I planned to break into the office later that night to double check the registry. The rest of the day, I spent my time reading magazines, sporting a dark pair of shades and a jogging suit with a 9 o’clock shadow on my face. I looked like a true L.A Native, possibly a guy down on his luck, trying to rough it out in the hotel. It was a perfect set up, but the food deliveries never came, and I never saw the guys in the hotel. I sat in the lobby and walked around the place all day, and nothing. Hour after hour, all I saw were degenerates, whores, and suspicious everyday criminal types, back and forth through the lobby like ants in a farm. These people must have been buying crack, because they were back and forth, three to four times an hour and always in a rush. From time to time an argument would break-out, normally some hooker and her pimp hurling obscenities in the doorway, the regular.
But still, no food deliveries and no middle-eastern guys around. I began walking the halls, standing outside people’s doors, listening for Arabian music, conversations in Arabic, looking for anything that would give me a lead, but I found nothing.
I figured I would wait until nightfall and get my hands on that name registry. That would solve my problems and free up some time for me to be with Dee-Dee. I decided to retreat to my room, where she was watching television and patiently waiting. As I entered the room she bounced up to her knees while on my bed. It felt so good to have her there waiting for me. I quickly rushed into her arms and engulfed her in a deep, passionate kiss. I decided to watch a little television too.
Oddly enough, she was watching Sanford and Son, on TV Land, one of my favorite oldies but goodies. We held each other and shared laughs, as we traded kisses like high school sweethearts. It was too good to be true, but once again, I just decided to enjoy the moment. So I fell sound asleep, for the second time in a long time.
I was resting peacefully, and loving the moment, until I was interrupted from my slumber by the sounds of screaming and gunfire. Dee-Dee was gone, but the door to my room was swung wide open, and two middle-eastern men were standing in my doorway blasting 9 millimeter guns in my direction. In a glance, I saw that same driver who brought me to the hotel, standing behind them, giving orders. I grabbed a 22 caliber pistol that was in my pocket, and barely got a shot off and hit the driver in the chest. He fell against the wall shocked, grasping his heart, and gasping for air.
I think I hit him right in the ticker. I knew he was involved in some way, I got him first. Suddenly, I felt a burning sensation in my stomach and shoulder.
Then I felt like somebody hit me in the head with a baseball bat! I rolled behind the bed, grabbed my other pistol, the 380, and shot one guy in the ankle, he fell and I shot him in the head. The other guy jumped up on the bed, firing rounds and I shot him in his neck. Both men dropped to the ground like a ton of bricks. I was thinking, how the fuck did this happen? I tried to stand up and walk, but my legs wouldn’t work, then I passed out cold.
There was a moment of nothingness for a split second. Then the dreams, the crazy fucking dreams started like I told you before. Next thing I know, I awoke in a hospital, with my family all around me. I was shocked to see my mother, Barry and my father in the same room. I asked, “Mom, what happened?” My mother shouted and her eyes were filled with tears.
She choked her emotions back, before telling me I was shot 11 times, with one bullet passing through my brain and miraculously I survived. She was told that some type of unidentified substance they found in my system enabled my heart and brain to continue to function while I was losing massive amounts of blood.
Bird wasn't bullshitting about those military experimental drugs I was taking. She said I was in a coma for a long time, as in years. Most coma patients can't come back after many years without being a vegetable. But this same “unidentified substance” helped me to wake up thinking and functioning at the same cognitive level I was at before I went to sleep. Apparently I only lost a small amount of muscle tone and body fat, which is also insane. The Doctor told my brother my medical records had been seized by the military shortly after I arrived at the hospital, and the Army was keeping track of my progress.
He said they were concerned about abnormalities in my DNA. They believed I may have been abusing some new designer drug the night I was found. That was their excuse for everything that happened to me. Basically it was partly my fault for being high on drugs. But the military banned the hospital from doing a medical study on me, or releasing any information about the details of my hospital stay to the media. They said my situation was being studied by the military under Top Secret clearance.
According to the official police report, it stated I was high on some drugs and got attacked and mugged by gang members while I was on military leave. They shot me and left me in a coma. A few years after I went into the coma, the Army gave me a medical discharge, because my parents were pissed about me being kept in a military hospital, and they got lawyers involved.
So now I was sitting in this bed, finally awake and trying to make sense of my current situation. My brother Barry was just standing there looking at me all goofy, with short hair and a pot belly. He didn’t seem like himself, something was strange. But he seemed eager to be of assistance to me, so I asked him about the Drill Sergeant I killed.
He laughed and said, “Shawn, you didn’t kill any Drill Sergeant, your training went fine. Remember the letter you sent us when you graduated?” I fastened my eyes on him, and then asked him about the terrorists I killed in the hotel, and he looked at me with a blank stare.
He carefully said, “Bro, there was no talk about terrorists, or of you killing anybody.” But instead he explained how I was found unconscious in a dark alley behind a burning hotel naked and bleeding and there was nobody else around. I asked him about the hotel, he said it burned down the same night, and they believe the same gang members who shot me were on some type of rampage.
Apparently, they broke the elevator, barricaded some people’s room doors in the hotel and set the whole building on fire. Fourteen people were trapped inside and they all died. He said there were rumors of a shootout in the hotel, before the fire. At first I started to believe the whole thing was some type of mind game, but if it was training why were we using real bullets? It had to be some real shit, because who burned the fucking building down and who were those people trapped inside?
Were they the people on my floor who heard the shootout? And plus those scumbags I killed? What happened to Dee-Dee, if she isn't among the dead, that bitch set me up! But most importantly, who was behind all of this madness? These questions began to swirl around in my head while I was in the bed.
There was no public record that any of the incidents I experienced in that hotel actually occurred. It was a mystery, and a painful memory. I passed out again. When I woke up, Barry was still there.
I started feeling a little sharper, so I looked up at my brother and asked him the million dollar question, “How long have I been laying here?” He sadly replied, “Well, about 15 years. But you still look the same age, and you only lost a few pounds! You still look strong man, it’s amazing!” Then he showed me a Bible and said, “I became a Preacher Little Bro, and the reason I was inspired to preach the word of GOD, is because I have prayed for you every day, since I found out you were here in this bed.
When I got out of jail, I started a church and we have been here at your side 7 days a week. GOD kept you alive, and today, he even was kind enough to confirm my faith, through sparing your life and mines.
Welcome home bro! And check this out! Dad is a Deacon and he been saved for years.”
My dad was standing in the back, quietly and looking shy. I thought to myself, “What a strange sight.” Mom stepped in, “Yes Shawn, your father and I have been remarried!
He’s a changed man, and he never even raises his voice at me. Barry talked him into joining the church!” We all had to pull together, all because of you. Tears were pouring from her eyes, she was hysterical with happiness. But she looked kind of confused
and much older with salt and pepper grey hairs sprouting in her head. I mumbled, “Because of me?” I hated my dad! Why was he in my room?
But my father was a much calmer person than I remembered. As he slowly approached me, he seemed extremely tense and stiff. He was so humbled and broken, I didn’t believe my eyes. He whispered, “Shawn, I am a changed man. The LORD saved me. I love you and your mother and brother with all my heart. Whatever you need, and whatever it takes, from this day forward, I am here for you. I am here to help you son. It’s gonna take time for you to put the pieces of your life back together.
I will be here for you with the LORD at the head of our family, for the rest of our lives.”
Dad was chubby now, with a bald spot and grey hair in his beard. I looked deep in his eyes, and they were clear and glassy, almost empty. He wasn’t really there, mentally or spiritually. Something was really wrong. I was so shocked when I noticed it, my foot jerked, and I felt it. My family was all standing before me, and even though I was forgiven,
I was blessed, I was brand new, I was loved and all that good stuff, I was also angry as hell. I knew something was wrong with this picture, and I became increasingly more suspicious. I felt like I woke up in the Twilight Zone!
I began to think about Dee-Dee, the only girl I felt like I could have developed a deep connection with. I should have been in Mexico, living it up with her. Instead, I was half dead in a hospital bed.
I was angry somebody robbed me of 15 years of my life. I laid there and didn’t shed a tear this time. Because the only thing I could fucking think about was murder and revenge, and at the time of my life, when I needed some tough ass knuckle cracking family members behind me, here standing before me were some peaceful strangers. I looked behind my parents and saw the Doctor and a Nurse peeking through the door watching us. That was the last straw, I started freaking out and I screamed at them, “Who are you people? This is fucking too much for me! Please get out of my room!” and the nurse quickly rushed in and asked them to go to the waiting room.
She told them I may be disoriented, and may need time to adjust to my surroundings. But that wasn’t the issue, because I was actually pissed that somebody played me like a puppet, and I wanted to know who and why? I swore to get to the bottom of this shit. I was so angry, my hand twitched and I felt a spasm coming on. It felt like something was moving in my arm, in the blood in my veins. So I grasped this metal bar on my hospital bed.
Then I squeezed it, and felt the metal collapse in my hand, it was like straw or soft wood. Then I snatched and the bar broke! Something was really different. I knew something was really wrong.
I held my hand up and looked at it carefully, opening it and closing it into a fist. I felt strength surging through my body, coming on stronger and stronger in waves. It felt like something activated in me, that I hadn’t felt before. My senses were growing more intense by the moment. I could hear the doctor in the other room talking, very clearly, like he was standing right in front of me. I could even hear the traffic on the street outside the hospital and conversations going on in the hallway, it was like a mental awakening. I started trying to focus, back on the conversation the Doctor was having.
He was making a phone call to the Department of Defense, I heard him say it. But I thought to myself, “That’s some bullshit! I’m not going anywhere with anybody from the Federal Government or the Military! They’re the reason I’m in this bed right now! Why is he calling them? Are they gonna come take me back to jail?
I considered that I never completed that mission and I could still be in danger. Plus I had no idea who the true enemy was. I blinked my eyes, and went to sit up in the bed, but before I knew it, I was falling from the sky, and I landed on my feet! I turned around and looked up, and I was four stories down to the ground outside the window of my hospital room, with glass all around me and my legs felt like steel. I jumped out of the window by reflex.
I looked around the street, and a few people were staring at me with their mouths open and pointing. I still had on a hospital gown, and I wasn’t sure if they saw what just happened. So I took off running and covered about two blocks in 30 seconds! After running a little further into a residential area, and hiding behind a house, I leaned against a garage in the backyard, and tried to calm myself down. I was in amazement as I whispered, “this is just the beginning.”
Chapter 9: Devilish Details
As I was leaning against the garage, I peeked into the window and saw there was no car parked inside. The garage was perfectly empty and neatly swept. I ducked down and quickly ran over to the backdoor of the house. It was a red brick duplex with long weedy grass in the backyard. My first thought was that maybe the family was away on vacation. It had to be 80 degrees and cloudy outside, which means either late spring, summer or early fall in Chicago. I knew this community pretty well; Barry had taken me there before when I was a kid.
When I got to the door, I rested my hand on the knob; then twisted it off like aluminum foil. I was incredibly strong now, from the procedure. I paused for a moment to listen for an alarm, but it remained silent. I pushed the door open slowly and peered into the house. I felt much more mentally alert than I remembered being before the coma.
My internal voice was much different than before, I felt like my thoughts and memory were sharper than ever. I found myself evaluating my environment like a super high speed computer.
I quickly deduced the house was empty and even though it was fully furnished, it hadn’t been occupied in weeks, based on the amount of dust built up on the glass cocktail tables. I went over to the refrigerator and looked inside; it was bone dry empty.
As I scanned the room, I noticed the furniture was pretty decent. I couldn’t figure out why there was no alarm system? I saw leather couches, plush cushions, a huge TV set, glass art, paintings on the walls, it just didn’t add up. So I walked upstairs to check the closets, I needed some clothes quick. I walked up the creaky wood staircase, pretty sure nothing was going to surprise me at this point. As I walked into the master bedroom, there was a huge black bedroom set, with fancy gold trimmings and a large king sized waterbed.
It had a jumbo sized headboard which was elaborately decorated with a large mirror in the center and two cabinets on each side. As I walked over to the walk-in closet, there was a large wardrobe of dress suits, jogging suits, shirts, slacks and shoes. I checked the sizes and they were mostly XXL shirts and 32 inch waist pants. I thought to myself, this was my lucky day!
In the corner I saw a backpack, so I stuffed some clothes in it, looked in the drawers of the bedroom set and stuffed some socks and underwear until the backpack was tight. I stripped down and stood in front of the mirror.
I was slightly smaller than I remembered, but I was also more cut and muscularly defined. My face still looked 18 years old, except it was covered with beard stubble, and my hair was buzz cut, real low like it was in basic training. I looked closer at my face, and my eyes were bloodshot red, like I had been smoking a lot of marijuana, or like I hadn’t been to sleep in days. I looked rough, like a street dweller, which was good because I wanted to blend in to the streets as much as possible. I turned on the shower, with the heat all the way to the maximum, and took a long, hot, steamy shower.
I think I stood in the shower for 30 minutes, just thinking about everything that was happening. For a moment, I forgot I was just in a coma, because I felt more rejuvenated by the moment. I kept seeing Dee-Dee in my thoughts, smiling, laughing, crying, and I realized that I was really heartbroken and missing her. I wondered did she have something to do with what happened to me.
Then I thought about how weird my family was acting in the hospital. Something was truly wrong, because my mother would never marry my father again under any circumstances. Plus they were moving funny, kind of like robots, like the Stepford Wives on that horror movie.
They were too perfect, their facial expressions were all wrong. I wondered if the military was fucking with my family too. I’ve see
n movies where they took control of people with drugs and shit. Another strange thing I noticed was there were no Police sirens. Even though I just jumped out a hospital window, and ran down the fucking street in my hospital gown, I didn’t hear an ambulance, fire truck, police car or shit.
I was only a few blocks west of the main street; the police were always heavy around that area. I scratched my head and considered that maybe someone was controlling this entire situation? Maybe they had some type of built in damage control ready for when I woke up. I turned the shower off and started contemplating my next move.
Suddenly I heard a creek in the stairs! I ducked down and crawled across the bedroom floor naked. Then I peeked out the bedroom door and to my surprise, there stood a stray cat meowing at me. I must have left the front door wide open, with that doorknob twisted off.
I pushed the door open and the cat fearlessly came closer to me. As I visually inspected it, I notice it had a collar with a note stuffed under it, concealed by its scruffy fur. I reached out and rubbed its head, then pulled the note out and opened it.
My eyes opened wide as I read a typed note that said, “They are following you. They have implanted thoughts in your head. That’s why you came to this house.
Look downstairs in the DVD collection, find and watch the Sanford and Son DVD.” My first thought was, if somebody sent me this note, they must know where I’m at this very moment. I stood up and listened as intently as I could, and my hearing was growing more powerful by the moment. I didn’t hear anything creeping in the house. I quickly ran in the closet and threw on some boxers a jogging suit and some sneakers, in case I had to take off running or kick some ass. I slowly crept down the steps in combat ready mindset.
If somebody was downstairs trying to fuck with me I was gonna rip their head off. I carefully searched the whole house, from the basement to the attic. I was also looking for a piece of mail, or anything with a name on it in the entire house and found nothing, not even a picture. Then I went to the DVD collection in the living room and looked through till I found the Best of Sanford and Son. There were about 100 DVD’s so, the fact this letter was so accurate, once again confirmed, someone was pulling my strings like a puppet.
White Heat Beast Page 10