All is not what it seem's

A short story with mystery, suspense and a good twist at the end

With an almighty blow to the head Johnny knew he was beat, he fell on the cold pebble stone floor that was once his podium of anger and lie there lifeless like a fallen leaf in autumn thinking about all the wrong he had done, “that will teach him to f**k with me” a faint voice echoed, with one eye open but blurry Johnny gazed at the unclear figure as it slipped into the night with the hazy sound of laughter. 

As Johnny’s eyes opened he felt a great relief, he didn’t know why but it was a sense of joy that had manifested itself upon his face, the joy soon turned to panic as Johnny’s room had turned into something he did not recognise, the walls and ceiling was clear white, being lit up by the large open plan window opposite his bed, his beige chequered curtains had now turned to a pair of blinds and the sultry figurine that once sat proudly on his windowsill had become a bight green houseplant with a single lilac coloured flower protruding, as his ears adjusted from his sleep he heard a faint beeping noise at the side of him, Johnny looked in shock as a square white machine sat next to him, its beeping becoming apparent and it’s reason becoming clearer, “life….support” Johnny murmured to himself wondering, How long was I out for? Where am I? Hospital! Whats wrong with me he thought before silently and unknowingly loosing consciousness again.

Walking towards ward 22 was a frumpy old nurse who looked more accustom to Carry on films, she had high black heels that wear clicking and clopping on the tiled corridor, Johnny had heard this noise in many of his recent dreams along with most other repetitive noises from a hospital. “Move him to the recovery room” she yelled at one of the almost anonymous worker’s, as the timid unconfident porter prepared Johnny’s bed for it to be moved, he muttered “old hag, only knows her own name in her world”.

Johnny’s eyes began to open once again, this time his eyes adjusting to a flashing yellow light, as his eyes became unfuzzy and more clear he noticed that the flashing was the fluorescent lights moving past overhead as he was wheeled down the corridor, “your family are waiting in the recovery room Mr Chase” said a west Indian accent behind Johnny, he gazed backwards and saw a small Indian scruffy looking porter wheeling his bed  behind him, as he looked around he noticed the porter’s grubby dirty hands holding the rail, “I havent got any family” Johnny said with a faint whimper as the bed turned into a room marked ‘Ward 22’.

Inside Ward 22, Johnny was now sitting up in his bed, he wanted to look at his face but there were no mirror’s in the room, not even over the sink, he looked around slowly to take everything in and was confused as to why it looked so different to the other part of the hospital, the walls were a nicotine stained grey with big large cracks like thunderbolts running down towards the floor, the floor was covered in muddy footprints, different coloured stains including red, yellow and brown and an almighty stench of burning, Johnny felt shocked at how a hospital could be kept as he looked for someone to talk to, he saw another porter looking much like the last and asked him If he could go back, the porter just smiled at Johnny and sniggered as he walked past the room.

An hour past and Johnny was getting frustrated, he did not want to leave his bed as he wasn’t wearing any shoe’s and didn’t want to walk over the dirty floor, he had heard an array of noises while waiting in the ward, there were screams of terror, sadness, horror and laughter every few minutes and Johnny wondered what had caused them, his thoughts were soon interrupted by a familiar sound of the nurses high heels clicking and clopping down the corridor towards him, as the footsteps got louder and the nurse came into view Johnny reeled back in horror as the nurses face manifested into a demon you would see in a supernatural thriller, “Whats wrong Mr Simmons” she said with a supercilious voice, as Johnny looked back at the nurse, her face now normal he realised he must have hallucinated due to some medication or ill effects from what happened, “sorry nurse, I……I thought I….I saw some….something, must be the medication” he replied with a stutter, the nurse just looked at him with her condescending eyes,  johnny could sense that this nurse thought she was above everyone, bullish and almost sadistic, The nurse took a deap breath and started talking quickly “you are here because you’ve been involved in an accident yes?, you spent a few days recovering and now you are in Ward 22 because you will soon be going yes, your uncle is waiting next door, I’ll go get him” with that the nurse rushed off out of the ward before Johnny could reply.

Johnny waited intently for his uncle Robert who he had not seen since the funeral of his mother, Johnny had only seen uncle Robert 5 times in his life but he remembered them vividly as he was good with words and helped Johnny through tough times, past funerals that had gone by, the time he contemplated suicide and the time his uncle had found him living in the gutter.

As uncle Robert  walked in Ward 22, Johnny could see his face was reserved , ravaged with wrinkles and looking very tired, “come on uncle Robert, why the sad face, its not like I’ve died”, uncle Robert responded with a faint smile “hello Johnny, how are you feeling” Johnny proceeded to tell uncle Robert about the fight that had ended with his admission to hospital, the sense of relief he felt when waking up and the sense of disgust when being wheeled into Ward 22, “I know what you mean” laughed Robert “what a dump, but they cant keep you in luxury once your ready to leave can they?” Johnny shook his head and said “probably not”.

There was a long pause in the room after that, Johnny didn’t know what to say and was waiting for his uncle’s usually meaningful chat, after a long uncomfortable silence his uncle started to talk “Johnny there’s something you should know, your mum wanted to be here but it wasn’t possible, I came instead to try and get you through this tough time but I can not find the words, no have the want anymore” - Johnny looked confused and responded “what do you mean my mum wanted to be here, she’s dead uncle Robert….and you know why” johnny looked down to the ground, his eyes now welling up,

“What the f**k are you on about you senile old man, why the f**k would you bring her into this, make me remember, it should have been you I sliced with the blade that day” 

Johnny continued with haste! Uncle Robert stood up from where he was sitting on the side of the bed and took a deep breath, with a sense of calm he started speaking 

“Johnny……there’s no easy way of saying this so I’m just going to come out with it, I am dead and have been dead for 30years, much before you was born, but I was assigned to you to look after you and take you away from evil, unfortunately I could not complete my task, if things had been different you wouldn’t be in Ward 22, the walls would be clean, the floor…spotless! And the nurses as sexy as supermodel’s” 

Johnny listened carefully totally bewildered ,

“As your life progresses we tot up points marking out where we will end up, your mother, god rest her soul, went to heaven, she felt the love that bellowed out of that glorious place and could not come here, yes she has been in this hospital but she has never set foot in Ward 22” 

Uncle Robert paused and moved away from Johnny, he continued until he was outside the ward standing in the corridor and continued to speak to a Johnny who was now racked with fear, guilt, suspense and horror, 

“You have always been evil Johnny, I knew that the day you was born but I never knew just how evil and I certainly didn’t think you were incurable, I tried to change your journey as I never wanted you to end up here, not in this awful place, but the minute you stabbed your mum you let evil into the family, and ironically your brother will end up here because you are in here, after all…..It was his fist that caused that fatal blow”

Uncle Robert took a deep sigh and finally said “Your going to burn in hell” as he closed the doors to Ward 22

Johnny sat there on his bed and for the first time since “waking up” he could feel no heartbeat, he wasn’t breathing but didn’t need to, he was a lifeless soul filled with hate and evil, and the realisation of his actions dawned on him, he accepted what was to be his fate and waited patiently for the Devil to take him!

Author's Note

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Reviews

[Breadrun]

Thanks, I wrote it in two parts which is why you have noticed I think, I know my grammar isnt all good and I'm trying to learn how to do it properly, one of my weaknesses is grammar in story writing :(

[trainwreck]

Great twist at the end as you said! this was a great write. It could be almost split into two parts. Grammar could use a little work, but this is a good idea. I like it quite a bit.