I don’t know how he got in here. My night nurse promised me that new security had been added, but I was leery.

And I was right to be. Here he was, in my room staring at me, his expression emotionless.

His movements were quick, and he threw my blankets off my bed. Clearly, he was looking for something.

“It’s not here, Tom,” I whispered.

Our divorce was thirteen years ago and all of our assets had been divided equally. He’d received more money than I had. Apparently, it had finally run dry.

He tore my dresser drawers open, throwing my clothes all over. The light from my nightstand showcased the bruises on his arm and I wondered how long it had been since his last fix.

His words were broken as he spoke. “Tomorrow – the money – It better be here.”

It took me over an hour to fall asleep after he left.

*

The following morning, the nursing home’s therapist came in to check in on me. He visited me twice a week.

Dr. Carr knocked on my door as I was finishing up my breakfast. Without wasting any time, he took a seat beside me on the couch.

“Sue, how are you feeling this morning?” He asked.

“He came…again.”

Dr. Carr raised his eyebrows and scribbled a quick note. “What did he want?”

I stared off into the distance. “The same thing he always wants. More money.”

Dr. Carr asked me if I could contact Tom and get him to sit in on one of our meetings.

I shook my head. “He only comes at night.”

After thoughtful consideration, Dr. Carr suggested what I considered a foolproof plan – setting up a secret video camera in my room. Dr. Carr would be able to not only see Tom, but could watch me interact with him.

That night with the camera in place, I waited.

I slipped into my nightgown, laid in bed and shut off my lamp, subjecting the room to darkness. I rehearsed in my mind what Dr. Carr told me to say.

The slamming of my door awakened me.

“Sue.”

I could just barely make out Tom’s figure against the moonlight that scattered across my room.

“Tom.”

This time, he came prepared. An empty cloth bag hung limp in his grip.

“Where is it?”

I rose to my feet and reached out for his hand. Up close, his entire body was trembling. His eyes were sunken and his jaw protruded against his paper-thin skin.

Dr. Carr’s words reverberated in my head. “Tom…” I began. “it’s time for you to get help. I don’t have the money.”

Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a handgun. He placed it against my forehead. The smooth metal felt like ice.

“You’ve given me no other choice.” He said. He pulled the trigger.

*

The bright light awakened me from my sleep. Keeping my eyes closed, I felt for where I expected the hole in my forehead.

Only there was no hole.

Opening my eyes, I realized that I hadn’t made it to the gates of heaven.

I was still in my room. I was still in my bed.

In the corner of my room, the video camera Dr. Carr had placed the previous night was still recording.

I grabbed it and saw it had been recording the entire night.

While I sat in my usual spot finishing my breakfast, Dr. Carr knocked on my door.

“Is the recording ready?” He asked.

I nodded and together we sat and watched.

It recorded me walking from the bathroom to my bed, and shutting off the lamp. Automatically, the camera adjusted itself to infrared.

This is it, I thought. This is when Tom will come.

Except that Tom never showed up.

In the eight hours of footage we saw, Tom never came.

“That doesn’t make sense,” I said. “He was here. He pointed a gun at me last night.”

Reaching into his bag, Dr. Carr pulled out the familiar notepad. “Sue…Tom isn’t real.”

I scrunched my eyebrows together. “Yes…he is,” I insisted. “He was here!”

Dr. Carr shook his head. “He wasn’t. Sue, you have something called Dementia.”

I didn’t understand. I had never heard of dementia before.

“Yours is an advanced case. We don’t understand why, but your dementia has coupled itself up with hallucinations. Because of your short-term memory issues, the hallucinations seem to be replaying themselves.”

“So, you mean to say this has happened before?”

He nodded. “This has been going on for the last six months.”

I could feel my world collapsing around me. “No, no, no, no. He was here.” I pointed to my door. “There. He was there and this time with a gun.”

Dr. Carr flipped to the next page in his notepad and scribbled another note. “I understand that this is an unfamiliar world, and these hallucinations are scaring you.”

I couldn’t meet his eyes.

“There’s treatment options that might make them ‘lighter’, but these hallucinations won’t stop.”

*

Slipping into the bed that night, I turned off my lamp and willed myself to keep Tom out of my mind.

I was slipping into sleep, and that’s when I heard it.

The slamming door.

“Hello, Sue.”

My heart seized in my chest. “Tom,” I whispered. “You’re not real.” I repeated the words over and over, but there he stood at the edge of my bed.

The life in his eyes was gone. “Miss me?”

“Get out!” I screamed, throwing the remote at him.

He cocked his head to the side. “I can’t do that Sue. Now,” He lifted the limp bag into the light. “pay up.”

It all played out again, the smooth metal against my forehead.

I swallowed…

Darkness.

*

The following morning I reminded myself that Tom wasn’t real. As I stretched and made my way to the bathroom, my blood ran cold.

There on the floor was the limp bag.

If these were hallucinations, where did the bag come from?