Three Sunsets was all it took for this bad dream to evolve into a complete and utter night terror. For once in my life, I worried about somebody other than myself. No one there was safe, not even the doctors and nurses that took care of me. Each and every person who stood between Vigil and his goal was just another obstacle that he needed to take care of. I knew what that man was capable of and he was by all means an unstoppable force. In the hours between my admission to the hospital and when the first doctor came in, I asked a nurse for some of the recent newspapers from around the city. I thought that if there could be any way that I could get an upper hand on the man who hunted me, it would be to learn from the patterns of his past attacks. I tried my hardest to sit up and stay alert as long as I could to grasp any information the newspapers revealed, but as night began to fall, I could feel the task of staying awake becoming harder and harder.
I winced as an IV slowly dripped into my arm. I breathed deeply and tried to calm myself down, but the icy feeling of a strange liquid feeding its way into my veins was something that I was afraid I could never get used to. The sound that the plastic sheets of my poorly made bed gave off sent goosebumps down the length of my body as they slid underneath my weight.
Outside my window, heavy raindrops smacked against the dirty glass. I tried not to stare too much through the opening in fear that I would catch a glimpse of something I didn’t want to see staring back at me. Yet again, I tried to relax, but that unrelenting feeling of being watched was something I couldn’t get away from. Hesitantly, I gave in and let my eyes close, allowing the warm embrace of sleep to take me into its arms. As I breathed in deeply the sound of my heartbeat thumped against my eardrums. Unlike the waiting room, the bright lights above me lacked the constant hum, however the periodic off and on flicker that they possessed was arguably worse long term.
“Sorry for the wait, sir.” The doctor knocked on the door, and, without waiting for an answer, he walked into my room. “So, how did all of this happen?”
I looked at the doctor, thinking of an answer to the question that I couldn’t answer truthfully. “I fell,” my voice lowered slightly, “Off a ladder.”
The doctor met my eyes with a skeptical look. “Sure.” He didn’t push further. “So obviously, your arm is broken, but that’s not what I’m worried about.” He pointed to the bloody cloth on the side of my head. “That is.”
“You think I have a concussion?” I asked.
“I’m afraid you have something worse.” The doctor took a few steps closer to me. “However, nothing is certain until we get you tested. Unfortunately, our neurologist went home early today, so we’ll have to wait until the morning.” He went into one of the cabinets and pulled out a heavy cover for me. “I suggest that you get some rest tonight and I’ll talk to you over breakfast tomorrow.” The doctor smiled and turned away to leave.
“Wait, doc.” I grabbed at his coat.
He spun back around to face me and gently pulled the corner of his jacket out from my hand.
“Who was that guy in the waiting room with me?” I adjusted the cloth on the side of my head, causing it to bleed again. “What do you know about him?”
The doctor cut a new bandage from the roll and replaced the one on my temple. “The one with the hood sitting across from you?”
“Yeah him.”
The doctor shrugged and threw his hands up in front of his face. “Mr. Smith. He comes in every once in a while, and much like before, it’s never for himself.” He answered as if he was tired of the question, like it’s been asked many times before. “If he wasn’t so polite all the time, I would start to think that he was the one who was hurting everyone.” The doctor forced a laugh.
“You don’t think…?” I let the openness of the question speak for itself.
“No, no.” The doctor turned his palms to face me defensively. “To me, he just seems like a good friend. The type of guy to stop and wait for you when you’re tying your shoe.” He changed the vibe of the conversation. “Besides, I see that you two even had a conversation out there. I’ve talked to him on a few occasions, too. Real nice guy once you get him out of his shell, right?”
I glared at the doctor, trying to figure out whether or not he knew who that man really was.
He understood that this wasn’t a question that I was going to answer. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he said to fill the awkward silence and he left the room without looking back.
I took the physician’s advice and decided to get some rest.
Throughout the long night, the unpleasant sounds of the restless hospital haunted me. With each noise, I awoke, remembering that Vigil could be right in front of me when I opened my eyes. My heart raced as I swore I caught sight of a hooded figure standing in the dark corners of the room or a pair of white eyes watching me from the mud covered window. I thought that maybe, just maybe, all of this could have been some sort of hallucination from hitting my head too hard. That was anything but confirmed by the events I came around to the following morning.
“Just stay calm, sir!” A male nurse shouted at me as he shakily wheeled my bed into the hallway.
“Stop it, you’re scaring him,” said the other female nurse.
“Wha-?” Was the most intelligent thing I could come up with as I stirred awake.
The female nurse cut a bandage with a pair of scissors. “You’re gonna be alright. I promise.” Her eyes crinkled as she smiled underneath her medical mask. I felt a warm feeling as the nurse carefully lifted my arm and tightly wrapped the cloth around it. “Please just sit still and relax, sir.”
“Hey, what’re you doing?” I tried to pull my arm away. Looking down, my question was quickly answered. Blood oozed out of a gaping wound that started at the back of my wrist and spiraled its way up and around the entirety of my forearm until it suddenly stopped at my inner elbow. “What the hell happened to me?!” I yelled, looking back and forth between the two nurses.
“I think we’re losing him.” The male nurse started to wheel my bed faster. This, in turn, caused me to tightly grab the hand of the pretty female nurse.
“Maybe if you just shut up, he wouldn’t be so nervous!” The female nurse scowled at him.
Once again, I looked back at my arm and everything went dark as my head went limp against the pillow.
I woke up about four hours later with the doctor standing over me, inspecting the laceration. He unwrapped the bandage and blotted some sort of clear liquid on it which made my arm sting.
I groaned at the discomfort and attempted to move away my broken arm, but stopped when I realized that I couldn’t handle the pain.
The doctor looked up at me and smiled. “Hello, sir. It seems that you had quite the night last night, didn’t you?” He looked back down and continued to blot my arm. “We had to take a few necessary precautions in order to ensure the safety of both you and my staff.” He reached over and fiddled with a pair of handcuffs that attached my arm to the cold metal bed frame. “I’m sure that you understand.”
“Wait, you think I did this?” I questioned the man. “Even if I did want to kill myself, there’s nothing here that I would be able to do it with.”
The doctor looked at me with compassion. “There’s no need to lie anymore.” The doctor stopped blotting and began to rewrap my wrist. “We already found our missing scalpel and the note you left hidden under the covers.” He relaxed his face. “It’s alright now. We’re here to help you.”
I smiled and licked the bottoms of my teeth to prevent myself from tearing this guy’s throat out. “You’re being for real right now. You’re actually serious.” I attempted to point at the doctor, but the restraint held my arm to my side. “You seriously think I did this!”
“Listen, I know that times like this can be hard-”
This set me off. “No, you listen to me!” I shook with rage. “It was that man! That man from the waiting room! Mr. Smith or whatever the hell he told you guys his name was!” I pointed at my wrist. “He did this to me! He must have snuck into my room a-and cut me up or something. I don’t know how, but you got to believe me. I’m telling the truth.”
The doctor nodded his head and mouthed the word ‘Ok.’ “We will do your brain scan tomorrow.” The doctor completely ignored my rant. “Our neurologist didn’t come in today.” He put a small red remote in my hand. “If you need anything, even if it’s just someone to talk to, just press that button and someone will be here right away.” He faked that stupid smile once again and left the room without any more words of wisdom.
I thought about what the doctor had told me. The neurologist didn’t come in today. I wonder why that is? I’m sure Vigil did something to him. He’s probably watching me right now, I thought to myself. I’m just a toy to him and there’s nothing I can even do about it. Just then I heard my window crack open and a small piece of paper floated into my room. I struggled to get up from the bed without the help of either one of my arms. I pulled against the restraint to roll over onto my side, however this became much more complicated since the other arm was now only dead weight. The bed rocked slightly as I flipped my body over my arm and used my foot to reach the note. The letter read as follows:
Hello,
It’s a shame the way that your life has spiraled. Do not worry, for you will have someone to talk to shortly.
See you soon,
V
“That psychotic piece of-”
There was a knock on the slightly opened door. “Hello,” the female nurse peeked her face through the opening and waited for permission to enter. I waved her into the room by nodding my head and she walked in, gingerly shutting the door behind her. “You rang?” She asked, concerned for my safety.
I rolled over and realized that I must’ve hit the button on the remote as I attempted to get up. “Oh, uh, yeah. Could I get some more newspapers? I’m trying to keep myself busy.”
She sat down on the corner of my bed. “That’s the best thing you can do.”
“Can you just stop it already?” I sighed. “I know you’re just doing your job, but don’t pity me.”
“Ok,” she sounded a little offended by my remark, “I’m just trying to make you feel better, but if you don’t want me here, that’s your choice.” She got up and walked out of the room, leaving my door open.
“Door!” I shouted after her.
“Sor-ry.” She said with sarcasm while slamming the heavy door shut.
I disregarded her comments and went back to studying the articles about the Vigil murders. So far, he has nine reported victims but it is likely much more considering how little anyone actually knows about him. I had begun circling any important details such as patterns, techniques, and basic descriptions about the man who terrorized me, but everything seemed almost random. There were no known links between any of the prior victims other than the fact that they were mostly all from the around towne. In the beginning many of them were killed by strange or downright impossible means, but more recently, he had gotten a liking to using more practical weapons and methods to kill. The first known victim was found with what remained of his head under the front tire of his own car, parked inside of his garage with the door closed and locked, while another spontaneously burst into flames, seconds after stepping out of the shower. The only evidence that the authorities had was that of which he purposefully left behind. Bottles labeled, melted petroleum jelly made by Vigil, were left on the scene of the second crime, and a note describing how he used a car Jack to kill the man was found attached to the key in the ignition at the first scene.
I had also gotten to jotting down any details that I knew from our conversation that might prove useful. So far I knew that Vigil had white eyes, killed with either a large Bowie knife (the one I had seen) or a sickle attached to a chain (mentioned in the news articles), both of which were skillfully handcrafted. He also wore a black mask that wrapped tightly around his facial features both with eye holes cut out of it and a white grin stitched across the bottom half from ear to ear. As far as I knew, I was the only one who had ever seen his full face. There were no reports of the bleached whiteness of his skin or the strange scar that covered the majority of his right cheek. The only other thing that I could conclude was that he was known for his well thought out attacks that would have taken the average person months to plan without flaws. One report also told me that in the victim’s journal it said that she had seen a shape in the corner of her vision over her last few nights. In her last entry, it said that a large man came up to her door asking to use the bathroom. She escorted him inside and everything seemed normal. That was until after the night she was murdered, when police found that all of her doors and windows were locked, all except the one in her downstairs bathroom where the man went. This was what was most interesting to me. She tried to help him out and yet she still paid the ultimate price. As far as I could tell, Vigil only killed people who he deemed were not innocent, but her record was spotless. He knew bad things about her the same as he did about me. That’s how I knew I was next and all I could do was wait for the inevitable to come and take me.
Yet again, I decided that the best thing I could do for myself was get some rest, knowing that all that awaited me was the hopeless feeling of despair. Each time I tried to shut my eyes, scraping and scratching from across the hall only seemed to intensify. The knocking on my window became much more aggressive than it was the night before, which periodically escalated to heavy punches that I was surprised hadn’t broken the glass. I squeezed my eyes closed, praying for every god that I knew of to allow me to get some rest, but all of them sat on standby, watching over me and laughing in my terrified face. From outside my room, the sounds of Vigil’s troubled breathing filled my soul with fright. Even just the touch of the slight draft from under the crack of my door reminded me of his icy wind touching my forehead as he spoke to me.
The next morning, I found a folded newspaper lying at the foot of my bed. The next two victims of Vigil had been found by authorities. At the top of the paper, there was another message. This one said:
I wanted you to be the first to know. I circled all the important details for you already.
Enjoy.
V
I read over the article first and found out that Vigil had gone after the local fire chief and a retired cop. Both of which were circled. Other words that he circled were: for, chained, finger, under, quiet, the, bound, check, brute, hung, bed, suffocation, your, and missing. Reading the article over and over, I couldn’t make any sense of the words he had circled. After removing the words that made sense that they were important, I was left with the remaining: for, finger, under, the, check, bed, and your.
“Hello.” The male nurse walked into my room without knocking. “Here to change your bandage. Then, I’ll leave you alone.”
I placed my arm flat against the bed. “Can you tell me something?” I asked.
“What?”
“Don’t you think that it’s a bit strange that the second I needed a brain scan, the neurologist stopped showing up to work?” I motioned for the man to start unwrapping my arm. “Then I suddenly have a mental breakdown during the night and attempt suicide?”
The nurse nodded slightly.
“I told the doctor that I think that that man in the waiting room is after me and now two more people have been killed by the Vigil. Don’t you think that’s just a bit weird?”
The nurse bit the inside of his cheek and looked upwards at nothing in particular. “You have a brain injury. Believe me, I’ve heard some crazy things before from people like you. Like people wiping the windows so the fish can see through them.” He gestured up to my spotless window. “Or maybe that time where a guy started scratching apart his stomach because he believed it was talking to him, when in reality, all he had was gas.” He looked at me again and shook his head. “I’ve seen it all, but each time, I swear the stories just keep getting better and better.”
I attempted to pull my arm away, but I accidentally hit him in the stomach while I struggled.
The male nurse stared daggers at me. “Listen dude, just because your life sucks doesn’t mean that you gotta make everyone else’s suck, too.” He pressed extra hard on my cuts. I let out a scream in pain and he hit me across the face. “Now hold still.” I listened to the male nurse. The temptation to pick up my legs and knock his lights out stayed with me while he finished the procedure. “Good as new.” The nurse slapped my arm hard. “You just had to be difficult, didn’t you?” Before leaving the room, he flickered my lights a few times just to try and get a reaction out of me.
“I already told you, I’m not crazy!” I yelled at him.
He continued messing with my lights.
“That’s not going to do a damn thing to me!” Struggling against my restraint, I flipped him off weakly.
Once I knew the coast was clear, I went back to deciphering the cryptic message that Vigil had sent me. I wrote down the words and began to put them in random orders until things started to make sense. It took me about an hour, but I eventually came up with the message: Check, under, your, bed, for, the, finger. Check under your bed for the finger? In any other situation, I wouldn’t have even thought that this could have been the right message, however, this was all I had to go on. I began rocking in my bed and listening to anything that could confirm my suspicions. The slight rattle that I had not heard the night prior became enough for me in my desperate attempt at survival from the man they called Vigil. Immediately I got to work on shimmying my way over my restrained arm and onto the floor. Once I smacked down on the tiles, I grabbed a piece of my sheets and put them into my mouth to bite down on when the pain from stretching my broken arm became too much for me to handle. I took a deep breath and blindly reached under the bed.
My eyes widened with pain, and after a few seconds, my body gave out entirely. I felt something splash on the back of my neck as my arm landed in a puddle underneath the bed. My arm recoiled back to my body from the weird feeling and once it came into the light, I felt the nauseating feeling of bile rise in my throat. There was blood. Lots and lots of blood. It soaked into the outside of my bandages and covered the front of my palm. I shivered at the sight, but adrenaline took over as I reached back under and grabbed onto something large and wooden. My teeth clenched together so tightly I thought they were going to break as I tussled with the object. After a minute of struggle, I finally felt it come loose and clink as it hit the floor beneath. I grasped the object and made a final valiant effort to bring it under the flickering bulbs. I was now in possession of a blood covered fire axe. Stuck into the side of the wooden shaft was a pull pin with three things looped onto it. The first was a small metal handcuff key, the second a bloody pointer finger, and the third was a note with the words, “To level the playing field,” written across it.
I scrambled my way off of the floor, using the axe as leverage. Once I flipped the rest of my body back over my arm, I began to focus on finding a place to hide my new weapon. First, I clicked open the lock on my cuffs and detached the key from the other two objects. I stuffed the pin and finger on the side of the mattress and the key tucked nicely into my waistband. The axe fitted diagonally underneath my pillow. Now, I could finally get some much needed rest.