Horror / Something Wicked This Way Comes

The middle of winter was not the best time to be traveling down the old road headed for a hospital rumored to be haunted. Then again, it didn’t matter much to me at the time, sitting in the toasty Ford truck speeding along the old country road.
My head leaned against the cold window, light from fatigue after a whole day of preparing for this trip. I’d done so much research on this place that I could practically recite its history from day one of its origins.

The old Baskerville Mental Institute was built around 1976 in Samson, Montana in the middle of a large forest land. It was one of the largest of the area and its time, with three floors and containing almost two hundred cells. The owner after its construction was named Bryan Hodges. He’d had the land in his family for generations and decided to finally do something with it. At first the hospital flourished, with hundreds of patients in and out in about a year. Hodges was happy with the progress that the patients seemed to be making at his hospital, all seeming to be under the care of one particular doctor, Timothy Rhodes. Rhodes was a gentle man with a reputation to seemingly know exactly everything about his patients. Journals collected showed that he became very personal with his patients also.
But after about two years, Hodges began to get complaints that the men, women, and children sent back to their families were not the way they were before. Not only had they been cured, but they became an entirely new person. They had been fine before and the families all said they could deal with the change until their loved ones began to take a careful interest in finding some boy again. No name was ever given, but they would draw the boy constantly, talk about him, and even lash out at any insults towards him. Upon careful analysis of some of the patient’s journals, he found that Rhodes had repeatedly used threats of this boy to reach some of them.
He asked Rhodes about the boy and he was met with hostility towards the matter. Hodges demanded to know who this child was but again, was told it was not his problem to worry about. Hodges backed off, assuming it was too delicate an issue to make a fuss about.
Then, in 1982, he had a riot break out in the third floor, leaving one dead. The survivor and instigator of the fight told Hodges that Robert had told him to start the fight. Now outraged, Hodges demanded again that Rhodes tell him who Robert was. Hodges finally broke down and told him that Robert was a rumor spreading around the hospital that he decided to take advantage of. They even designated a room for Robert to live in. It was room 326. Hodges, determined to prove the rumor false, ventured into the room. No one really saw him after that, but reports are that the door locked behind him and he was trapped. Something beyond that door really did live, and it killed the unsuspecting Bryan Hodges.
Timothy Rhodes fled the hospital the instant after the argument with Bryan. However, his Chevrolet truck lost control and collided with another oncoming vehicle. Both he and the people in the other car were killed.

To this day, the hospital remains abandoned. From what I gathered, the records inside were burned to erase all evidence of some of the torturous things that went down there, but that’s why we decided to head there to see. We figured we could give the place a good tour, then maybe even go to room 326. We never settled on an answer to that part of the equation but it seemed like an agreement to give that a shot. It depended mostly on how the rest of the night went.
I listened loosely to the radio’s soft music that was barely audible over the noise of the rest of my team. I decided to call us a team tonight because it sounded cooler. Maybe it was dumb but it sounded fun at the time. They all laughed and joked about their expectations of the night to come. I was too tired to join in. I usually got this way before something exciting. The nerves would all bundle together and a strong sleep would hit me until right before the hour of the excitement. That’s when all the energy would hit me in one lump sum.
It was good she lost the fight over who was driving. That job now rested with Cody, who didn’t bother either to engage in the merry-making in the backseats. In fact, the only ones who did so were James and Devin. I was the only girl there. I think I liked that better actually.
“Yeah, right. This place has no kind of evil dogs,” Devin said loudly.
“How would you know? I’m just going by the stuff I’ve heard other people tell me about this place,” Nick replied.
“Well I think it’s too early in the game to be thinking about what we’ll find there. First, we have to actually make it there,” Cody said. It was the first time he hinted that he wasn’t entirely sure where we were.
It should be up ahead a few more miles. This is the road that Timothy Rhodes took when he crashed into the oncoming car,” James made a crash noise and got nervous laughter in return. Everyone looked out the front windshield and watched as if a truck was really going to crash into them. I just continued looking out at the forest. It was beautiful this time of night.
Sure enough, about two miles down the road, we all saw the large, faded sign that announced Baskerville Hospital being about a half mile ahead. Cody’s hands tightened on the wheel.
I laughed, feeling the energy again from the excitement. My imagination finally started to wander to the different corners it could reach as I tried to think about what was to come soon. Perhaps some of the stories were true, maybe some weren’t.
Or maybe, we would find nothing more than an abandoned building. The thought had come to me before but I didn’t want to think about that. I wanted to keep my mind full of different stories that came from that place.
Soon, I saw the building’s outline against the dark forest sky. My heart leapt at the sheer beauty of the place, almost as beautiful as it was in its prime. It was almost as if years hadn’t touched it.
No doubt the others didn’t appreciate it as well as I did but that didn’t matter. What was on their minds, they would soon be hopefully experiencing. The boys all flooded out of the car as Cody parked it and took out the keys. I made sure I got the lights from the glove box, one for each of us. Cody shut the lights off and they were shrouded in the darkness of the night until I lit up the first light and tossed it to James, then started on the next.
“So what’s the plan?” Cody asked.
“Well, we were going to start in the lobby, check out a couple wings of the first floor, then move up to the second and finally, the third. Then we’ll all go into room 326.”
I laughed, wondering if we were going to be able to even get inside that room. Of course, if legend was right, the door would still be firmly shut. “Robert” and Bryan would be inside.
They all had lights soon and were coloring the walls of the structure with the beams. Some windows had been broken and the rest were cracked. The three stories were taller than I thought they would be. A large porch led up to double doors as an entrance.
Devin and James started that way already. Cody shrugged at me and followed. I stayed a minute longer, taking in one last outside look of the hospital, then followed.
The front doors were chained shut, but no lock was on them so they easily slid out of the handles. The door squeaked loudly as James opened it with a grunt.
Our beams bathed the inner lobby with light for the first time in God knew how long. The reception lobby was not a large one, with a dusty set of furniture in a circle. Across the room, a desk was inset the wall, adjacent to an office of some sort. Of course, all the lights were broken. Even the television in the circle of chairs was cracked from corner to corner.
I coughed through the thick dust as the rest ventured in, daringly. I shone the light down a hall to my left. It ended at a door at the end. I tried to remember what was down there but turned up blanks.
“Didn’t think we’d have good reception here,” Devin said, slamming back down the phone he’d taken off its housing on the desk.
“Our actual phones don’t have much better luck either,” Cody said, holding out his cell, “I just had service like a half mile back.”
“Well we have the same carriers and mine is out too,” I said. It occurred to me that that was the first thing I’d said since we’d gotten there.
“We’ve probably hit a dead zone,” Cody replaced the phone in his pocket.
Another set of double doors led out to a much larger hallway. This one branched off into different wings of the building and different departments. Most of the rooms were cells for the patients but some were offices, storage, and so on. The halls leading to the left and right turned back to the front of the building, the left side being the main dining hall and the right being some of the sleeping quarters. I had tried to study the map of the place but the complexity of the layout made my head spin. It was like a maze, but maybe that was the point.
“Let’s head to the dining room first,” I suggested. We didn’t have much of any other sense of where to start so I figured it would be a nice place.
They all turned left at the T intersection and we started down the hall. It would have been pitch black had our flashlights not killed the darkness. Still, it seemed to me that there was something watching us from the shadows. It was probably the feeling everyone got while they went exploring a supposedly haunted building.
The tile floor was holding nicely, which I counted as lucky. Once white walls were now a gross brown from water damage and parts of the paint had chipped off, revealing ugly spots of sheet rock. Huge cracks split the walls and ceiling. It was all part of the vacant scene. Soon, this whole place would probably collapse on itself.
The doors to the dining hall were closed tightly, but with no chain across the handles. A hard push from Devin caused the heavy steel to almost break off its hinges. It did, however, release a squeal that would piss Helen Keller off.
The hall was large, expected for a hospital this size. The rows of tables didn’t seem to be very disturbed throughout over twenty years. Despite a few chairs strewn about, it could pass for almost new. I was really surprised by this. It seemed as if I should be expecting patients to walk in behind me, shoving me aside to get a bite.
“You know, this is where they would get their only meals for five days at a time,” James said.
“Yeah, they weren’t nice here,” I shone my light all around, picturing so many years of tormented souls too weak to lift the fork to their mouth.
“They say one woman was grabbed up and raped right in front of the whole hospital, with all the patients cheering him on and doing nothing for her,” Devin said.
“That’s a myth. I doubt it really happened,” I corrected.
“So what, are you like the expert of this place?” Cody.
“No, it just interests me a lot. I started to do just a little research on the place and found myself staying up late reading articles about some sightings here.”
“Like?”
“Like how they say that if you yell for some extra apple sauce, you’ll find some at the end of the tables, to this day.”
“And there will be a bloody spoon to eat it with beside you,” Cody finished.
I was a bit surprised, “Yeah. Also, they say that if,” I picked up one of the chairs and set it by the table, taking a seat, “you sit in one of these chairs, you’ll feel the patients bumping into you as they move aro-”
Suddenly, I jumped. A chill swept all down my back as I said those words. Something had actually bumped my shoulder and in my mind, I heard an apologetic voice whisper, “I’m sorry, ma’am.”
I jumped up and shined the light at the seat, half relieved and half afraid that I only saw the empty chair staring back at me.
The rest laughed, “Jumpy, there?”
I was still gazing at the chair, waiting for something worth waiting for. Then I remembered how I, myself, didn’t believe any of the stories I was told. I was sure it was just a wind chill or my imagination putting reality into the ghost stories.
“Well, this place doesn’t have much of a great history, does it?” James continued, “There was all kind of messed up junk going on here.”
“Well you always kind of do have that when you put two hundred of the most deranged men and women into one building,” I walked away from the seat.
The windows that once brought in bright sunlight from the forest sky now were cracked and shattered, revealing only darkness beyond their panes. I looked out and found nothing but my own reflection staring me back down. Depressing, I thought.
“Anyone want to go ahead and head to the other parts of this place?” I heard Devin say from far across the dining room. I scoffed at how little respect he had for the story this building possessed. It was like all he cared about was the scare of getting to room 326. I didn’t even think we would find anything there at all but an empty room. Maybe that would be satisfaction for me. I laughed a bit to myself.
So we left the dining hall and navigated through the twists and turns, stopping to take a quick look through every doorway that was already opened. I replaced the light to see ahead of us more and I found that we were back at the opposite end of the hallway. If I had remembered correctly, the stairwell was to the left turn up ahead and then it should be at the end of the hallway.
As soon as we rounded the corner, I noticed a sound coming from somewhere beyond the walls. After a minute, more noticed and stopped to get a better hear. It took me a minute to find what exactly the sound was until James said it.
“Dogs,” he said softly. He was right. It sounded like a whole pack of dogs just beyond the hospital walls, howling to the moon then barking as if an intruder was in their midst.
Then I remembered there were.
“What are dogs doing this far into the woods?” Cody asked.
“Wild dogs?” I suggested.
“You mean wolves?” James let out a nervous laugh, “That’s awesome.”
“If they live out here, they’d be able to find their way inside, right?” Cody peeked back around the corner.
“No, I doubt it. Even so, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be too hard to just get out before they found us.” Devin started to continue back down the hall.
I rolled my eyes as the rest followed. Why was it again that I was with these guys? They all, save for maybe Cody, had little care for the danger we were getting ourselves into possibly by coming out here. Not only does nobody ever venture out here casually, but the ghost stories would discourage any wise travelers. Of course, we didn’t fit into that category.
We found the staircase and explored the structure carefully. It was off in a separate room, the door missing, and wide enough to fit about three people beside each other. The iron framing looked to be sturdy enough and no damage seemed to have been suffered by the wooden steps.
Devin took the first careful step, then continued up. We followed too, hearing the framework squeak but hold under our weight. The second floor was only two cases up, blocked by a large iron door. Rust covered the surface and it was covered in dark red and black splotches. Despite its welded-shut appearance, the door opened with a gentle push.
I wondered just how much weight the floor would hold. As we stepped into the hallway, the floor squeaked more and more. We were, in fact, venturing into an abandoned building that had been in its condition for almost thirty years. Of course, some wear and tear would come to the structure. How much, however, was an issue that kept coming to my mind.
The hall spanned out far, then opened into one wider hallway. They stood in the center, exploring the shattered glass on the floor and the doors on the opposite side of the hall, all closed. I didn’t quite want to see what was beyond them.
The rest of the second story wasn’t much different from the first. Ugly, old walls and drooping ceilings and doors broken off of hinges.
I started to drift back to that place where everything I saw had a story. I looked around, taking in the different cells and other rooms, and couldn’t help but to see faces plastered there, looking back at mine. Some unspeakable acts went down here under the radar of police and even Hodges himself. Children were beaten, women raped. Of course, none of it could be spoken of because any words against the guards or doctors would result in shock therapy or the high-pressure hose.
There were many other punishments to discourage any wrongdoings. While Hodges was oblivious to most, there were a few even he approved of. Acts such as lying, stealing, or even talking too loud at lunch would result in baton beatings, seclusion, and nights alone in a near freezing room with no clothes to cover with. On one account, a child was grabbed from his cell, taken into a storage room, and had a hose shoved down his throat. After the water pressure was turned to full blast, the child died. The death, of course, was overlooked as a simple act of retaliation against a threat the child made earlier that day.
But I had to remember that was another day. No more do the sullen faces of the patients of Baskerville Mental Institute haunt its halls. Of course, the rest would disagree with me on that part but I decided I would let them have their game.
We had just started down another hallway, James stopped. “I think I remembered something.”
“What is that?” Cody stopped short.
“Wasn’t there some story about an incident on this floor? Something about a man hanging himself in the showers?”
“There may have been. There are a few stories like that.” I said, matter-of-factly. I started to try and remember where exactly that took place. It was on this floor, but which hall it was seemed to have slipped my mind.
James took off, passing us and shining his light ahead. I waited a bit and realized that he was going the right way and continued suit.
We turned left suddenly, then back right, and then to a wide hallway with only one door at the end. I remembered this place as the shower ward. There were male a female showers at opposite sides of the building, and James was right in knowing this was the male’s.
The door took a bit of a shove to open, but it eventually squealed and revealed a crack inside. It took James and Devin to get it completely open. Inside was nothing special, just toilets and sinks. Lockers lines the walls in both directions and on the walls directly to their left and right were openings into the massive shower that did a U around the North, East, and West sides of the locker room. The South was the entrance.
James peeked in and obviously found nothing to keep him from getting farther inside. Meanwhile, the rest of us stayed outside the door. I didn’t find the meaning to pursue such a story that I hadn’t even heard of. Besides, it would be creepier for him to go alone?
“So do you think you’ll want to go to 326?” Cody suddenly asked.
“I think it’ll be fun. I mean, I doubt we’ll find anything.” I shrugged.
“Well all I know is that I came here looking for more fun that this. Don’t they say that Robert’s supposed to show up? Isn’t he like skinless and bouncing a ball?” Devin leaned against a wall, searching it again.
“And if you get it and pick it up to give it to him, you die before the night’s over. Yeah, but you know how these ghost stories are.”
Just then, we all heard a soft creak that erupted into a slam before we knew it. We all turned to see that the door that had just been wide open to let James inside was now firmly shut, locking him in.
I reacted first, pounding my hands on the rusted metal and screaming his name, “James! James, open the door!” My heart pounding in my skull, I listened for a reply. Silence seemed to create sounds in my own head but through the deceiving works of my own imagination, I found there was truly only silence.
“James! Come on, man, open the door!” Cody yelled behind me, pounding onto the steel. Hollow thuds echoed through the chamber. Still, no reply from him.
Devin’s jaw dropped and his gaze never broke from the handle of the door that Cody was now frantically jiggling and shoving. “This place is wrong,” he whispered.
I turned and grabbed his shoulders, making eye contact to break his trance. “Devin, chill. James is fine. Listen to me, he is fine!”
“No…this place has been wrong from the start. I felt something here!”
I had to admit, I saw what he meant. It seemed as if everything in the hospital was watching them, from the broken cameras and shattered windows to the walls themselves. It was like every crack and paint chip watched them. Gazes from all around hovered over them.
He shook his head harder, suddenly breaking free from my hold. He stumbled off in the direction we’d just come.
I yelled at him, then sprinted after the idiot. Didn’t he watch horror movies? It was always the one who ran off to die first.
I was sure that Cody noticed our absence by now, for I heard him curse then heard footsteps running behind him. Or at least I hoped the footsteps were his.
Devin disappeared into the stairwell, taking the steps two at a time down. I was forced to do the same, almost breaking my ankle on the first jump. All the clicks of our heels on the steps reverberated in the tight column.
I almost didn’t even see that he had stopped until I was on top of him. I stopped short and saw that Devin had frozen on a step and the stairwell was silent.
Then I realized why he’d stopped. The sound of claws clicking on concrete in slow patterns was the only sound that broke the silence.
The dogs.
Devin suddenly yelled and darted back up the stairs, hitting me painfully on the shoulder. “Get to the top!”
Cody had already appeared behind me and screamed back at Devin to calm down. I had forgotten that I held the flashlight by now and when I remembered, I shone the light back down to see if I could find the dogs that were slowly making their way towards us. I didn’t see them, but the sounds of their claws approached ominously. I took that as hint enough.
Cody’s yells echoed from above and I followed their sound. I heard from above that they continued past the door to the second floor, so I followed again. “Guys, calm down! You don’t know if these stairs are safe.”
Almost as if on cue, I heard a loud thump and Cody yell another four letter word. I found them both on the stairs, with Devin lying across them with tears streaming down his face. Sweat had plastered the hair to his forehead.
“We need to get him out of here,” Cody looked up at me.
I was stunned until I heard his voice normally again. I dropped the light and picked up Devin’s right shoulder, with Cody on his left. It was too late to worry about going back down for now, I heard that the dogs had quickened their pace and were not far behind.
We helped Devin up a few more steps. His cries pierced my ear, but I understood his distress. All the excitement and adrenaline in his blood turned straight to cold fear. I knew that feeling because I, too, was feeling as if I would slip into the same story. It occurred to me that we were heading to the third floor, home to room 326. My heart locked up for the first time that night at the thought of what may be on the other side of that door.
Suddenly, there was a sharp tug at my shoulder and Devin yelled in pain. His screams turned to sobs as he was lurched down again. The sounds of snarling and barking were right behind me now. The dogs had reached us.
I spun, trying to hold Devin back by his arm. Cody did the same and Devin screamed louder this time. I couldn’t see the dogs but I felt their strength. Any second, they could target me or Cody and we’d all be gone.
As quickly as the dogs came, they summoned the strength to tear Devin from both of our grasps. He let out a muffled yelp and hit the stairs hard. I caught a glimpse of a beast’s leg as Cody stumbled back and his light shone on the animal now probably tearing Devin apart.
My heart stopped in a painful lump in my throat as I heard the sounds of flesh being torn and the cries of agony from the soul of one eager to step into this place. I realized that I and Cody, the only ones who never were convinced something went down here, were the only ones still alive. What did that mean? Was this some kind of anti-boogieman that killed those who did believe instead of those who did not?
Hands grabbed my shirt collar and pulled. “We have to go!” Cody yelled.
I snapped back to reality and stumbled to my feet, taking off in a run after him. I could only see the lightning-fast dance of Cody’s flashlight as we took the steps as fast as our trembling legs could take us. I heard a loud squeal and I knew that he was able to open the door to the third floor. I didn’t waste any time diving through it. Cody slammed it shut.
Time caught back up with us as we sat, catching our breath, on the floor of the hallway on the third story. It seemed as if now nothing even existed but here and now. This world worked that way, it seemed. There was nothing but blackness and hopelessness here now. Perhaps that blackness was taking in an actual shape that laughed at every step they took, to just snuff it away.
I heard Cody sob. His light shone away from him and down the hallway. The beam was lost in the blackness at the end of the hall.
Finally, I also broke down. With nothing in my sights but this place, I realized finally why Hodges never left that room. It was the same reasons we would never leave this hospital. The memories of those who bled and died here held him there, just like they were holding us here. They wanted a voice and they spoke to us this way. I didn’t understand exactly what I was thinking but it all revolved around me dying here tonight. Damn all the rumors, all the silly little stories to attract the curious passerby. They all were true, all the tales of the games this place played.
I was losing my mind here. It was the building, the past. I wanted nothing else but to tear down the walls and escape. However, all I saw was the short beam of light ahead.
The sobs died down to silence for a minute or so. Even the dogs were gone, which was at least some silver lining. I looked over at Cody but saw nothing but his outline in the darkness. I leaned my head back as tried to cry the fear away.
The loud ringing made me jump. Ahead, the tone repeated. It was the telephone. By the third ring, my whole body was shaking.
Surprisingly, I saw Cody stand to his feet. He snatched the light off the ground and shone it on the phone sitting on the counter by the reception area to their left.
He grabbed the device and lifted it from the receiver to his ear. Why in the world would he want to risk such a move?
“Cody, what are you-”
He hushed me and listened some more. My skin crawled suddenly.
He brought the phone away from his ear and looked at it for a few seconds, then spun around suddenly, taking quick steps away from me. It took me a few seconds to realize where he was headed.
Room 326.
I jumped up and rushed after him, taking him by the hand to stop him. He jerked it away from me. “Cody, you can’t go to that room!”
“I have to. I have to kill Robert.”
“No, Cody, you can’t kill him!” What was I saying? “Don’t you see? This whole place is Robert!”
“Then 326 is the heart.”
He wasn’t going to stop, I realized. I had stepped into a nightmare and it had taken me until now to realize it was real. Baskerville Hospital was changing him now into one of its horrendous ghosts.
I stopped walking and he just kept walking. I could see his fist was clenched tightly around the light. There was no stopping him. I felt my strength leave me and my eyes flood with tears. My shoulder hit the wall and I couldn’t go on.
Cody, however, finally reached where he was looking for. He stopped directly in front of room 326. I let my face overflow with terror and regret as I watched him try the handle of the door. My voice tried to cry out one last desperation to stop him but it just let out a cracked moan.
After a minute, the door clicked loudly and eased open with a squeak. At first, all he did was stare into the open doorway. So far away, I couldn’t see what it was he was looking at.
“What do you see?” I managed to whimper. I doubted he could hear me until he turned his face to me and I met his dark green eyes for the last time. An instant later, his body was sucked into the room by some invisible force. He never let out a sound as he was pulled right into the room, his life disappearing before my eyes.
I screamed right as the door was slammed back shut.
A wave of cold air rushed through the hall and the silence was destroyed by the sounds of every door in the hall opening in unison, following me.
I didn’t waste time tripping over my own feet as I bust back into the staircase, the only place I could, and jumped down in a blind flurry. The edges of stairs were lost in the blackness, and I twisted my ankle over many of them. I knew the dogs were still here but the sheer horror clouded any judgment I had left.
I couldn’t hold back the screams as I leapt down the flights of stairs. I prayed that I would reach the first floor but a voice in my head told me I wouldn’t. It was the same and only voice I’d heard at all so far tonight.
Second floor passed. I was almost there. The roar of the wind behind me drowned out my screams. I passed my dropped light far behind but never did I consider going back for it. Did Cody leave the keys in the car?
The door to the first floor was open and I sprinted, limping from my damaged ankles, down the hallway. Maybe I was safe. Maybe this truly wasn’t my time to face the evils of death that this place held. Maybe.
But the orchestra of screams, opening and slamming doors, and my own mind was telling me to just give up and die here with the countless others.
That’s what they wanted. Someone to share in their insanity and suffering.
But that was when I shoved my shoulder through the front doors and emerged back into the icy cold air. The roaring noise was replaced in an instant by a breeze through tree branches. My lips that were parted in a scream were all but silenced as soon as I hit the outside air. It was like the presence left me and the feeling of having that weight gone caused me to drop to my knees and hit the ground hard.
But the fear was still there. Heart still pounding, I gathered myself to my feet and limped to the car. Never before did that ugly Ford look so appealing than now. I tore open the door and threw myself in.
I seemed to lose all pieces of myself as soon as I was in. I wasn’t even sure how many times I screamed as loud as my voice would let me. I wasn’t sure near how many tears fell to the seat of Cody’s car.
And I definitely wasn’t sure how I would go on without them all.
Every thought of my boys brought another scream to go unheard in the forest. They were gone, because of me. Were they really even gone yet? What had happened to James or Cody? Maybe they were still alive in those rooms, being tortured by the same patients who themselves were tortured in the hospital’s prime. Their moans of pain and screams of agony would be lost in history just like tonight if I didn’t leave.
I fumbled for the spare key and turned the ignition. The V8 roared to life and I felt a chill run up my spine. I didn’t look back at the place as I whipped the car around and sped off down the road away from the hospital.
I didn’t let the speedometer reach below 70 as I raced away from Baskerville and closer to home. I could never tell of this place to anyone. Or would it be best if I did? That hospital needed to be bombed, wiped clean with all the eraser shavings thrown in the trash.
It took me about five miles to realize it was over. The time showed that we’d been in there no more than an hour, but in that hour three lives were lost. I was surprised that I didn’t cry anymore to the thought. Maybe I couldn’t process tears anymore after tonight. It would be fine with me.
It’s odd how sometimes we get so close to our goal we get the most careless we’ve been throughout the whole journey. I was almost thinking that exact thought when I noticed the little boy in the center of my lane, staring down the truck racing toward him as if he was about to stop it. I didn’t see this until the last minute, and I made the fatal mistake of twisting the wheel as soon as I did. For at that moment, an old Chevrolet truck was also speeding away from the hospital. When I slammed on my brakes, the truck behind me did not. It collided with the back of the Ford going fifty miles and hour more than I was, sending the truck into a violent spin. I counted two flips before I felt a sharp pain in my skull and I lost all the vision I had.
As a matter of fact, I lost it all.