Hospital “Collapse at the Station”

As planned, I had headed out Sunday night to join my friend at their home. I went ahead and took the train, as it was the most direct path to their house. The train arrived promptly and departed shortly thereafter, with few people aboard save for myself. There were no locals on the trains, only people passing through. I began to feel happy and relieved as the stops continued to pass. But after only a half hour had elapsed I began to feel ill.

It started off as just as a simple chill running along my spine. Then a ringing in my ears. My vision began to double up on itself, and began to blur like someone had put a filter over it. I started to sweat, my skin feeling cold and clammy. And then I felt like I was going to fall. The figures around me seemed to distort. To shift and change. They looked like they were cloaked in black, walking in a strange manner. I tried to stand up, but it felt like I was weighed down by something pressing on me. I struggled to breathe, as my vision began to darken like entering a tunnel.

Somewhere far away, I heard the tone of the mechanized voice listing off the stops. I heard the one I needed being called, and I knew no matter what was happening I had to get off the train. I murmured, asking for help. A few of the people, the shadows...cloaked. They helped me off the train. I could hardly walk. My friend was waiting for me, and I tried to make my way over to him. But a huge surge of fatigue hit me, and I fell to the ground.

They called the paramedics, who brought me to a hospital some distance away. For what felt like days I was caught in a dream, though as the dream progressed it became a nightmare. It started with the woods. I wandered for a long time, stumbling over stumps and roots but unable to stop to catch my breath. I have tried to recall long details, but all I can bring about are bits and pieces. The one thing I remember most is a very old, very large building emerging into view. It was strange in its design, though I couldn't tell you how. Only that the walls were made of a dark wood.

A few hours after arriving at the hospital it was announced to my friend that I was going to be transferred to the hospital on Wellington Street. Some sort of explanation was offered, something about not having the right equipment. My friend tried to argue against it, fearing that a return would be a huge mistake. But since he is not an actual family member, and since I lack any living relatives, the choice was left up to the doctors.

When I finally awoke later that night in the new hospital the doctor had to be called to give me some medicine as upon waking I began to be wracked by pain in my skull. According to the doctors, they attribute my sudden collapse to fatigue, though my symptoms had been subsiding over the last couple of months. There is no solid explanation for the sleeplessness since awaking. However, the doctor did have a rather unusual detail to share with me.

He said that shortly after arriving it was decided that a series of X-rays should be performed to see if they could find anything. They did so, but he claims that one of the x-rays came out strange. In the x-ray of my head, it appeared as if there was another person's face beside my own. He offered an explanation, something about how mistakes can be made during several points in the process. In the end it was nothing I really understood. I have continued to ask when I will be able to leave, but no answer has been given.

I have not fallen asleep naturally since I tried to leave Wellington Street last Sunday, though drugs seem to be able to induce it for a time. The entire experience has been frightening and difficult to comprehend, especially when I woke up and realized that I was resting in a hospital. Though the events that brought me to this point seem so rapid and disjointed, I am still very much aware of what is happening to me. My friend has visited me several times, along with The Unknown Author, though she has said very little. My headaches are slowly returning, and the doctors are unsure as to when I will be leaving.

The Unknown Author brought me a get well card and a stuffed animal, a kind gesture considering the way I treated her when we first met. When I asked how she was made aware of my presence in the hospital she mentioned that the local priest had asked the congregation to pray for me.

I am…afraid of what happened. Although the doctors will not confirm my theory, I know what they are thinking. Whatever happened wasn't caused by anything physical. I am ...mentally...faltering.

The exposure to this place and the strange circumstances that surround it have obviously taken their toll. I can admit that now, even if I couldn't before. Only it seems I cannot leave the area, at least under my own willpower. Somehow I have convinced myself that this place is something worse than it is, and it seems impossible for me to reason my way out of it. I know that my only option at this point is therapy, but that may be more than I can endure.

I have to rest here, though I find the effort difficult. My inability to sleep aside, I am again feeling increasingly anxious and paranoid. The last two nights I have been seeing things. I imagine I'm waking up in this room, the lights off, the only illumination coming from the lampposts in the parking lot. I look out the window, and I swear I see someone watching me. I cannot recognize their face, their features clouded by their breath on the window.

Soon after I fall asleep again, awaking finally in the morning. I know I am imagining things, which only helps to affirm my need for help. Because someone couldn't possibly be watching me from outside my window, because I am on the second floor.

I feel like I am going insane...

I do not want to end up like my parents.