Beep

Beep

“Ugh,” Alex muttered incoherently. His mind had no intention of waking up right now, it was way too tired for some reason. Trying to get some more sleep, he shut his eyes and grasped the top of his alarm clock to stop it.

Stopping it was a motor motion by now, just tap on the top of the damn thing and it would stop. And similarly enough, he tapped on his alarm clock and touched nothing?!

“Wait, what?”

He immediately threw away his covers and woke up to a sea of white.

“What in the holy mother of-”

“Apologies Mr Smith,” A voice from what seemed to be his right cut him off and definitely did not startle him, “But this is a hospital and as such, I would’ve to stop you.”

“A hospital? Huh,” muttered Alex and looked at his surroundings properly. Truly, this looked way too much like a hospital for it to be a fake ploy for his ah hypothetical scenario of being kidnapped.

“But wait a damn moment, Why the hell am I in a hospital?”

“I would appreciate it if you kept even the basic of profanities to yourself for now Mr Smith, but nevertheless, you are here because of extreme hypertension and low levels of blood sugar leading to vasovagal syncope, potentially tied to extreme emotions.”

The doctor whose badge read Dr Tim Franks, General, continued as if he sensed his confusion, “Or in simple words, you suffered a panic attack possibly due to a sudden influx of emotions.”

His last memory before waking up in this hospital hit him with the subtlety of a raging bull. The death of his parents was something he didn’t understand. They were always so far away from him that all he felt about their death seemed to be confusion.

He well, he would think about it later. The current situation was of a more pressing concern. He remembered being in the restroom, so even if he had suffered from a panic attack, why the hell was he here and why did his throat feel like sandpaper?

“You were brought here by a teacher after your notable absence from the classes after the lunch break decided to check on you and you are suffering from xerostomia as a side effect of medication that he was given. Xerostomia means dry mouth. Here, drink some water”

Drinking the water from the glass offered by the doctor, Alex idly wondered if the doctor was some sort of telepath.

“No Mr Smith, I am not a telepath,” Alex almost spit out the water he was drinking, what the fu-, “You are just particularly easy to read and I have dabbled in my fair share of psychology.”

Well, that answered his questions and insulted him. All in one go. The doctor was surely a man of many skills.

“That is fine and all doctor, when am I going to be discharged?”

The doctor sighed and suddenly the visage of an insufferable and over-smart individual was replaced by a tired and probably overworked one, “I will admit, the people in charge wish to delay your discharge as much as possible, and honestly the effects of your parent’s death on your psyche makes me believe the same.”

Alex was pretty sure he was seething by now. The people in charge?! What did they think they were? He was not a fucking small child, he could take care of himself just fucking fine.

“Still, I am giving you the benefit of doubt Mr Smith,” The doctor continued, “The medication that you are to be given requires you to stay here till the evening. After that, you can get out of her if you so wish.”

“Thanks doctor, I will be fine on my own. Just get the medication done with.”

“Patience is a virtue, Mr Smith,” Oh yes, the doc was back to being insufferable, “You would do well to be patient”

“A pun, really doc? Really?”

“We old men need something to amuse ourselves with, Mr Smith.”

“And making teenagers suffer by being over-smart is your way of amusement doc?”

“Maybe, maybe not. Life is full of questions to ponder upon, after all, Mr Smith.”

Yeah, even though he was grateful to the doctor for allowing a quick discharge, he was pretty sure he disliked him. A lot.

“Now shoo, get to sleep Mr Smith, proper rest is necessary for the medication to come into effect.”

The next time Alex woke, it was to the evening skies of San Francisco. Getting off his bed, he was surprised to see the absence of the doctor who was monitoring him. Well, the doc probably had other patients to attend to.

His eyes bleary upon just waking up caught something kept onto the right of his bed. Upon closer inspection, the something turned out to be his clothes and a note that read-

Please do not mind my absence, Mr Smith, I have other duties to attend to than watching teenagers squirm because of my over-smartness. Unfortunately. As you may be able to see your clothes are kept here or well maybe they’re not kept here and you’re just hallucinating. No matter, change into them and get off the hospital. You’re basically freeloading by this time.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

With love,

Dr Tim ‘the doc’ Franks

The doc was surely one unbearable character. Still, Alex got to changing and soon enough he exited the building which read Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.

Checking his pockets for some money to get a cab, he realised that he did not have in fact any money.

Well, it was only a one-hour walk home. No big deal. At least it would allow him to get his mind off the confusion caused by his parent’s death.

Alex Smith was not a nice person. He was not fun to be around, wasn’t really interested in anything or anyone, was rude, a teacher’s pet and acted like he was pretty much better than everyone. Which he was but that’s not the point.

His relationship with his parents was constrained, withdrawn and full of emotions so complex that even the most basic of their interactions hurt him. This, in turn, led to him being withdrawn from almost everyone and becoming well, not a nice person.

It could even be said that his loneliness was a result of his parents’ negligence over his life. Still, he- he wasn’t really sure what his parents were to him. He didn’t know if he hated them or loved them. He didn’t know what to feel about his parents’ death, he didn’t feel numb, hurt or empty. He just didn’t know what he felt except perhaps confusion.

He was lost within this swirling mass of emotions where the only describable one was ironically enough, confusion.

Snapping out of his thoughts, he looked at the familiar shape of his home.

The exterior was the same as ever, made of brick with a sloping roof with tiles. At the front, there was a spacious porch with columns for the entryway. The porch had multiple rolling chairs, allowing anyone who wished to do so, to enjoy the outdoors.

It has several large windows, each having a shutter to provide shade and add an odd sort of aesthetic to the house.

The backyard had a deck for outdoor entertainment and some trees for well, privacy. There was also a dusty garage which housed an old Mercedes 300SL.

It wasn’t particularly large, but it was extremely large for him, seeing as he was the only permanent resider. All in all, it was for the most part empty and unused but it was home.

Still engaged in his thoughts, Alex entered the hallway of his house and Thud

He hit a damned door because he was a goddamned idiot.

“Oh fuck it you little piece of sh-,” His justified cursing was cut off by his speechlessness at looking at the door he just hit, and apparently enough, accidentally opened. The room behind the door was littered with what seemed to be parchments and books. He wasn’t sure with you know it being completely dark.

Not completely, he could still see a little but still. Standing up, Alex turned on the lights and looked at a whole goddamned library in front of him.

“Is this like father’s personal library or something?”

He moved around the room, looking at the titles of the books- The God Equation, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Relativity: The special and general theory, the books were quite focused, particularly on science, or well a branch of science really. He had yet to reach the level high enough to make heads or tails of it. It was probably some form of a mix between physics and biology though. They ranged from the most basic ones, the ones he could’ve understood in middle school to ones he wasn’t sure he would understand even after graduating from uni.

He was moving but he was not, it seemed as if a force was gravitating him towards ███ ████

Alex’s eyes snapped open as his vision drowned in a sea of black and white, colour and yet not, clarity and haze, as he looked at the single piece of document hung upon the wall of the room towards which his feet had led him which read-

P██J███ K███O█

Before he could read more about the document, the smell of smoke invaded his nose.

And Alex ran.

He ran towards what seemed to be the origin of the smell and reached his backyard.

“I was getting bored waiting boy,” Alex looked up to see a hooded man whose only distinguishable feature was the single visible red eye sitting upon one of the rolling chairs, “I don’t see why the boss wants you of all people, you don’t even seem to be one of them.”

The man stood up and Alex looked on, horrified at a curved spear in the hand of the man, its shaft gleaming under the moonlight as if it was a reflection of the moon itself. “It is of no matter though, a job is a job.”

The man continued walking towards him as if he didn’t even think Alex could escape, “Still, I would prefer if you came with me without putting up a fight. Save some effort on both of our ends, no?”

Alex had no idea where the fuck the confidence to say the following words came from but, “No thanks, my parents told me to stay away from shady guys who seem to be particularly interested in 16-year-old boys.”

The man laughed, “Oh boy, you are one suicidal idiot. If that is your answer, then so be it.”

He took a stance, “It is your loss really, you are coming with me either way.”

The man thrust his spear towards him and Alex’s eyes glazed over as something inside him screamed, urged to move. Move to the left, to the right, to the front, to the back.

And move he did. He moved and existed to his left, to his right, to his front, to his back at the same time. At that moment Alex existed as a- █████████████

The spear phased through him as if he did not exist and was pushed back as if he did exist. It had never stood a chance. The spear broke up into a thousand different fragments, all glowing like jewels under the moonlight as they blew in the end.

Even though there were a thousand different questions, Alex could not help but be mesmerised by the display in front of him.

He was soon distracted by the bellowing laughter of the man in front of him, “This is quite rich you know boy? My spear which has won me over a thousand battles, destroyed by a mere child. I admit I did not expect you to be one of them. I take my words back, this should be interesting.”

Alex looked on warily at his probably insane assailant, “So behold boy, witness the absolute beauty in your last moments of freedom.”

A card, the 5 of hearts, fell.

And the world around him erupted in fire.