Dozens of footsteps running past my doorway was all I heard in the dead of night when I was awoken from my slumber. I watched nurses and doctors race in the same direction towards the front end of the building. The many ambulance sirens told me that something big was going down. I looked out my open window and saw the night sky lit up with orange flames in the distance.
“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity,” said a gruff voice from the shadows, “We both know that too well, but what many don’t understand is that there is the opportunity to act and there is the opportunity to ignore.” The man from the waiting room walked forward, using a metal rod to keep him standing up straight.
I reached my hand under my pillow and gripped the axe handle.
The figure’s black mask looked down at me, predicting my next move. “I believe that right now, you should think before you choose to act.”
“And I think that you should take off that mask. I already know who you are.”
The stitched grimace moved under his hood. Vigil used one hand to reach under the mask at the base of his neck and he pulled upwards. I saw this as my moment to pounce. I quickly grabbed the axe from under the pillow and swung it at the shape with all of my might. Vigil caught the axe with his free hand and tore it out of my grip. He finished taking off his mask and walked over to me, his large frame towering over me and casting a shadow across my already limited line of sight. His pair of white eyes seemed to shimmer in the night, giving me little to focus on as I adjusted to the darkness. Vigil placed the cold steel blade against my neck and pushed it into my throat, preventing me from swallowing the congealed mass of bloody saliva that gathered in my mouth while I slept.
“If you truly knew who I was, you wouldn’t dare to strike me.” His icy breath caused goosebumps to appear on my nose.
“What do you want from me? Nothing you do can take back what I did.”
“And I don’t want you to.” He threw the heavy axe across the room with minimal effort. “I want you to know that both your ignorance and actions come with a price. Unfortunately for you, it’s come time for your actions and ignorance to be paid for and I suggest that you try to find your calm in the chaos.” Vigil slammed the blunt metal rod against the floor, cracking the tile underneath. His pale white face cracked into a smile. “Calming, isn’t it?”
I flinched at the sound, thinking these might be my final moments.
There was more running in the hall. This time, only one set of feet. Vigil sunk back into the shadows and out of my vision.
“What the hell was that noise?” The male nurse barged in holding a cane in his hands like a baseball bat.
“The Vigil, he’s over there.” I made the mistake of pointing with my hand that should have been restrained.
“And how did you get out of your cuff?” The male nurse walked over to me with the cane resting on his shoulder.
“No, he’s right behind you!” I pleaded with him. “You gotta believe me!”
“Just shut up already.” The nurse tapped his fingers on the cane and then checked the hallway to make sure no one was passing by. “Some people just don’t stop, do they?” He said under his breath. “You know, most of the other staff left to go to that fire at Blackport.” He took the cane and gripped it in both hands. “We’re on a skeleton crew at the moment.” He held the cane up high, ready to bring it down on my head. I held up my one good arm up in defense. ”Right now, it’s just you and me.”
“And me.” A chain shot out of the darkness and wrapped around the cane. I watched Vigil use his foot to step on his end of the shackle and tear the cane away from the male nurse’s hands.
“What the f— oh,” the male nurse was caught off guard by Vigil holding out the fire axe for him to take.
“As I see it, you have two choices. The second one isn’t so nice for you. Choice 1: You leave now and enjoy the remainder of your soon to be shortened life, or choice 2: You make it easy for both of us and we can finish this now. I’d prefer the first option.”
The man hesitated in grabbing the axe and let out an uncertain breath.
“Then your choice is made.” Vigil let go of the axe and the man took it. “Swing first. I wouldn’t want to kill an innocent man.”
The male nurse carelessly swung the axe and Vigil parried and redirected the swing using the hook of his sickle. This spun the nurse back around to face me. Vigil used the blade and cut the back of his attacker’s left knee then he kicked out the nurse’s right knee with one of his muddy boots. The nurse fell to the ground and mouthed the words “help me” before I watched the end of the sickle pierce the back of his head and appear out of his mouth. Vigil tossed the weighted end of the chain over a pipe that ran across the ceiling and pulled down, causing the male nurse’s corpse to dangle in the air.
Vigil sighed. “Now… where were we?”
I said nothing.
“Ah, yes, you see, I gave him a choice. He chose unwisely.” He took a few steps forward and rested a hand on my bed frame. “My advice: Ignorance is bliss. Actions have consequences. Remember that.” Vigil folded his hands over one another and sat down on a chair that sat at my bedside. “It’s strange, I look at you and I see myself. I believe that we are only one step away from becoming equals. I clear the world of the evil, the deceitful, the twisted, and the belligerent. And you rid the world of the innocent, the honest, the courageous, and the considerate.” Vigil leaned forward. “Now tell me, why should you wear the halo?”
I turned away from him. “How many people have you killed?” I paid no attention to his question.
He rested his hands on top of the metal rod. “Stopped counting. Between the ones that needed to go and the ones who were just in my way, I couldn’t tell you.” He raised his hood to conceal the top half of his snowy face. “That’s why I have people like you. You always kept count for me.” He cocked his head at me. “What’s it now? 8? 9?”
“Eleven.”
He smiled lightly and closed his eyes. “A lot of work to do then. I stopped counting around the mid 30s and that was years ago. That’s why I took up the whole hooded figure and impractical weapon gimmick. Thought I’d give myself a bit of a challenge.” He took his mask out of his pocket and wiggled it in front of me. “Do you know how difficult it is to see out of this thing?”
“I’m sure it’s awful,” I brushed past his complaints and tried to get any other information out of the man in my hospital room, ”Why kill him?” I pointed at the male nurse who was still dripping blood and grey matter onto the floor. “What did he do?”
Vigil stuffed his mask into his breast pocket. “He was in the way. Also deserved a punishment for what he did to you yesterday. I couldn’t just standby and watch someone get hurt.” Vigil laughed at his own sarcasm which quickly turned into a coughing fit. Once he caught his breath he continued. “You should be thankful that I didn’t let him beat you first.”
I rolled my eyes. “He said it was just me and him. Is that true?”
“Haven’t you looked outside?” He walked over to the window. “Can’t you see the flames? Can’t you hear the sirens?”
I listened carefully and, ever so slightly, found the wail of ambulances in the distance. “What’s going on out there?”
“Man arsons the local jail. Police call the fire department for backup, but without a chief, the coordination is gone. All 4 fire companies race to the prison and they call the hospital for medical assistance. The hospital receives calls from all 4 departments, so they send everything they got. Too bad their secretary is out on leave to make sure at least some of the staff stays… and in all of this chaos there was an opportunity that led me right back to you.”
“You’re insane!”
“And you’re in debt!” He pointed the metal rod in my face before slamming it on the floor. “I think you know what must happen.” He began to walk over me with the rod clasped in both hands.
“Wait, wait, wait.” I held my hands over my chest. “You don’t have to do this to me.”
“They say that an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” Vigil lowered his hood to reveal his bleach white eyes. “I tell them, ‘then so be it.’”
The blunt end of the steel rod pierced my good shoulder. I felt muscles and bones and ligaments break and detach as I screamed in complete agony. My vision slowly started to darken when I heard the rod go through the bed and clank against the ground.
Vigil continued talking, but the ringing in my ears overpowered the soft speaking man. “Hey!” Vigil lightly slapped my face with the back of his hand. “Listen to me!” He grabbed my neck and held me forward. “You should only be so lucky I don’t make sure you perish. I am giving you a chance.”
“Let me go!” I tried to kick him, but it did nothing.
He smiled, “As you wish.” He let go of my neck. I felt every bump as my body creeped down the iron rod. I bit into my cheek so hard that it started to bleed. I looked into Vigil’s eyes and caught a glimpse of my own bloodied expression. I tried not to let it get the better of me, but I struggled in doing so. The pain finally overtook me and I blacked out.
I think it was only a few minutes later that the dark figure woke me up by cutting my cheek open with his knife. “Now that you’ve gotten yourself comfortable, let me explain the rules.” Vigil took his mask out of his breast pocket and stretched it over his face. “Three bombs hidden in this facility. One across the hallway, under the bed of a dying man with a steel rod in his shoulder. Another under your bed. The call staff button on each of your bed remotes is now attached to the other’s bomb.” He folded my fingers around a mangled call button with an antenna and a cell phone taped to the side. “Neither one of you pulls the trigger, both of you die. Both of you pull the trigger, a random man in the hospital will die. We will see the results at daybreak. Until then, I wish you luck.”
“No. I won’t do it. I’m not going to play this stupid game.” I threw the remote onto the bed.
“There is one final option.” He pulled out a tangle of wires attached to a car ignition. “If either of you refuse to play, break your remotes, or attempt to tamper with the experiment in any way—” Vigil undid the top two buttons on his utility coat to reveal another bundle of wires and blinking lights strapped to his chest. “We all go down together.”
“You’re insane if you think either of us are going to press that button.”
“For your sake, let’s hope that I am.” Vigil turned around and went over to my jacket that hung on the chair in the corner. He reached into its pockets and took my house keys, my ID, and a small pocket knife that I kept on me. The shape picked up the chair and placed it under my door knob, preventing anyone from coming in. He then looked at the bulletin board and ripped off the flyers that advertised for all of the at-home services the hospital provided. Vigil lifted the nurse’s corpse off of the hook and threw him down on the axe head, splitting his face open further. He grabbed his sickle and threw the weighted end of the chain over his shoulder. The shape hoisted himself onto the window sill and sat on the ledge. “Last word of advice: People are not as innocent as they seem.” Finally, he leaned back and fell out of sight.
I sat there, pondering my options. Either finish the man who I had already injured, kill a random man in the building, or die myself. I looked over at my numbing shoulder which I had almost forgotten about and noticed the sheets becoming more and more bloodsoaked with every second that the metal rod ran through me. I attempted to lift my body up the shaft of it, but the broken nerves prevented me from moving any more than an inch or so. Several times, I tried this, but eventually I realized this was only making me more and more tired for little to no results. The blood loss was starting to make the world go dark, with the occasional light headed feeling here and there, until finally, it all came crashing down.
Black.
Silence.
Nothing.
By the following morning, a decision was made. I was awoken by the destruction of a bomb somewhere else in the building, causing the distinctive smells of death and burning motor oil to fill the air around me. The small window near the top of the door was shattered, leading me to the conclusion that, somehow, I must have accidentally pressed that button in my sleep. Staff filled the hallway and attempted to clear the debris away from my door. Men shouted for me to try and get up and out of the room before the flames came to me. I was still pinned to the bed, not only by a steel rod, but by the realization that I had killed a man the night before.
“Vigil,” I tried to say. My voice came out in a quiet whimper. “There’s a bomb in here.” They couldn’t hear me. The staff was too concerned with my door to care what I was saying. I looked over in the corner of the room, where the nurse’s broken skull lay on top of the fire axe. “Axe,” I could barely raise my voice above a whisper, with the rush of adrenaline being the only thing keeping me awake. “Need axe… door blocked.”
“Shush!” The female nurse shouted at the group of men. “I think he’s saying something.”
“He needs help!” Yelled one of the men, jiggling the doorknob.
“Quiet.” I saw the top of her head appear in the broken window.
“Axe.” I repeated. “Chop door.”
“An axe!” She yelled at one of the men. “Get the emergency one. Down the hall and to the right.”
I heard a man run down the hallway, crunching over broken glass and other debris that littered the destroyed corridor.
“Are you okay, sir?”
“Yeah, but hurry.” I lied to them. I knew I was dying, but I didn’t want them to botch things up due to panic.
“It’s not there!” I heard the man yell from down the hall. “The box is empty.”
I looked back across the room at the axe laying on the floor. Once again, he planned this all out.
“Stretcher. Ram door.” I said to the woman outside.
“Get me a stretcher! Anyone!” Nobody spoke up. “You two, go!” I heard two sets of footsteps run away again without question. Minutes later, I heard the squeaky wheels scratch down the hall. “Ready!… One! Two! Three!”
The wooden chair under the door knob splintered into many pieces and scattered across the floor tiles. The group of people rushed into my room and stopped at the scene before them. One guy puked upon entering. Another turned and walked the other direction with his hands covering his nose and mouth. The female nurse who had taken care of me earlier that week stood there astonished. The only words to escape her quivering lips were, “Oh dear God.”
The doctors took me to a new hospital room somewhere across the building and away from all of the impending commotion. They informed me that my right arm was likely going to be dead. A detective came in to take my statement about what happened the previous night. I told him everything and then some, although I still decided not to tell them about my involvement with the bus driver.
As of the time I’m writing this, I am a shell of my former self. Oftentimes, I find myself thinking about the man they call the Vigil. Even more times, I find myself thinking about the last thing he said to me. ‘People are not always as innocent as they may seem.’ It’s caused me to do some research on both of the other parties who “participated” in the experiment. The bus driver, Robert Grey, was a fifty six year old navy veteran, with the past crimes of eight counts of animal cruelty, twenty counts animal abuse, and eleven counts of dogfighting. He served six years in prison. The other man, Adrien Zannary, was a thirty one year old inmate taken out of prison due to a medical emergency. His past crimes were nine counts of sexual assault on a minor, and five counts of rape in the first degree. He is currently serving the rest of his life behind bars.
Today, I received a letter from a man who was, by now, all too familiar to me. A nurse delivered it under the pretext that it was a get well soon card. I waited until she left and opened it up. It read:
Hello,
I hope you are feeling better. Thanks for taking part in my little social experiment. The results were most interesting. If you have not figured it out yet, I lied to you. Your remote connected to the bomb under your bed and his remote connected to the bomb that went kaboom. He showed no mercy and it cost him his life. You did not want to cause any more suffering. I commend you for that.
You see, you and I are not so different after all. You don’t want to cause more suffering, but don’t have the strength to end it. I want to end suffering, but the only way I know how is to cause more. I can see that each time we meet, you inch closer and closer to the edge of becoming just like me. At this point, all it’ll take for you to turn is one bad day. I believe you and I are doomed to do this for much longer than a few short nights. You won’t stop me, because deep down, you know what I’m doing is right, and I won’t kill you, not yet, because you’re just so damn fun to watch.
I’ll see you around, Killer.
Vigil
There is still one thing left about that night that bothers me. I talked to the detective about my case after he had taken my statement. He told me that the remote system was reworked so that the wires connected to the bomb under our own beds, while the cell phone and antenna attached to it were just for presentation. I believe what scares me about this is the fact that before I passed out, I placed the remote on the table beside my bed. I panicked in the moment, but I know that if given the chance, I would’ve taken that man’s life. I believe that he knows this too. That’s not all. I know that you are still out there, Vigil, and I know that you are reading this. I don’t know what you are, what you want, or why you chose me, but I do know one thing: The next time that we come face to face, I won’t have to think twice about my actions.