The Black Parade

2. Dead!

I can see again. I see myself laying on the hospital bed, motionless and more pale than I have ever been. There are nurses trying to pull the woman from the room, but she's attempting to break free. There are doctors and nurses surrounding the bed. They seem to be trying desperately but failing to revive the cold corpse. I laugh at their attempts. I wonder if their paychecks go down if they don't save someone. Maybe that's why they work so hard to revive people.

I walk around them at first, wondering if any of them can sense my presence or see me, or something. But no one seems to notice the spirit of the corpse in the same room as them. I watch, hiding behind one of the main nurses surrounding my body, until the woman collapses, until the doctors and nurses stop trying. I watch until they start filing out of the room. One of the nurses carries the collapsed woman with her out of the too-white room.

I can’t watch anymore. I run out of the room, avoiding any contact with anyone. I get out into the hallway, sliding past the nurses and patients in the hallway before I reach the stairwell. I climb down the stairs, soon reaching the ground floor. I don’t see many people on this floor, but I think nothing of it. When I step outside though, there’s no color. Everything is black and white, and no people shuffle along on the street. There are no cars, no anything. It’s like a ghost town. I run back inside the hospital, to get back to the hustle and bustle of the doctors and nurses. But when I open the doors, it looks exactly the same as it did outside. Abandoned. Any color that was once there is gone, along with any sign of life.

I run towards the staircase. I almost trip a few times going up, but I keep going. I soon get back to the fourth floor, searching frantically for my room number. I soon find, it, opening the door to see a figure sitting on the bed, weeping. I hesitate before approaching them, walking slowly. As soon as I stop in front of the figure, their head jerks up, and I gasp at the sight. It looks like the woman that had been in there when I died. But there were no eyes, and there was blood streaming from her empty eye sockets. She screams and I shriek, jumping back.

“No one will miss you,” she growls in a deep voice. “Did you get what you deserve?” There’s no way this thing is human,  I think as I start to shake, walking backwards towards the door. I don’t want to know what would happen if I take my eyes off of her- it. I get out into the hallway before it moves again, but as soon as I step out of the room, it screams again. I start to sprint down the hallway, but I can hear it get up, the slapslapslap of something not human against the floors. I rush to the stairwell, hoping to be able to lock the door before the thing got to me. I get in the stairwell and try to pull the door shut, but it won’t budge. I see it getting closer, and I try one more time to pull it shut before rushing down the staircase. The door slams shut, and I hear the thing start to brutally pound on the door. I try to speed up, going down the stairs as fast as possible to get away from that thing.

I hurry past the second floor entrance, relief flooding me as I see the ground floor door. I hear the door open above and slam into a wall, and the relief quickly turns to fear. I reach the door and try the handle, but it won’t budge. I hear a scream from above, and I move quicker, pulling the the knob until the door opens. I sprint through the doorway, slamming the door behind me and muffling the scream. I get halfway through the lobby before I hear a loud thump and a door swing open. I don’t dare look back, using all my energy to get the last few feet to the door. As I get back outside the building, I feel claws dig into my skin, but then it’s suddenly gone. I turn around, breathless, to see the creature standing just inside the doorway of the hospital, wailing. The sound makes me collapse on the ground, covering my ears with all my might. The things face seems to melt the longer it's away from me. It looks like its starving. For me. But I did it. I actually got away. The thing's wails lessen as I stand, staring at the thing in the doorway, before I turn and sprint away, smiling in relief. I may be dead, but at least I’m not trapped.

Turning the corner onto another empty street, I can hear sharp cries still coming from the creature at the hospital. As I disappear from the creature’s sight, I couldn’t care less.