[We Are Legion]

Life After Death

The lights were a blinding fluorescent white, it didn't look like the ski resort, everything was so clean. So normal,
"Joey?", a voice whispered,
My mom, shit, I didn't want her to be involved with this. Involved in my mess.
"Mom, where am I? Everybody else",
"Sweetie, calm down, they're OK. You still need to rest",
She wasn't wrong. I felt weak. Older even, the doctors rushed in, clicking pens and checking boxes. My vision lapsing between the darkness and reality. The date was on a calendar stuck to the opposite wall, crosses through the dates until now.
20th May, 2025
That can't be.

I woke to the rising sun, the chair next to me empty, what the hell happened to me. I could still move and still, work. But my arms were skinnier, in fact, everything felt skinnier. Like I hadn't eaten for years.
"Joey", a doctor walked through the door, she looked young. The most haunting part was that her eye was missing, but something felt familiar. Like I'd known her in another life,
"So you're vitals look good, and you've been asleep for some years so everything might look a little different to you, but I'm here to help you adjust to a new life",
"Do I. Have I seen you before?", I had to ask. It was eating away at my non-existent muscles. She took a deep breath and handed me what looked like a business card.
Ms Kostenko,  Julie.
"I was going to ask if you remembered me, but you clearly do. When you went into your coma I wanted to make sure you were safe, so I became a nurse. I've been working here for a year now.",
"Happy Anniversary", familiar laughs resonated through the room, I could just about manage it.
"Your eye", I croaked,
She looked a little frightened after that. Like I had struck a nerve in her system,
"Um well, Frank, he cut my eye out after he stabbed you",
I hadn't felt anger in 5 years but it was definitely coming back to me,
"Hey, if you don't stay calm you won't be able to get through rehab", she looked genuinely angry. I only felt a strange sense of regret, I caused so much harm for everyone, for believing in that tool. Letting myself get slashed away. I can only hope rehab will be helpful.

Rehab was, something, it looked like a courtyard from Hogwarts. Large tress and lots of recreation,
"Joey, you walking alright?",
Julie walked by my side, holding me up. I wasn't super ready for how weak my legs were going to be after years of not using them,
"I'll get there, but I'm glad you're helping me", she smiled,
"Well you can't be in a wheelchair forever, 15 minutes of practice each day does loads more than you think",
The grass felt refreshing, you don't see loads of this in the winter of Canada, especially not Ormond.
"Hey Joey", her eyes were a sweet sight behind the new round glasses she'd taken up over her eye patch,
"This is going to be unprofessional for me but, our date 5 years ago. It kept me going. It gave me hope you'd wake up one day, that I could help you through this rehab and we can have more dates like that in the future",
I stopped to look properly at Julie, she dedicated so much time without an assurance that I'd even wake up, I guess I liked that about her,
"Julie, I'd love that", talking was still hard. Well. Everything was hard, but her smile gave me strength. The moment was interrupted pretty quick, by screaming? I know it's a hospital but damn. Doctors and Nurses rushed by to the corner of the room, almost knocking me off my frail feet, a girl sat there quivering in a white hoodie,
"Shit, she's acting up again", Julie muttered,
"Who?", my mouth managed,
"Um, promise not to freak out? Not like you can but", I nodded, eager to hear the girls identity.
"That's, Susie", I can't say I wasn't shocked. But I didn't remember anything from that night so I couldn't fathom what happened to her,
"Frank didn't do anything to her, physical at least, but he put her through years of mental abuse in like ten minutes", she sighed as the hospital staff put an oxygen mask on Susie's limp body, it was exactly like her old panic attacks. I could remember those.
"Whenever this happens she gets shipped back to her room to see her personal counselor", Julie was right, it looked like she had just suffered a critical injury. The doctors were dragging her out in a stretcher when an arm suddenly grabbed my frail exterior.
"J-Joey?", Susie's eyes were wide as she pulled me into a crying hug. The doctors were quick to pull us apart and excuse themselves,
"I used to be in her department", Julie sighed, "Once you see someone that broken, you're broken. There's no way around it", I could only continue my day in rehab. Pickup my wheelchair and spend my meals with Julie. It was fun to be alive, but I wasn't living after seeing Susie. I was only surviving.

I was restless, if I was going to get better I had to sleep well. It was quiet, hospitals usually went pretty silent at around two in the morning. If I was going to help myself, help everyone, I had to do something. I had to finish the job, Julie gave me a fresh set of clothes along with my wheelchair. I needed it where I was going, the hospital was huge but even in a day Julie was able to tell me where everything was, including the ground floor fire exit.
The air was different, a little hard to breathe at first, but the surrounding area felt the same. Give or take a couple new stores and apartments. My goal was only a hour away by public transport, Joyceville Institution. Something was wrong, where were all the guards? This is a prison surely there would be, someone.
Whatever. I can't complain, I just gotta get this done.
Maximum security was through some other cells, I was expecting rowdy prisoners to bash the bars at me. Yelling loudly at me. Empty, what the hell, this was to weird. To quiet. I was going insane, but he had to be here. And he was, the only cell in maximum security, no. The entire damn prison. And it was him, I was struggling to think whether this was luck or a terrible fate,
"I was wondering when, when you'd come back to me", he looked up at me through the open slot in the maximum security cell door. His mask still on. He looked no different from the last day I saw him,
"Why'd you do it Frank, I never got to know, I need to know",
"Know what, Joey, why Julie doesn't believe in herself anymore? She's not as pretty any more, it's as simple as that, I punished her for stopping my plans. But clearly not enough",
He rushed at the door, slamming his full weight into the other side,
"But you! And Susie. I really did a number on you two, Susie can't even comprehend the world around her, best part is it'll only get worse", He threw his head back in laughter,
"I hope you like you're new body, I had to get rid of it, you were the closest to overthrowing my power",
I was done with having my buttons pressed. So many questions, so little answers.
"I know about their problems", I wanted to be angry, to slam the door with my fist. But that wouldn't do me any good,
"I want to know why Frank, why'd you go so far out of your way to hurt us",
"Because it made me", he sighed, "The entity",
His head suddenly flicked up to me,
"You know, I have to get one last thing done", my hand felt different. It only took me a second to realize why. A shiny, quite large, magnum lay in my palm,
"Kill me", Frank pleaded,
I regretted what I did, I didn't hesitate, not even for a second. His head exploded. The thought of this was always in the back of my head, to justify what he did to me. To my friends. But I never thought I could.
I pushed my wheelchair hard, my muscles and lungs burning in their sockets. Running away from my problems, my vision shrouded by a black fog, I failed Julie. I failed Susie. Frank's dead.
My only chance for life after death, gone.