Ethereal Witnesses

Chapter One

“Hello! Can you help me, please?” Neil called to the silhouette of a man standing in the light searing from a doorway. “Hello!” He shaded his eyes, trying to pick out any details of the man. The silhouette remained as lifeless as a cardboard cut-out. “Oh boy!” Looking down he put his hands on his hips. “What have I been up to?” He had no idea why he was standing there in this light, barefoot, without trousers, wearing a white knee-length gown with ties at the back. He turned around hoping for something familiar, a clue to where he’d come from. But his elongated shadow looking like a man in drag, stretching away along a cream tiled floor didn’t help. Everywhere, beyond the shaft of light was dark.

“Hello! Where is this place?” He called, spreading his arms as an invitation to anyone who might be around. “Can somebody, please tell me how I got here?”

Looking down again, Neil shook his head at the absurdity of it. “Okay, there’s nothing wrong with a man standing in a light.” He scratched under his chin. “I mean, he could be a bouncer at a nightclub, he’s big enough.” He wiggled he’s toes. “But...geez, bare feet, no trousers, and what’s with this gown?” Neal squinted into the light. “Excuse me...Hello!”

Flickering beams agitated around the silhouette like miniature searchlights. The man was on the move.

“Oh heck,” Neil muttered as he shuffle-footed, inching back. His shuffles lengthened to strides and quickened as he looked nervously over his shoulder. “Christ...tripping backward down a flight of stairs would be the end of a perfect day.” He sighed, and stopped as the man caught up with him.

Neal peered up at a large, bearded man, in a white suit. Yup! a bouncer. That thought conjured up possibilities of having been thrown out early. Perhaps he shouldn’t be there.

“Hi! I’m lost...I think?” Neal said, smoothing his hands down his sides trying to find pockets. “I don’t usually dress like this, honestly.” He hitched up his gown. “What do you reckon, eh?” He breathed a sigh, relieved that the man this size looming over him, was smiling.

“Hello Neil. I’m Hamish.” The big man said in a deep calming voice with a broad Scottish accent.

“Ah!! You know who I am? Have you had dealings with me earlier?” Neil nodded towards the doorway.

Hamish frowned. “No, you shouldn’t even be here, yet.”

“Shouldn’t I?...Oh dear. I’d probably agree with you, Hamish, if I knew where I was,” he shrugged. “What is this place?” He glanced around, and lowered his voice to an intimate whisper. “Hey, to be honest it’s giving me the willies. Sort of creepy, know what I mean?”

The huge Scotsman looked around. “Aye,” he said, as though he hadn’t considered it before. “Aye, the light is an imposing sight...I suppose.”

“Look. I know this is going to sound daft.” Neil scratched his head. “I um. I don’t know where I am or how I got here. Okay,” he laughed. “It’s not the first time, you know, when I’ve had a few jars.” He lifted an imaginary glass to his lips. “But this is like I’ve sort of woken up here.” Neil looked up with a blank expression. “Well. I’m not into sleep walking.” He gave a sickly smile, and shrugged. “So, where the hell, am I?”

“As I have said, you shouldn’t really be here,” Hamish insisted, avoiding the question. “It’s not your turn yet.”

“Not my turn?” Neil glanced around. “Um, I don’t see a queue.”

The large Scotsman raised a bushy eyebrow. “It’s good that you have a sense of humour, it’ll undoubtedly help you through the difficult times ahead.”

“Difficult times?” Neil frowned. “I don’t like the sound of that. What do you mean?”

“All I can say is, remain calm, don’t be afraid and you’ll be helped when it’s your time.”

“My time...for what?” Not getting a response, Neil scratched his chin. “Look, this is confusing. You know who I am and you’re obviously expecting me...well, later. So what’s going on?”

“I’m not at liberty to say, but for now you must return to your bed.” He gestured behind Neil.

“I’ve got a bed have I?” He looked at his gown. “Yeah,” he drawled. “Well, I suppose this isn’t exactly a going walkies outfit is it?”

Neil turned in the direction that Hamish was gesturing and his mouth opened as he slowly surveyed a room. “A hospital!” There were two beds, one had screens drawn, inclosing it. The other had monitors and other equipment adjacent. “Hey! This is an intensive care ward, isn’t it? C’mon, what the...” he wiped his hand across his mouth stifling the urge to swear. “How the flippin’ heck did I get here?”

“Dunna mind about that at the moment. You’ll get help soon enough I’m sure. That loss of memory is only temporary, but ye must return a while.”

“Aye.” Neil mimicked absently. He cleared his throat, “I mean, yes, well, I hope my wife knows I’m here.”

“Best you return to your bed awhile.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere dressed like this am I?” Neil pulled away the neck of the garment and looked down confirming his suspicions, he had nothing on beneath it. “I hope there isn’t a gap back there?” He groaned as he groped behind checking the ties, convinced that he could feel a draught.

Neil assumed that he should return to the bed without the screens closed around it. He hesitated. Hamish was his only source of information.

“How did I get here?” He turned. “Why am...I?” Hamish wasn’t there. “Hey, don’t leave me like this. Has anyone got a pair of trousers?” He raised his hands hopefully. “Or a wee kilt will do.” He puffed out his cheeks. “I’m talking to myself in a Scottish accent. Geez! I hope this isn’t a mental ward.” His playful shrug disguised the discomfort of being there alone. Neil leaned forward, peering into the light. “Hello, Hamish, are you a doctor? Is your office in here?” He shuddered as a chill rippled through his body and he automatically stepped back. “This light’s a bit scary, isn’t it?” He forced a nervous laugh. “But I’ll come in if you want me too? Hello, Hamish?” He waited in an eerie silence, then moved away shading his eyes. “Well, I’m off to bed. Two sugars in my morning coffee please, Hamish.”

As Neil approached the beds he became aware of a beeping sound coming from the screened area. Checking to make sure that nobody was around, he was unable to resist taking a peep through a gap in the screens. He could see the legs of a man on top of the bed, wearing the same type of garment as his. He reached down sampling the material of his own garment. “Hmm.” He raised a philosophical eyebrow. “Must be the latest fashion.”

Although, Neil was invariably easy going, laid-back, he was growing anxious. There were too many questions that needed answering. It didn’t help when he looked at the white board above the bed. Should he be relieved or concerned at not seeing, Neil Wilson, written there.

“Boy, I don’t know what the…ff,” he glanced around. “Whatever I’ve been up to. It must have been a hell of a night out.”

Neil sighed and sat wearily on the bed. He couldn’t figure what was wrong, but, something was out of wack...he didn’t feel right. Taking a few deep breaths, he shrugged reconciled to suffer a hangover. “Having a hangover’s bad enough,” he groaned, “but I usually recall the goodtime I had getting it.”

He flopped back on top of the bed and stared up at the ceiling, wondering what the hell he was doing here. He couldn’t break through this damned blank period, the gap. He couldn’t connect with his last memory. There was nothing leading up to the present.

“Goddamn it!” He clenched his fist. “I don’t remember being admitted. What hospital is it? What the hells going on?”

A man’s voice startled Neil back to awareness. He listened intrigued as the man announced that everything was switched off, disconnected. There was a reply from another man.

“Well! I’ll be damned.” Neil shook his head, astonished that there had been people around the other bed all this time. “Perhaps now I can get some answers.” Neil wanted to sit up, but he couldn’t move. His eyes widened with shock as he tried to raise his arms, nothing happened, he couldn’t lift them off the bed. He struggled desperate to sit up. He couldn’t raise his head.

“Christ, what’s the matter with me?” his voice trembled weakened by his efforts and growing panic. He struggled, but it was no use. “What the...” he gasped, his heart beginning to pound. “Doctor,” he tried to call out but he couldn’t expel more than an exhausted whisper.

“What shall we record as the time of death?”

“Well, it’s seventeen twenty two, seventeen thirty, it’ll be over by then.”

While Neil stared at the screens, desperate for the men to come out, he became aware of movement in his peripheral vision. In spite of the bright light beaming from the doorway, the ward was actually becoming darker. Shadows were drifting across the ceiling, spilling tendrils of darkness down the green plastic screens. Neil squinted in disbelief as he took a closer look. It was crazy. It appeared as though the screens were being devoured.

“Doctor!” Neil shouted, desperate to attract their attention. He was becoming afraid, panicky. He didn’t understand what was happening, but it wasn’t good, he couldn’t move. He needed to attract their attention. The doctors would see his desperation and take him out of there. “Doctor!” His panic cry hissed from exhausted lungs, leaving him breathless as he struggled, desperately trying to get off the bed.

Neil began to tremble as he watched the shadows, creeping across the floor from every direction, slowly getting nearer.

“I’ll call for a porter,” someone said.

The swishing sound of screens being opened spurred Neil to greater efforts. “No, don’t leave me!” He finally managed in a petrified gasp, as two doctors walked towards the door.”

“I’ll inform the family.” The voice faded away into the distance.

“No! You can’t leave me like this. I’m sick. You’re doctors for God’s sake. Bastards,” he hissed under his breath as they left. “Bastards! Comeback,” he sobbed, frantically trying to roll off the bed. “Don’t leave me!”

Neil waited helpless, held powerless in this mind-screaming nightmare. Lying on his back he couldn’t see the floor around his bed, but he knew that the shadows must have reached him by now.

The first movement startled him. He looked down at his feet. That’s where the first fingers of darkness spewed onto his bed. Neil stared, petrified as the shadows gradually crawled over his feet like an advancing mudslide, icy cold, lingering, until the cold slowly seeped into every pore of his skin, freezing deep into his bones. He watched in horror, as his feet started to crumble, becoming shapeless. Then to Neil’s screaming horror; they completely dissolved.

Neil screamed petrified as he watched the shadows moving up his legs. He sobbed hysterically, closing his eyes trying to shut out the terror, the revulsion as the shadows continued spreading slowly over his body.

Darkness slowly descended, mercifully claiming him as a sickening giddy motion of falling backwards took him away from the freezing, searching fingers, sparing him from witnessing his inevitable icy cold annihilation.

Neil plunged into blackness, immersed in a pleasant liquid warmth. He swirled around, sinking deeper down into a dark, endless void, totally silent but for the thunderous beating of his heaving heart.