The Terror #wattys2017 #TNTHorrorContest

Delusion

When finally, I awoke My mother had hold of my left hand and Michelle my right. Poor Michelle was in one of those stupid hospital gowns with a Pendleton shirt thrown over her shoulders. Just behind her standing near the door was Danny and I realized I was in trouble.

"What time is it somebody?"

Mom told me it was a little after 7:00 and I looked over at Danny with a sorrowful face.

"Fuck! I'm so sorry Dan, I had a little problem."

Michelle and Mom both squeezed my hands, both venturing to speak first then saying,

"I'm sorry, you go"

"No you go"

"No it's alright sweetie," My mom said "You go ahead."

"Will you both just give it a break, I'm sure it's all going to work out. Now how is my girl?"

"I'm going to survive, you scared the hell out of everybody you know, how do you feel dude?"

"I don't quite know yet; how long was I out?"

Mom said, "About three hours give or take, we need to find out what all this fainting is with you sonny boy. They took some blood and they need you to pee in this cup." She pointed to a plastic cup with a cardboard lid sitting on the side table.

"Would you like some water baby?" she asked

"Yeah please, my mouth feels like a cotton ball died in it."

While mom poured water from a blue plastic pitcher I motioned for Danny to come over. I kissed Michelle on the cheek and motioned for her to make room for him to get close to the bed. He had a concerned expression on his face, not mad at all.

"I'm sorry I didn't make it to the meeting, is your guy pissed?"

"Naw, nothing like that, he knew something must be up. He told me to go look for ya and make sure you were boneroo."

Then I remembered what happened, it's funny how sometimes you wake up from a dream or a nightmare and can't remember what happened for a few minutes.

"I had a terrible nightmare, I'm a little confused, how did I wind up passed out in this bed. Why is Michelle in a hospital gown, how did my Mom know I was here and how did you find me Danny? Did you find where they moved Heather, Michelle? I had a very bad nightmare about her, she was dancing in the hall out there like she was all fine but then she turned to a burned up monster and tried to kiss me and I couldn't wake up, it was awful! Worse nightmare I ever had."

They all looked at each other like there was something I was missing, then Michelle held my hand in both of hers and with a concerned look asked,

"Don't you remember? We came here together a few hours ago baby."

"Sure, I remember, she wasn't in her room so we went to talk to the nurse to see where they moved her. You were a little freaked out but..."

I stopped in my tracks, my mind was spinning like a slot machine but I wasn't getting all the cherries lined up in a row. Something didn't make sense, even as it was coming out of my mouth I knew I was full of shit. That nightmare got me all mixed up, I was supposed to wake up and everything was going to be back to normal, but this, this was not normal. Now everyone was looking at me like I had an arrow in my head, enough that I reached around my noggin to see if something was there.

"I'm forgetting something ain't I ?"

Michelle nodded and tried to hug me in my bed, I wasn't ready for that and pushed her away.

"Don't coddle me, just tell me what's going on!"

I began to feel my heart rate increase and a light haze of sweat on my brow. Something was very wrong here and they weren't telling me what it was. I needed to know and I needed to know right fucking now.

"Somebody tell me what the fuck is going on, what's happening to me." Even I knew I was getting too excited.

"Calm down Merrill," Said mom, running her fingers through my hair, "I'll tell you what we know."

"OK, I'm calm, please tell me."

"Ok son, here's how it happened with me. I got a call from the hospital telling me you were here and having some problems. They asked if I could come down and help with the paperwork and asked for permission to examine you, I, of course, said yes and ran my ass down here as fast as I could. When I finally found you the nurse that saw everything happen told me all about it. Apparently, you and Michelle had come to visit Heather, is that right son?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"She said that when you were walking down the hall with Michelle she looked up and Michelle just fell and you grabbed her before she could hurt herself, do you remember that part buddy?"

I couldn't answer, I was trying to put it together, but those cherries weren't lining up, I had the one that recalled us coming to see Heather but the other two were still spinning. I felt like a broken machine, I never had trouble remembering things before. This was getting scary, what else did I not remember?

I Asked Michelle, "Where were you when all this happened?"

"I had already lost consciousness myself baby, I don't remember anything after that myself, I'm sorry I'm such a weenie girl."

Mom went on, "They said you didn't look too good yourself, you were just standing there with tears running down your cheeks watching them take care of Michelle. They said they were so busy with her they didn't notice you had walked away. Then everybody on the floor heard you screaming 'Wake Up, Wake up,' at the top of your lungs and when they ran to see what happened you were on the floor, out cold. So they picked you up, brought you in here, looked in your wallet for your phone number and called me."

One of the wheels in the machine was slowing down, click click click DING!

"Oh, MY GAWD! So Heather is dead isn't she?"

I looked in my beautiful girl's eyes and all she did was nod with tears running down her face. There was so much pain in those eyes that I too started crying and opened my arms to her, she grabbed me like a perfumed bear cub and cried openly on my shoulder. I looked to my mom asking for a little privacy and she and Danny quietly left the room.

"I'm so sorry my stupid brain went on a holiday sweetie, " Click click CLICK!

DING!

I held her as she wept, she was saying how she felt so sad and guilty. I realized then that what I saw was no dream, not a nightmare or delusion; what I saw was some kind of spirit, another apparition to add to Dale's head and his scary ass Merc. More than ever, I feared for my sanity; More than ever I knew I needed help from the Miner to fix my head.