound.
Some are grieving. Some are lying. Some are being manipulated. And some may be hiding something that is no longer entirely human.
ELIJAH GADDIE
Elijah reads people better than paperwork. His instincts begin pointing toward a threat no police procedure can explain.
Levi Solomon
Levi warns Matthew that something is wrong at Benevolent Manor. His knowledge becomes essential when ordinary explanations begin to fail.
Emily Rix
Emily and Matthew survive the loss of their son, but grief, resentment, and betrayal destroy what remains of their marriage.
MATTHEW RIX
A grieving father trapped by addiction, guilt, and rage. When Matthew witnesses something impossible during surgery, no one has reason to believe him.
DETECTIVE CHUNG
Will follows timelines, records, and contradictions. The deeper he investigates, the less the case resembles an ordinary murder.
Marisol Cordero
Grief draws Marisol toward Matthew and the drugs they share. After her murder, their hidden relationship becomes evidence.
Abigail Apollyon
Beautiful, calculating, and merciless, Abigail turns weakness into obedience. Her influence may be far older and darker than it appears.
JONAH CROMWELL
Behind Jonah’s polished reputation lie stolen money, a dangerous affair, and something inhuman beginning to surface.
SUPERNATURA
AMBIGUITY
Matthew sees Jonah transform beneath the operating-room lights, but no one else reacts. With opioids in his system and trauma already distorting his sense of reality, even Matthew cannot trust what he witnessed.
Was it withdrawal, a drug-induced hallucination, or the result of a mind fractured by grief? Or had Jonah’s true form finally been revealed?
BENEATH
THE PAIN
What begins as grief, addiction, and corruption finally reveals its true source. Beneath Benevolent Manor’s secrets lies something ancient, infernal, and hungry.
As Jonah’s humanity collapses and Abigail’s influence is fully exposed, Levi summons a Golem to confront the evil that has surfaced. Pain is no longer symbolic here. It becomes the doorway through which the monster enters.