I was released from the hospital last night. As I left I pulled out my phone and tried to call Carl however when I looked into my contacts he wasn’t there. I tried to remember his number but it was just impossible. Can you blame me? Who memorizes phone number nowadays? Anyhow, I was frantically looking through my phone for any mention or showing of Carl and I found… nothing.
It was as if “Carl” never existed and was all in my head… “That’s impossible I have so many memories with him!” I told myself as I kept digging through my phone. I thought to myself “You know what you live together just go home.” I immediately left the hospital and hobbled to my car. Despite being released I can still feel the pain of the bullet hole in my leg. Every step I can feel my whole body screaming in pain. My muscles felt exhausted as if my body was working overtime to repair my cells.
I pushed through the pain so I can get home. Every inch of my body was telling me to relax but I had to know I wasn’t crazy. When I got to the apartment I rushed to my floor and fumbled with the keys. I was shaking as I was trying to find the right key. My mind was racing and I was crying a little. How would you feel if you learned your best friend was just a lie…
I opened the door and oddly everything looked the same as it was before. I had two lazy boy gaming chairs and two TVs. I spent the night I was released looking for more proof that Carl existed but besides the TVs and chairs, I couldn’t find anything that would be attached to him. No clothes, no bed, no toiletries …. nothing.
At this point, I could feel all of my memories of Carl slipping and me being driven into madness. However, I remembered something… Carl always keeps his journal inside his chair. I know it sounds weird but he is super sensitive about what goes on in there. This journal is also where he keeps his birth certificate etc because it is easily found and hidden at the same time.
So I lifted and laid the chair on its side which in turn spilled all of the sofa crumbs/change out on my floor. And as I thought his journal with all his stuff was in the chair where he leaves it. When I went to open it though it didn’t have his information just his writings and day-to-day problems… Something I thought was a victory came crashing down on me as a defeat… I laid down for the night feeling defeated.
As I was sleeping I had a very odd dream. I was running in the hospital playing tag with Carl when we were kids.
“Tag you’re it!” Carl said as he tapped my shoulder.
“Imma get you!” I shouted as I ran down the hall toward him.
However, as I got closer and closer the more and more Carl and all the other humans fell into the uncanny valley. The faces of the people I would pass by became elongated and the features became more and more removed until it was a long shapeless, featureless face. These things gathered around me and blocked my path into gaining on Carl. I was in horror as I was surrounded by these beings. One reached out to me and held one of my arms so I struggled and try to pry its grip from me. It was to no use as another grabbed my other arm and another grabbed my feet.
I felt helpless as the things held me in place. It was then a hole opened in the group and Carl came walking toward me slowly and erratically. He stopped right in front of me and that is when I realized it wasn’t Carl. This thing took Carl’s shape and form but had no face like the rest. I screamed, cried, and even begged to be let go. It was to no avail… The fake Carl reached his elongated hands toward my face and wrapped his hands around my head. It slowly opened a mouth from the shapeless face.
The sound of its flesh-ripping to create a mouth was sickening. I can see its teeth which were jagged and sharp. Blood oozed from the open wound it made and it slowly pulled me to its mouth. It then slowly closed its mouth. I could feel each tooth crack through my skull and into my brain. The pain was immense so much so it woke me up. I sprung to a sitting-up position clenching my chest with one arm and breathing deeply. I was in a cold sweat and a mess. Looking at the time it was 0300 or 3 am.
I wanted to desperately believe Carl is real and this hospital was indeed being used to evil shit. So I packed my gear one last time. Bringing a portable battery and a tablet with a great camera. I got in my car and slammed n energy drink before I started driving to Mercy Point again.
“I gotta get them! I know Carl is real no one can tell me otherwise!” I said to myself in the car attempting to hype myself up.
I got to the hospital around 0400 and it was still dark outside. So as not to make any noise I slowly climbed the wall and didn’t use my flashlight so I didn’t cause suspension. I traced my steps and the more and more I get into the hospital the more flashbacks I get from being there. Even when Carl’s mother died I was there… I remember them taking her to the morgue after they found her in her bed. I held Carl as that was his only family left. My mother ended up adopting him.
I got to the fridge and it was off and clean… too clean… The smell of bleach permeated the air and some of the floors were still wet as if it was just been moped. It was then I heard loud sloppy footprints kinda like someone was barefoot walking down the hall. I quickly jumped behind some boxes making sure not to make a noise. It was then I saw those things from my dream. They were carrying a body… It was Carl… They slowly walked downstairs into the basement. I had never been this terrified in my life but that was my Best friend … I was so happy I knew he was real and I wasn’t crazy.
I stalked the disgusting creatures into the basement to the door that isn’t supposed to be there by what the blueprint shows. They opened the door and I can smell and taste the blood in the air. The taste was so extreme that I can feel the blood pooling in the back of my throat. I didn’t want to go down there but it seemed as if my body moved on its own to save my friend. I followed behind the freaks as each one tied down my friend on a stone altar.
The room they were in was covered in old sigils and the walls were made of mossy green stone. I saw what was the leader standing over Carl holding a long knife with odd shapes carved into it. Before anything bad happened I lept out of cover and attempted to tackle the leader and strangle him. But I was quickly overpowered by these beasts. I replaced Carl as the sacrifice… I couldn’t help but cry and pee myself. “Am I going to die??” I thought to myself while I prayed. The leader of the group then slowly plunged the knife deep into my stomach. I could feel it piercing my lung and severing my intestines. Hope died and my consciousness fell…
I woke up in a hospital bed… I quickly looked to my stomach and saw… nothing. It’s so odd but I felt the knife as that thing cut into me… A doctor walked in and spoke to me.
“Hello, Travis. Good to see you are doing well. I have good news! Looks like the procedure went through and we were able to remove that tumor in your head.” I looked at him strangely as he spoke with a smile on his face.
“Wh…who are you and where am I?” I asked aggressively
“Oh? Must be experiencing amnesia but you are at Mercy Point and I am your doctor Carl Simmons. You have been visiting me for years now.”
My whole world was turned upside down as he said this. Was I making all of this up? I spoke to Carl explaining what I was going through and he said this.
“Well, you’ve been extremely depressed ever since your mother died of cancer. You even made an imaginary friend help cope. Since you have to be watched 24/7 we even have you bunked in n assisted living mental institution. Recently you have been acting weird so we brought you in to scan your brain but we found a tumor growing. We got it removed but seemed it did a little bit of harm to your cerebral cortex. Which would explain the hallucinations but hopefully they will die down. In case it gets worse I will prescribe you some beta-blockers to help reduce the hallucinations. That should be about it.”
I’ve been spending all of this in my head… nothing was real but this is now… I went home and sat in my chair to watch TV and feel the scar on my head. As I sat down I heard a crinkling in my chair… I lifted my cousin and found … a journal… Titled “Carl’s journal” Inside … was a birth certificate of my friend… my imaginary friend. Help me…