I came across a substack called Fictionistas this morning, and the people that run it have, what they call a lets write together session.
Long story short, you get given a writing prompt, where you have to write a short story of no more than a thousand words.
This weeks’ prompt was, When Simon woke up, his hospital room was dark and smelled bad…
So I figured, lets give it this a go.
When Simon woke up, his hospital room was dark and smelled bad…
It wasn’t the first time he had been in a hospital, but this time, he knew he was in the wrong place. He had to be in a hospital no doubt about it. After what just happened to him.
But why was he in this place? it kind of looked like a hospital, but as he looked around more closely, he could sense that something wasn’t right.
The smell made him nauseous, it smelt like 50 rats had just died and left to rot.
At that moment a nurse came in, wearing a light blue mask that just covered her mouth and nose, with a matching dress, she had light brown hair and brown eyes.
She introduced herself to him,
“Hi Simon, my name is Nancy and I’m here to check up on you, to make sure that you are alright after what has happened to you. don’t mind the smell, you get used to it after a while. The maintenance guy is working on it, but he takes his time. He is a bit old”.
“Why am I the only one in this room, and why is it so dark in here?” Simon asked.
“It’s for your own safety hun, my supervisor wants it to be like that, only a few select people can come inside to check on you. Just me and doctor Mike he will be around a bit later on”.
“How long have I been here?”
“A couple of days, you have 2 bullets to your left leg, 1 on your right arm, a broken noise, a few stiches, a couple of bruised ribs as well”.
“I need to get out of here, you don’t understand, people’s lives are at risk’”.
“Don’t worry Simon, you will go home, soon, when your body has healed’.
Nancy had a look on her face, which Simon could tell that she meant he wasn’t going anywhere soon, in all the time that she was here, she never check on him. not even his blood pressure, she hadn’t even checked on any of his wounds to put new dressing on.
Something wasn’t right.
Simon figured that, he should play it safe, let her go, so that he can start working on a plan to get out of here.
Nancy, turned around, and walked out of the room, as she got to the door, she turned her head back to Simon, and winked at him. She grabbed the door, and closed it.
The job that Simon had been on, wasn’t one that he was used to doing. He normally took people out that were deemed to be a danger to society. A job card would come through via an encrypted code, once he unlocked it, a picture, accompanied by the name and what that person had done, where he had stayed would be shown on a screen for a few minutes before it disappeared.
It had always been easy for him, the men he would kill, were monsters in his eyes. From murders, rapists, to fraudsters. You name it. If he got your name, you were a dead guy.
The last job he got, was for this guy named Ronny, now Ronny had killed a few people at a night club a few months ago. A simple drug deal gone wrong right?
What people didn’t know was that Ronny was there to kill a few witnesses to an even worse crime he had committed a few years back. Ronny was a big shot in the underworld, he was second in command, with a chance at being the boss in a few months’ time due to Tim being diagnosed with terminal cancer. So, to clear a few things up, he killed a young girl and a few of her friends, he had raped Stacy when she was about 15. He could never let that get out to his boss or his people.
They would do unthinkable things to him if they ever found out, why he had to kill her now, wasn’t in his file, Simon figured he would politely ask him when they would meet in a few days time.
Simon, would normally stake out the person, see where he went, what he ate, who he slept with. He needed to build a timeline, one that would make it easy for him to do the job, one where no one else could get caught up in the firing line so to speak.
He normally took his time, spending a week or two, staking out his target.
He felt he had done everything right. Ronny would go for breakfast at Darcy’s then get a report from the boys who ran the corner at beryl’s. then go home and drink whiskey until he fell asleep.
Simon had made is mind up to move in when he was asleep, as no one was around at his place on a Tuesday.
He found Ronny sleeping on his couch with the tv still on, as he came in behind him, to choke him out,
He felt a gun on the side of his head, a husky voice said, don’t move or you’re dead.
Simon, complied, but knew he had to make a move, now or he wouldn’t be making it out of here alive’.
“Kneel down and put your hands on your head”.
Simon turned around, with one motion, elbowed the guy in his stomach, did it again before turning around to grab the gun in his left hand, but before he got it, the guy fired his gun, hitting is right leg twice, and another went through is arm. Simon hit the ground and got smacked in the face with a bat from Ronny who had woken up.
Going over that night again, Simon knew he had made a huge mistake. if he didn’t get out of here soon, he would pay for this, with his life.
Great story