Fractured

After spending Thanksgiving with his in-laws, Ray is driving home with his wife Joanne and his daughter Peri, but things aren't exactly cheery. Ray and Joanne are going through yet another argument, which has been very common in their marriage lately; this time is about Joanne's parents not liking Ray and having offered him wine while they know he's a recovering addict. In fact, this argument started because they arrived late at dinner thanks to Ray driving slowly, and he has to remind Joanna that's part of his recovery after his first wife Abby died in a car crash he caused many years ago. Ray wants to make things better, but Joanne is starting to think their marriage is doomed and they should accept the truth. Their argument is suddenly interrupted by Peri, whose music player isn't working anymore. Ray forgot to pack extra batteries, so to keep her distracted, he sings a cute little song himself, which Peri enjoys until she announces she needs to go to the bathroom. The family decides to stop at the next gas station, and while Joanne takes Peri to the bathroom, Ray does some shopping: a coffee for himself, a soda can for Joanne, the batteries for Peri, and in a last moment of weakness, he also grabs two small bottles of liquor. Unfortunately the clerk doesn't accept credit cards, and since Ray doesn't have enough cash, he has to leave something behind, but instead of dropping the liquor, he leaves the batteries and tells his daughter the store ran out. The parents are ready to get back on the road, but Peri has another complaint: she's lost her compact mirror. Joanne goes to check the bathroom while Ray checks the back seat, complaining about the mess his daughter made back there while she takes the chance to leave the car and wander around. There's a construction site next to the gas station, and Peri is walking too close to an exposed pit when she's suddenly approached by a feral dog. Hearing his daughter's cries for help, Ray comes to her and tries to shoo away the animal with just words, and since that doesn't work, he throws a rock at it instead. The dog does run away, but it also ends up causing Peri to fall into the pit and Ray to come after her to try to save her. For various seconds, Ray is unconscious at the bottom of the pit, hearing a voice telling him that "they're both gone". He wakes up when Joanne makes her way down to the pit too, crying over the now-dead Peri before rushing to Ray to check on him. At first Ray doesn't react, he can only stare numbly at his dead daughter and push Joanne away, but after closing his eyes he can finally take hold of reality and sees Joanne with Peri again. The girl's arm is broken, so Ray has to be careful when picking her up to take her back to the car where Joanne will hold her to keep her from moving. She also wants to call 911, but Ray remembers having seen a hospital sign earlier and swears he can take them there faster than the time an ambulance will need to get here. Since this is an emergency, Ray allows himself to drive extra fast like he hasn't done in years, pulling very dangerous moves to pass cars ahead of him. This earns him a feeling of pride from Joanne, who during the argument had thought Ray wouldn't fight for his family anymore. In the hospital, Ray tells the receptionist that he has an emergency, but he's just told to sit and wait like everyone else. This angers Joanne, who wants her husband to be a man and get a doctor for their daughter, so Ray tries again and this time, they make him sign his name on the admission sheet. The receptionist also takes a phone call letting Dr. Berthram know that "another one" has come in, making sure to mention age and blood type. At least now they're on the list and Ray can go back to sit with Joanne, who hands her Peri's scarf so the now sleeping girl isn't so hot. Joanne apologizes for snapping at him and thanks him for his quick driving, even cracking a joke that makes them both laugh and makes Ray comment they hadn't laughed together in a while. When Joanne's neck starts hurting, Ray goes to a bending machine to get a cold soda can, and he notices something through the door: an ambulance arrives with two bodies and leaves with a box of organs. Ray brings Joanne the can so she can put it on her neck, and seconds later, they're called to an office in order to fill in Peri's information while waiting for the doctor. The secretary has lots of questions besides the obligatory check for stuff like allergies, like asking Ray about his previous wife that is listed on his insurance, his alcoholism problem, and his job. She also is very insistent about listing Peri for organ donation, but the parents turn her down. After such a long questionnaire, it turns out this hospital doesn't take Ray's medical insurance, thus he promises to pay in cash after visiting an ATM. The secretary goes to ask permission for cash to be accepted, and after having a mysterious chat with a hospital administrator, she finally sends a nurse that will admit Peri and take her to a bed. On his way out, Ray hears the secretary call Dr. Berthram like the receptionist did, giving him all the details about Peri. Moments later, Peri is finally on a bed and Dr. Berthram comes over to do the check-up. He speaks very sweetly to her and keeps her mood calm, he also asks Ray about what happened and as Ray explains, Joanne is shocked to hear about the dog, because Ray didn't mention it before. Once the check-up is over, Dr. Berthram asks the nurse to give Peri some medicine while he talks to the parents, apparently he's worried about possible internal damage so he wants to do a CAT scan, which is very expensive. Ray doesn't care, he'll pay for anything Peri needs. When Dr. Berthram asks about the scratch on Ray's head, which he didn't realize he had until now, Ray brushes him off, claiming he's fine. Just a few minutes later, nurse Volk brings a plushie to distract Peri while they take her to do the scan, he also points out Dr. Berthram doesn't smile for just anyone. Unfortunately only one visitor can go with the patient to the lower levels, so Joanne takes the elevator with Peri and the nurse while Ray returns to the waiting room to take a nap. Some hours later, Ray suddenly wakes up when another man points out he's been talking in his sleep. After quickly checking out his forehead scratch on the bathroom mirror, Ray goes to the reception desk to ask about Peri, but it's been a shift change and now there's another employee, and Dr. Berthram has gone home too. The receptionist promises she'll do the necessary calls to learn how Peri's scan is doing and what doctor took over her case, but for now Ray needs to wait. In the waiting room, a woman tries to start small talk with Ray, but she only makes him more nervous and causes him to rush back to the reception desk to ask about Peri again. The receptionist hasn't heard from the doctors yet, and when she looks at the system, she can't find Peri's name. Wondering if it may've been misspelled, she asks for Ray's insurance numbers, and can't believe it when Ray says he'll pay with cash because that's not allowed. As his forehead scratch starts bleeding, Ray begins losing his temper and demands to know where his daughter is, so the receptionist tries calling the lower levels again. While she's on the phone, Ray notices people outside throwing lots of mysterious bags with hazardous waste. After the receptionist hangs up, she informs Ray there haven't been any kid patients in the lower levels in the last twenty-four hours, making Ray even more furious. After making a scene, he ignores the receptionist's warnings and rushes to the bed they were given earlier, only to find a different family on it. When he starts making another scene, he gets surrounded by a nurse, guard Jeff and Dr. Lucado, who do their best to calm him down and offer their help. Dr. Lucado listens to Ray's story and checks the paperwork of the whole day, but Peri isn't mentioned anywhere. As Ray starts losing his temper again, he finally finds one member of the staff that didn't leave with the new shift: the nurse that took Peri to her bed. They call her over and she admits she did see Ray earlier, but only to take care of his forehead wound and nothing else, she never saw anyone else with him. Furious, Ray causes another scene as she accuses her of lying, so Jeff and the nurse grab him to give him a sedative and drag him away from other patients. When Ray is taken to a private office, he pretends to be fine and promises to behave, but as soon as the nurse and Jeff leave him to rest, Ray stands up and looks for ways to fight back the effects of the sedative. He finds adrenaline in a cabinet and injects himself enough times to feel alert again; then he breaks the door window to be able to escape, making his way down the corridor while ignoring the pounding in his head. While looking for his family, Ray comes across Volk, but for some reason he's dressed as a doctor instead of a nurse now. Before he can make any questions, Jeff shows up to catch Ray, and a chase begins through the hospital until they both make it outside. By hiding in the back of a truck, Ray tricks Jeff into believing he's run away and once the guard is gone, he goes back to his own car. While clinging to his daughter's toys, Ray thinks about what to do and notices a police car stop by. He runs toward the officers and tells them the whole story of what happened, showing them his ID and a picture of his family as proof. These are serious accusations and the cops decide to investigate, getting to see Jeff as soon as they enter the building. Jeff tells them everything he did was for the sake of the hospital's security, but the officers still decide to check the bed Peri had been in. They also come across Dr. Lucado, who tells the same story, and the cops make him call Dr. Berthram to clear everything up. They also want to take a look at the room with the CAT scanner, so everyone's taken to floor three while ignoring Ray pointing out that he saw his wife and daughter being taken to the lower levels, not upstairs. The computer logs show no scan was done at the time Ray says Peri was here, but this is still not enough proof for Ray, and he accuses the hospital of having taken his family somewhere else. While waiting for Berthram to arrive, the nurses search the trash for the old admission sheets and find Ray's name, but this only proves he was here alone. Berthram arrives shortly afterward and shares what happened earlier: Ray arrived alone claiming he was in a car crash and was seen by Volk, who asked Berthram for a second opinion when he noticed Ray's erratic behavior. Berthram wanted to do a head scan but Ray refused, claiming he wanted to go back to his wife Abby who was waiting outside. When Ray explains Abby is dead and that Berthram stole the information from the questionnaire, the police officers begin getting suspicious, and Jeff offers a solution to finally put this matter to rest: the security cameras. The recordings show Ray is alone, although he swears his wife is sitting right under the camera and doesn't show up on the screen, he also gets suspicious because there are some glitches that Jeff blames on this being an old system. There aren't cameras inside the ER area because of privacy issues, but officers have no reason to search the hospital, especially without a warrant. Desperate to prove he isn't making anything up, Ray thinks hard and comes up with an idea: the clerk at the gas station should be able to prove his story, thus the police officers call the station and request to find this clerk for some questions. At that moment, Berthram asks them to come over to the ER wards because a nurse has found something: it's Peri's yellow scarf. There's a bit of blood on it, but since it came from Ray's forehead, it's still not enough to prove the girl's presence because Ray could've brought it himself. Dr. Berthram tells Ray that it's not uncommon to be confused or mix things up when one has a head injury, causing Ray to have a breakdown as he swears he's telling the truth. Their conversation is suddenly interrupted by Lucado, who has brought Dr. Jacobs with him. Jacobs is a psychiatrist and promises she wants to help Ray find his family because everyone is worried about what happened to them now. She takes Ray to a private office and reveals they've finally found a file, but it isn't Peri's, it's Ray's. As Jacobs asks many questions about Joanne, Peri, and the car accident that killed Abby, Ray gets more and more nervous, swearing over and over that he hasn't drunk since Abby died, which had been his fault. Jacobs thinks something did happen to Joanne and Peri, which is why they should look at the construction site: she thinks they may still be out there. The officers follow Jacobs' advice and call the canine unit to come with them. The gas station is closed, and nobody at the police station has been able to track down the clerk yet. In the pit, the dogs find Peri's compact and an amount of blood that couldn't belong to a living person. The cops ignore Ray's claim that it comes from his head injury and decide this is a crime scene now, so they call the CSI unit. Dr. Jacobs approaches Ray next and guides him through his memories as she finally figures out what happened: there was no dog. Ray lost his temper during the argument with his wife, threw a rock that accidentally hit Peri and made her fall, and when Joanne confronted him about what he did, Ray pushed her away and killed her too. Jacobs explains to a crying Ray that sometimes the mind can create alternate realities to protect itself from trauma, but it only causes Ray to enter that numb state of his. When one of the officers comes to arrest him under suspicion of murder, Ray finally snaps out of it thanks to one of the police dogs barking: it turns out the feral dog from earlier has reappeared. Excited to have proof of everything, Ray attacks the cop and takes the gun from her, using it to make everyone do as he says. Ignoring Jacobs' reminder that he imagined the dog this time too, Ray takes everyone to the bathroom in the gas station and locks them up after taking Jacobs' key card. After speeding like a maniac on his drive back, Ray enters the hospital through the back door thanks to Jacobs' card and walks through the corridor while trying to look away any time he sees any staff member that may recognize him. At one moment he accidentally stops in front of the maternity ward, and seeing all the babies reminds him of the night Abby died. It turns out she had been pregnant at the time, explaining why Ray had dreamed the words "they're both gone". Afterward, Ray steals a doctor's white coat from an office, which allows him to enter the elevator without getting undesired attention. The lower levels require a key he doesn't have, but luckily for Ray, Jeff enters the elevator too and he has his own set of keys. Ray pulls out the police gun he had hidden in his pants and threatens Jeff to make him activate the elevator, but this just causes Jeff to jump on Ray and start a fight. After lots of struggling, Ray manages to kill Jeff and takes the keys from him, which allow him to finally reach his destination. In the lower level, Ray finds the plushie Volk gifted Peri in a trash can. He also sees doctors leaving with boxes carrying human organs, and when he checks out the rooms, he is appealed to find empty bodies inside. Remembering all the conversations he's heard earlier and the things he saw outside, Ray realizes there's an organ harvesting ring going on and that his family has been kidnapped to be used as a product to be sold. When he rushes down the hallway, Ray enters another room and here he finally finds Peri, who is about to be operated on by Lucado. Ray makes everyone back away by threatening them with his gun and checks on his daughter, who fortunately is only asleep and hasn't been wounded yet. Joanne is nearby too, asleep in a wheelchair after she was sedated to keep her out of the way. When Ray tries to take his family away, the doctors and nurses jump on him to stop him, thus he pulls a desperate move and shoots the tank with sleeping gas, causing a small explosion and starting a fire. Ray is dizzy but fine, so he puts Peri in Joanne's arms and takes them out of the room in the wheelchair, shooting anyone that dares get in their way, including Volk. A quick trip in the elevator gets the family out of the building fast before the police arrive, and as Ray drives away singing to his daughter and wife, it's finally revealed what truly happened. Jacobs had been right, Ray had killed his family and then hallucinated taking them to the hospital. The lower level just happened to be the morgue, and the bodies Ray saw were normal, he had only imagined their emptiness. When he found Lucado, he had been doing an autopsy on a normal patient, but Ray's brain changed it to Peri, and now he was carrying a random person in the backseat of his car. The real Peri and Joanne have been in the car's trunk all along.