Seven-X

by Mike Wech

  This video has the time and date on the bottom. December 22 at 2:03 PM. It looks like a security video from a hospital room.

  Eddie is lying on the bed, hooked up to an IV. He looks horrible. His skin is pale, white and pasty. He hasn’t shaved. His hands are shaking and he’s banging his head off the back of the bed, grunting like an animal.

  They tied his legs and arms down and his eyes are closed. He’s half conscious. He looks like he’s having a bad dream or contracted rabies or some disease. His eyes are black. There’s something wrong. He’s kicking, flopping off the bed. He’s saying something. What the hell is he saying? He's not speaking English.

  “Daemones mihi vivere. I ad eas pertinent. Et videbis credidisti! Capiam Dei solium dominabitur homines nequam.”

  Holy shit! I swear I just saw Eddie’s body come off the bed. It looked like a magic trick, but it wasn’t, I know it. His body lifted in the air. Something lifted him off the bed, his whole body off the bed. That was fucked up. How the hell could he do that? What if he’s having a heart attack or something?

  The worst thing is, I don’t even know how help. Why is no one helping him in there? He's alone and he's sick.

  I've got to talk to Carl. We need to go to the police. This is bad! Really bad!

  AUDIO LOG:

  WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 22, 2010 – 5:48 PM

  “This is Eddie Hansen. It’s Wednesday, I think. I think. I don’t know. I can’t move. I’m strapped down on this bed. I’m in the hospital at Uphir Behavioral Center in Uphir, Texas. If anyone gets this, please help. I need help. There’s something wrong with me. I may be infected with a parasite. I've been given non-regulated, experimental drugs. Is anyone down here? Anybody! I know you’re watching! I see the camera. C’mon. Help me! Hey! Hey! Nurse Evans. Is that you? Come here, please. Come here. Let me loose.”

  “I can’t Eddie,” she told me, playing with my IV.

  “What are you doing? What is that?”

  “It’s dopamine. You went in to shock. Remain calm. Okay? Just stay still.”

  “I feel like my chest is going to explode,” I told her feeling nervous as she changed the bags of medicine feeding me.

  “I know. Just relax. This will help. Think happy thoughts.”

  “About you?” I said, looking for relief.

  “Sure. This should help you sleep. Breathe deep and relax.”

  “My laptop, who took it?” I asked, trying to get up.

  “Don't move Eddie. It’s here, right on the chair behind you. You can’t move. It can be fatal. Now turn this recorder off and try to sleep this time. I’ll leave this next to your hand, just like you asked before, okay.”

  “Okay.”

  “Close your eyes. If you feel your heart racing or you need me for anything, just hit this button right here. Understand?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. I’ll be back to check on you later.”

  THURSDAY DECEMBER 23, 2010

  VIDEO LOG:

  THURSDAY DECEMBER 23, 2010 – 3:00 AM

  ENTERED BY MELODY SWANN

  This is the second video from the package I received from “a friend,” It is dated Thursday, December 23rd, three am.

  Eddie is still strapped down on the bed, sleeping. The fluorescent lights above him keep flickering on and off, or maybe there is something moving in front of them, it’s hard to tell. A shadow keeps moving around Eddie. Someone may be in the room with him. I can’t see them, but I see their shadow moving back and forth, in front of the bed.

  No, wait! The shadow is over the bed. It’s right on top of Eddie. What is it? It’s hovering over him like a cloud. Now it’s moving lower. It’s getting close to him, but he can’t see it. What’s it doing? It looks like that shadow is trying to cover him, wrap itself around his body.

  Oh my God! It just opened up like it has wings. What is that? It looks like a bat. But it’s too big to be. The way it’s moving. It can’t be a bat. It’s this black cloud, some kind of organism hanging over Eddie ready to latch on to him.

  I can’t watch this. I can’t look at Eddie like this. I want to cry. I want to scream.

  He’s helpless. I don’t even know what I’m looking at. What is that thing? It’s wrapped around him like a blanket. Oh God!

  Eddie’s eyes just opened, then rolled back in his head. I only see the whites of his eyes. His mouth is hung open. He’s gasping for air.

  He just let out this sick, painful moan and then froze. He’s not moving.

  Oh God, he’s not moving! He’s completely rigid, lying flat on his back like he’s dead. I can’t tell if he’s breathing. I don't know. I don't see his chest or mouth moving. It's all frozen. This crazed, shocked look is locked on his face. He’s stuck there. Completely still.

  Jesus, I think he’s dead. I think Eddie just died, right in front of my eyes. I never saw anyone die. I've seen dead people, but no one die. Especially, not in front of my eyes. It's creepy. It's sick, watching the last breath of life leave someone, and horrifying when it's someone you love.

  I'm looking at Eddie. I can’t see him breathing. Why would someone send this to me? Why would they want me to watch Eddie die?

  My room feels cold. My heart feels empty. I can't even describe this chill running through me, seeing Eddie's lifeless body, frozen in front of me.

  Get up. Please, get up. Move! Do something. Damn it! Let me know if you’re alive. Eddie!

  Oh God! Something just crawled up on him. A roach or a spider, or some bug. It’s crawling up his chest, but he’s not moving. Eddie!... Eddie. Get up! Jesus Christ! It’s climbing into his mouth.

  He’s choked! Eddie choked! He’s alive! He’s still alive, but he's shaking. The whole bed is shaking. The IV next to him just crashed. Things are falling off the cabinets, like there’s an earthquake or something in the room. Eddie lifted his head up off the pillow. He’s saying something. It doesn’t sound like Eddie, but this voice is coming out of him! Yelling something I can’t understand.

  “Deus miserere mei. Recede! Egredere de me."

  The nurse ran into the room to help him. When she got to the bed, it was like some invisible force or an electric shock hit her, knocking her away. It looked like the wing. The wing of that creature lifted from around Eddie and knocked her into the wall. That's what I think I saw.

  I don’t think she’s sees that thing, because she’s trying to get back to Eddie and her hands went right through it! She got him up. Eddie popped straight up, breaking through one of his restraints. Now she’s trying to hold him down, but Eddie knocked her away. The lights are flickering. It's hard to see what it was, but something flew at the camera and covered it. I can’t see anything now. I only hear the nurse screaming. That voice came out of Eddie again. I hear him.

  “Eo Consumam. Edam corporis.”

  That’s it. That’s the end of that video.

  What just happened? I can't even comprehend what I just saw. That's not like Eddie told me it was. It's no game or freak show, for some pharmaceutical company, or a fake movie for money. That was real, Eddie's hurt.

  What am I going to do? What can I do? What if he dies there? I can’t watch Eddie die again. I can't watch any more of these tapes. I can't write any more of these logs or keep feeling this way. I'm scared. I don't want to know what happens next, but I'm trapped in this and I don't see a way out without finding the truth. Without knowing what happened to him.

  JOURNAL ENTRY:

  THURSDAY DECEMBER 23, 2010 – 10:06 AM

  Am I thinking or dreaming or dying?

  Am I lying to myself or digging inside myself, to find my deepest truth. Will I find a core of evil, rotted from years of abuse, neglect and harassment? Or deep in my heart, will there be some hope of light, a remnant of my heart that has not been contaminated with this BLOOD OF DEATH!

  Within me, I feel this sense of loss and the loss of sense. For I smell nothing and the frozen air, which fills my lungs, leaves my body void of feeling. Have the drugs of sin dried my mout
h, ravaged the flavor of life, and left my tasteless breath forming the shapes of my tormenters as I exhale; only for me to recognize my murderers as I begin to drift away from myself.

  Has the intoxication of substances, chemicals, fetid food and contaminated water nurtured something within me, that I cannot bear to live with any longer.

  A monster, who destroyed me from the inside out, slowly deconstructing my organs before lulling me into this false and final sleep.

  My thoughts are now the only things I have left. They are the only things I still cherish. A lifetime of memories is stashed in this hard drive of my brain, now driven by a decreased heartbeat and frozen mind. Is this my last attachment to this world?

  Is this the end of my story?

  My heart no longer beats, my blood no longer flows. I am void of feeling. As I feel my final breath leak out, I realize it is no longer my mind dreaming. I am leaving this body.

  The substance of earth begins to fade from my consciousness, and the noise of life quiets itself in preparation for my departure. My final gift of life is my last thought bestowed upon me, separating me from my body.

  I think of -- THOSE I LOVE.

  I did love Melody, but my heart ran too shallow to really express that love. The pain of heartbreak, created that shield around me that wouldn’t let her see the love I should have offered.

  I know I loved Kennedy. That kind of LOVE IS ENDURING. It’s not shattered by years. Not yielded by memory. Not tested by time. That love was in my own very blood and it carries on, because their will always be a part of me, in my daughter. I call her by name. My lips mutter “Kennedy” and that faint sound and vision of her face, comforts me as I slide into this timeless horizon.

  All that was pure within me, within my blood was hers at conception. And with Jamie’s blood we became one and gave her life.

  This blood was harvested in love at conception. But somewhere in time, our bond was broken, and our love for each other grew cold. That cold seeped into Kennedy the same way it infected us. We became contaminated with ill will, malice, regret, fear and anger. It spread throughout our beings. It spread throughout our blood and I never remembered it happening.

  There are so many things in my life that I could never bring to mind until this moment, when the totality of my life’s journey is laid bare before me. Those things were locked away in this box of unconscious memory, hidden until now.

  These little moments of pain, neglect, suffering and death. These dark moments I inhaled and kept within me, while I exhaled the freely given breath of life, and did not appreciate its simple majesty.

  My mind clenched down on the thoughts that brought death for some unknown reason. And so this little thought, this little moment, this little act of negativity slipped inside me, and burrowed itself deep within the walls of my heart, unnoticed.

  And these thoughts, deeds, words, they are alive. They are tiny organisms of demonic blood that grew and fed off each other.

  The bitterness, the jealousy, the envy, the pain, the hate, the rage, the doubt, the fear, the wrath, the lust, the uncertainty of hope; they all feed and grow and like a pregnancy, the embryo of this monster begins to form within us, until the entity is conceived. These are the parasitic seeds of a demon.

  A fallen angel. An evil spirit, which contaminates my blood and grows within me unnoticed. And I morphed into this mixed species, part human, part God, part demon. It is what I am now, my evolution as I depart from here.

  I am conscious. I feel fully alive, but I am not in my body. I’m back inside that void, that chasm I entered in my dream, or as I now clearly see, my nightmare.

  It is a black emptiness without sound or light, without form or texture. Without smell or taste. Without life!

  The most terrifying part of this place is that I know time does not exist in the way I had experienced on earth. I could be stuck alone, in this void for eternity, or however long I am to be held prisoner here to reflect on my life.

  It feels worse than anything I've ever experienced. It’s more terrifying than anything I’ve seen or heard or watched in a movie. This feeling penetrates me to my core. This reality forces me to writhe in torment.

  There is no more earth. My life no longer belongs to this planet, but it goes on. There is something more and I am going to witness it for another lifetime. And I have no idea how long this lifetime will last. I’m impatiently waiting to find one of the lights to take me somewhere. Something to pull me in any direction toward anything! Anything! Anything!

  I cannot bear the thought of nothing any longer of being alone in this void. This paralyzing fear penetrates every fiber of my being, or whatever life I am still experiencing.

  There is feeling without senses. There is reality without experience. And every part of me screams in a voice I cannot hear. Every part of me trembles in a body I cannot feel. Every part of me cries from eyes I cannot see.

  And I realize that there is no taste to death. There is no sting. Only transition.

  And like a butterfly in the cocoon, when I break this shell, I will find life on the other side.

  But in this moment, in this time, I linger in the depth of the womb. Everything I was. Everything I am is nothing. I am merely an embryo again. But what is carrying me? What is going to birth me again? What if I am in the belly of a demon? About to be conceived into eternal torment.

  Would that torment be better than this emptiness? I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. Emptiness nourishes my pain and it grows deeper within me.

  It is an agonizing crush on whatever part of me is still alive. I need to fill this void.

  I need to take a hold of something.

  I want to feel something.

  Taste something.

  See something.

  Hear something.

  Smell something.

  Anything! Anything! Anything!

  I’ll take anything. Any substance to ignite my senses. There has to be something in this universe to cling to. Something to give me hope! It can’t be nothing! I need something!

  Then, in this fraction of a moment. In this abyss, void of substance, in the timeless endless, horizon, the silence was broken with a voice.

  A comforting voice broke though the void into this womb and I felt it divide the darkness, awakening me inside. It was soft, without judgment or anger; but it had unlimited power. I knew that voice could have spoken and shattered me. This cocoon or womb I’m in could have contracted and crushed me into nothingness. But instead it opened like a beautiful flower and these words filled me, saying.

  “You’re not going to die? You have a lot to learn.”

  And in the nothingness between life and death, something became clear. I began to see the totality of my life’s journey. I saw how the innocent child became the haunted man and I began to drift back towards the light. But the fear, which had broken me before, was absent. I knew that light was not the cold fire of torment, nor was it the warm light of pure love. It was the light of my former life, calling me back home to see my life from this new reality.

  Outside my body, outside my life, there is a different perspective. I can now see myself lying on the hospital bed.

  These creatures, these demons wrap themselves around me. Their blackness covers me like a cloud, and my face is stuck in the realization of my nightmare. Looking down on myself from the outside in, I am able to see this dimension. I see the needful spirits craving my body to survive in. I see my soul.

  It’s this small light within me, buried in my heart that is still burning. A tiny speck in the blackness of eternity. My soul is like this beautiful box holding my realization of my life’s memories and how I let them define me.

  I see it boxed with my mind, wrapped with my intellect, tied to my emotions, like a bow on a Christmas present. My soul is this wonderful present I received with my life on this earth.

  But I see the monsters feeding on the bow, trying to unwrap me and take me with them. Somehow I know I need that gift inside the
box to take with me, to take to the next place, or I will have to go with the demons.

  So what is this part of me that is still alive? A part of me that lives in the box, but is now awakened, living outside my body.

  Is it my spirit? Is this the part of me that lives on forever?

  Is this the reflection of myself that I saw in the mirror every day of my life and did not recognize? Is this the part of me I heard in these words that live on long after I am gone and seem to speak to me in this state?

  “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

  As I look down on my body, I ask myself if I am fully known. Is this knowledge merely a fraction of something greater that I must witness face to face. And who is the other face? Before I could decipher that thought, the next words came to me from outside myself.

  “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.

  But the greatest of these is love.”

  I heard those words before. All this I heard it all before. They were Bible words. The words Annette Dobson parroted back at me in her room with such conviction. I felt those words had power back then, but they live with me now. Those words hit me like the kid who teased me at school. I took his words to heart and thought about them all the time and in some sense, they began to define me.

  Why do we do that with negative words and not these words, which somehow bring life. These words had life in them, because they set something off in me.

  It was love. The greatest thing of all that was left in the universe was love. And in that love, was my life and my spirit.