Everyone Who Goes to Johnston Willis Hospital Dies

    I remember my mother’s face peering down at me.  My hair is matted down on my left side, and my nose is full of something that stings.  My throat is dry and my mouth feels crusty.  I am wet.  A hand is sliding down the left side of my face.  A furry moistened hand. 
“Joseph, Joseph, Joseph…” There are sobs.

    My eyelid is peeled back and a fire burns it.  Uniformed men are thumping around the tulip wallpaper.  Hands in my armpits tickle as I am lifted.  There is a sharp prick in my hand as a belt is tightening around my chest.

    “Hey honey?”  My moms voice… Where am I? Hospital.  A man in a white coat says that I had a… Grand Maul.  They are all staring at me but not talking to me.  Their eyes look sad.  I have a soar throat.  The other’s leave.  My mom and I look at each other.  There is a thin curtain next to the bed I am in.  My mom squeezes my hand.  “You had another seizure and you wouldn’t wake up.”  My face is hot and I feel different and alien and fragile.  My mom always  said that everyone who goes to Johnston willis hospital dies.  I look around.  My mom tells me I’ll be fine.  “Try to get some sleep.”

    My eyes open to a loud bang.  The doors at the end of the hall have burst open.  A black haired man in a white suit is strapped to a table with people all dressed in green rushing him in.  They push  the table up to a wall and pull a curtain around him.  I can just see silhouettes.  His head had a gash in it and the shoulders of his suit had turned pink.  I close my eyes again as things start to calm down.

    My eyes open my mom is standing up looking worried.  There are loud yells.  One of the nurses comes out from behind a curtain nearby with her hand over her face and blood gushing from her nose.   Doctors come running and grab her and rush her to a bed.  The pink and white suited man creeps out from behind the curtain blood drips from his mouth and he staggers as if drunk.  His pants around his ankles he turns to face me and my mother.  He stares at us and there is nothing behind those eyes. 
   
    My mom moves between him and me and puts her back to me.  I have to lean over to peer around my mom.  The man is stumbling towards us and grunting and hissing like an animal.  A nurse and two uniformed man walk up calmly and grab his arms.  He begins to struggle and he bites one of the uniformed men on the cheek tearing some flesh away.  “Fuck this fucker bit me.”  There are more screams from down the hall and the sound of people running.  A third uniformed man walks up and puts a shotgun to the head of the man in the white suit.  There is a loud bang and I blink my eyes and when they open again the mans head is gone, just smoke from the gun barrel and a pink mist flying through the air. 
   
    We’re running down the hall of the hospital, the emergency lights are blinking on and off.  And there are constant thuds on every door we pass from former patients, now something different.  Its me, my mom, two cops, and a nurse.  We left the guy with the cheek bite behind one of the cops said there was nothing we could do for him.  Something comes into view and the cop drops it before we can even make out if it is human or not.  My mom is crying, my feet are bear and I am in a hospital gown so I start to shiver from the cold. 
   
    One cop is dead or gone the other is bleeding from his arm.  We were swarmed by a bunch of them and began running back the way we came.  My mom falls and I stop to grab her but before I can they get her.  I have hold of her arm as they start to tear her apart there is blood everywhere but I still have her arm, then I realize that’s all I have and I drop it and run.  The nurse and I are all that’s left.

    We are hiding in one of the private rooms we have the hospital bed blocking the door.  She isn’t crying she keeps telling me it is going to be alright.  She asks “ why were you in here anyway”.  I told her I had a seizure and I wouldn’t wake up and she looks at me with sad eyes. 

The Tan Girl In the Bar

“Great minds think alike!” the man with the purple nose said through yellow teeth.  The tan girl raised her glass and gave a smile and a nod.  She sipped her drink gingerly and set it down on a soiled cocktail napkin.  Her hands shook as ripples of delight surged through her body.  Leonard the barkeep made the drinks stiff because that was the way his customers liked them.  The purple man began to mumble to no one in particular.  There were a few patrons at one end of the bar that looked out of place in their sport’s jackets and starched shirts.  The tan girl noticed them and adjusted her skirt and crossed her legs.  She was there to work after all.  One of the sport’s jackets met her eyes and winked.  The tan of her face wrinkled at the corner of her eyes and mouth as she gave them a smile.  The winker walked over to her and asked to buy her a drink.  The tan girl looked down at her full glass and said she was fine.  They began to talk business and she twirled her brown curls through her fingers.  The sports jacket laughed at her caustic humor, and he was hooked.  Now the moment was coming the stars were aligned.  The spider had a fly in her web and was ready to devour him.  The sports jacket began to sweat at his temples and his collar seemed too tight.  Her gaze was like a spot light shining down on him.  For a moment the whole world was silent waiting for this lioness to pounce.  And then she spoke saying: “Well Tom are you sure you prepared for everything.  I mean if something, God forbid, should happen to you, would your family be taken care of?  No one could ever have too much life insurance, ya know.  And I think I have just the policy for you.  It’s our platinum membership…”  She droned on knowing that she had her prey right where she wanted him.  The sport’s jacket stood there squirming in a vain attempt to get away from this tan goddess, nay devil.  The man with the purple nose burped and slid off his stool and stumbled towards the door shaking his head.  He shivered as he walked out into the cold night air, but as scared as he was of what he had just witnessed he took solace in the fact that he was a simple sort and would ne’er fall victim to shedevils like the tan girl in the bar.