He sat there, at the edge of the bed, numbly, staring at the beige walls of the hospital room. A cop stood right outside the door and low mutters could be heard outside but other than that there was nothing to pull him from his dark thoughts.

He should be boiling with rage, trembling in fear, sick with… guilt? But no… he sat there, the lights dimmed around him to coddle his aching head. They had given him something to calm him but he wasn’t sure if it was working. This very well could be him in shock. He had heard the EMTs saying something about that.

This could be just a bad dream. He could still be asleep, inside a nightmare. He remembered the two bodies, the blood on him hands of the dying man. They tried to kill him and they knew each other. They didn’t particularly like each other either. Like it was some dark joke he broke into a hysterical giggling before it was broken by a hiccuping sob and he found himself suddenly missing the numbness that before had blanketed him. No, he thought as something salty ran down his face, leaving silver trails to mark their passage, no… feeling something meant he was still alive. No matter how much it hurt, it was better to feel something, anything.

A knock at the door.

“Adam Fritz?”

It was an officer. Of course she would come in while he was in the middle of a mental breakdown. He heard the tremors and cracks in his voice, like a fault line running through his sentence.

“Is… is he sti-ll alive? Are– are an-y of the them still a-live?”

Her head lowered for a moment and he heard the terrified groan rio from his throat. Three…

“Two were dead on sight, the cashier, Ian Burns… it was too late.”

Three people were dead… right in front of him…

“Did you recognize either of the…”

Her next words were lost in shock and he realized shock was a lot worse than the brain dead medication he experienced before. What was he going to tell his roommate? That terrible laughter welled up once more in his throat, dissolving into agonized sobs. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. He couldnt… couldn’t…

A sharp pinch in his neck. A dizziness. An undisturbed sleep, simply postponing the nightmare that was indeed reality.