Supermarket(51)

Wiping his hand with the handkerchief, Red smiled.

“Kid, you’re asking a guy who killed a piece of himself to stay alive. This is the part I can’t help you with. But look at it this way: you can’t go to jail for killing a man who only exists in your head.”

“Have you told all this to Dr. Cross?” I asked.

“She can’t see me.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I’m not her patient.”





CHAPTER 15


THE LIBRARY


I couldn’t sleep that night. There was too much on my mind after Red’s talk. The next day seemed like the slowest day of my life. It was the day Mia was finally going to visit me.

I couldn’t stop pacing. I constantly checked the clock, waiting for 3:00 p.m. to arrive.

Regardless of everything going on in my head about the future and Frank and whether I would win this battle, I would do my best to put that all aside today. To just enjoy myself.

I played a few games of chess with Red, then spoke to Olivia in therapy about my excitement about seeing Mia. I didn’t mention Frank, though, or even the conversation I had with Red.

Deep down, I didn’t think Olivia would even understand or believe what had happened between Red and me the day before. And in many ways, neither could I. It seemed surreal and out of a movie. However, the knowledge I gained from it had been vital to the mission at hand. The whole incident with Red and the wound was powerful. I knew it would change the course of my life.

In the afternoon, I couldn’t eat. I just wasn’t hungry. I was far too nervous, so I walked around the hospital people-watching and trying to take my mind off Mia. I headed to the one place that brought me some peace: the library. It’s where I spent most of my free time. I didn’t yet have the mental stability to write, but I could read. The stories in the books transported me to other worlds. They let me become someone else. Not that I needed any help with that, but the stories in the books actually grounded me. It was the power of literature.

The library was beautiful. Especially for a nuthouse library. It was older, with mahogany shelves, worn-in reading chairs, and comforting low light. It was a sanctuary of sorts—wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling books, both fact and fiction. As a writer, being surrounded by literature made me feel at home. But it’s ironic, because, see, the funny thing is . . . so many books just don’t do it for me. I know, I know, “You’re a writer, how can you not like reading?” you’re asking. It’s not because I don’t want to, I really try, you know? Like legitimately, I’ve spent so much time trying . . . but most books just don’t grab me.

Take, for example, The Lord of the Rings. I just can’t stand it! Let’s be real here—I know the books are hailed as masterpieces. Tolkien goes into such detail, I mean, he has created an entire world with various races of living things inhabiting it. But fuck, dude, by page eighty I’m like, “Shit, you could have legit said this in ten pages, bro!”

But you see, that’s the type of reader I am. I need adventure, I need something fun and fast-paced. I need the pages to turn—suspense, drama, sex, violence, murder, whatever it takes, just keep it moving. I didn’t really get into reading until my early twenties. I actually started with Indiana Jones novels. Not sure what it was about them, but I just really enjoyed the reading experience. Maybe it was the fact I’d seen and loved the movies, so it was so easy to imagine Harrison Ford jumping off the page and doing all the cool shit the author was making Indiana Jones do.

Another series I absolutely loved was Jurassic Park. Like most, I had only seen the movies, but holy shit, the books are incredible! The author, Michael Crichton, was literally born to write. Damn near all his novels ended up films—some great, some not so great. But either way, the books were awesome.

With that in mind, I went to Crichton’s section of the library and came across one of my all-time favorites, Sphere. The movie was great, but, wow, the book! Okay, so—spoiler alert—long story short, the book is about these people who are brought together by the government and taken to the bottom of the ocean to investigate what appears to be a spaceship—a spaceship that’s been there for more than two thousand years. In time, they open the ship and find a huge golden sphere. After they exit, those who entered the sphere can summon things with their minds.

That’s kinda how I felt. I felt like my mind was so powerful it could summon things, even subconscious things. Things I didn’t want, like Frank.

I hadn’t seen Frank since my awakening with Dr. Cross a few days ago, but staring at the book reminded me how more than any book, more than any worries about Frank, all that was really on my mind was Mia, and how I just wanted to be with her. I couldn’t stop thinking about her, just hoping she would show up soon!

But it was only eleven o’clock. Since I had a while to go, I decided to keep browsing the fiction section.

I came across a heist thriller about the most successful bank robber in U.S. history. For decades he had never been caught. But when he is falsely imprisoned, he must do anything to survive. It was titled The Glorious Five. I was the kinda guy who would read the first line of a book, and if I wasn’t intrigued I wouldn’t really keep going. So I opened it and read.

CHAPTER 1: TALES FROM THE CRYPT

First things first. You should know I die at the end of this story.