Standing alone on a patch of newly packed dirt about the size of a city block has never given me such a sense of satisfaction before in my entire life. Stars twinkle brightly overhead, the moon a monolith compared to the rest, casting a dull blue light over all it falls upon. A car roars by me, since this once tall hospital was right on the edge of a highway leading to Las Vegas, this happens, about every two seconds. My jeans are loose and kick up wisps of dirt as I walk around the patch, my long leather coat swaying from the light breeze.

A red Firebird pulls off of the highway and onto the patch, his friend Jess gets out and looks around asking, “Are you finally going to tell me why you’re here?” his hands raised above his head.

I smile to myself, where could I possibly begin?


It all started when he was brought into what used to be a hospital standing here, getting out of a car crash with only a dislocated shoulder was a blessing at the time. Never made it to the party I suppose, but all the same he counted his blessings, for the first couple of hours anyway. The doctors recommended he stay one night, seeing no other reason why not to, he decided that he would be refreshed in the morning.

He found out quickly that he didn’t like his room. It was stuffy, the bed was a sheet of cotton thrown on top of some metal poles, and the television from nineteen thirty didn’t even turn on anymore. Being impatient, he decided to get out of his bed and walk around the halls, only to find more boredom around each corner. It’s not often that an opportunity like this one happens, and I am happy to say that I took advantage of it. Some kind of pressure seemed to wrap around his ankles, and before he even had time to scream, he was dragged to the floor and into the front room of the hospital.


“Wait a minute, what the hell are you talking about man?”

“I am telling you what happened and why I come here.”

“No, you’re going on about how some guy was killed here, what does that have to do with anything?’

“First of all I never said he was dead, secondly all of this is important, just listen.”


After that this hospital was never the same, it had all sorts of problems. The vending machines took your money, the machines all started to go haywire, and people who came to the hospital had worse conditions after they left, even if they came in for a broken finger, they left with a horrible disease. Who would ever come to this hospital? Well after three months it was shut down, becoming what the locals call around here, the Clinical Hospital.

About a month ago, two kids came in and tried to mark their names all over the walls, but only half of the first name was found across one of the walls the next morning by the police. All of this happened rather quickly to my surprise, only one week ago this place was still standing; now all that’s here is a couple of lose rocks and a heap of dry dirt.


“Now,” I said to Jess “would you like me to tell you what all of this means?”

“Well duh! Spit it out already man.”

“How do you think all of these things happened? The man disappearing in the middle of a hospital, a plague of disease striking anyone who came within the front doors, and just two weeks ago when those kids were taken, how?”

“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me!” his voice had become impatient.

“Because I am the one who did all of these things, just one month ago, a man that you called Jeffrey was dragged by me to the middle of the hospital, and ever since I have been him, fooling you and all the people that I came into contact with for a whole month.”

“You expect me to believe that man?”

“I do expect you to run.”

“Huh?” he asked me dumbly.

“Run.”

I raised my hands and sent him flying to the hood of his car, “Too late.” In a matter of seconds, the man who was known as Jess Michaels was no more, just a pile of bones on top of a signature car.

Slamming the door of that same car, I started the engine with my finger touching the dashboard, reviving it loudly with my foot. “It’s good to be living.” Backing up sent the pile of bones flying on top of the patch of dirt, the skull seeming to smile right back at you, a hollow laugh coming from the car that was now flying down the highway towards Vegas.