My Mind's Betrayal

Haunting Perspective

    Nothing but broken glass

The bed of the MIR moves me into the machine with a loud drone as I wear a hospital gown.

“We are right here Chester” Twilight tells me with a remorseful tone.

“What happened to him?” Pinky whispers.

“Okay Mr. Wentworth. We are going to start now. Now, don’t move or it’ll mess up the reading.” The radiologist says through a microphone in another room.

I enter the mechanized cave and light panels flash round the inside. A large whining and the loud clicks continue into repetition. The light start to hurt my eyes so I close them still seeing it pierce my eye lids making me see white through a bloody filter.

“You okay in there Chester?” Twilight asks. I can’t answer her or the radiologist would see me talking to myself.

“Say nothing if you are okay.” Pinky Pie shouts. “He’s okay! I think. Chester! Say nothing if you are in trouble!” I still can’t answer. “HE’S IN TROUBLE! GET HIM OUT! GET THE JAWS OF LIFE! Wait? I got jaws. I coming Chester.” All I hear now is Pinky growling and gnawing at the MIR.

“Pinky! He’s fine!” Twilight responds.

“How do you know? The machine could have eaten him!”

“His feet are right there. I can see them.”

Pinky gasps. “That’s all that’s left of him? Why?” I hear Pinky whine and cry loudly as it echoes in the machine. “I gave him my last candy, now the machine ate him… and the candy.”

“Almost done Mr. Wentworth. How you doing?” The radiologist asks through the intercom.

“I still alive. I’m going to take that and call it a day.” I reply hoping that my imaginary friends would stop talking.

“He’s still alive!” Pinky joyously announces.

“That’s what I been trying to tell you.” Twilight shouts.

“And we are done!” The radiologist comes in the room and the bed slowly slides out.

I sit up on the slab feeling drained. They took two quarts of blood for different testing, pumped me full of iodine, and gave a urine sample. Glad the ponies stayed out if the restroom on that one.

“You okay?” Twilight asks.

“How you feel Mr. Wentworth?” The radiologist asks walking next to me.

“A little tired with a strong headache.” I respond to the both of them.

“Well, these test will do that to you.” He tells me. Well no duh? I been poked and grabbed in uncomfortable places, then I was blasted with enough radiation to make me turn into the Incredible Brooding Hulk. I have been legally violated and experimented on. “The medical transporter will be by in a moment and will take you, uh? Well somewhere that is not here.”

There is a knock on the door and a young man with a crew cut wearing blue scrubs opens it.

“I’m here for Chester Wentworth.” He says.

“Well here’s you ride.” The radiologist tells me.

“Is it another taxi? Oh please, oh please, oh please let it be a taxi ride!”

“Pinky, calm down! It’s a wheelchair for Chester. They are going to take him to another room.”

I sit my ass on the chair feeling the cold touch of the leather against my back and the transporter pushes me along.  The wheelchair might as well be Charon’s boat drifting on the river of soul who couldn’t pay for a ride, sent to wonder for a hundred years.

The ponies’ hooves clopping on the linoleum echoes in the hallway following the young transporter.

“We are right with you Chester!” Twilight shouts. Her and Pinky whisper to each other but I can’t make out what they are saying.

I look up on the ceiling seeing the light panels pass overhead. The more I look at them, the brighter they become stinging my eyes as if a hot needle pierced the retinas sending a strong head ach traveling to the back of my head. I try to fight it hoping that it’s just a hangover. But I still see the ponies, I hear them, I fucking feel their physical presence. Their coat, their mane, their hooves, it all seems too real. More real than I feel at this moment.

I’m placed in the examining room where I was first sent hours ago. A big brown paper shopping bag holding my clothes and the possessions I had on me sits on the counter next to the sink. I lie flat on the stiff bed covering my eyes with a hand trying to calm the pain. A sudden knock comes at the door.

“Uh…Chester? The transporter closed the door before we could get in.” Twilight says through the thick door.

“I know! I think we need to see other people!” I reply.

“Other people can’t see us!” Twilight shouts angrily.

“What? We are invisible? Why didn’t know one tell me!” Pinky yells.

“Because no one can see you Pinky!” Twilight replies. “Pinky come here!”

I don’t know what to cover now. My eyes from the light or my ears from them, then I granted silence. Nothing to hear: just blissful solitude. A metallic clicking disturbs my ascension into a false sense of nirvana as I see the door handle move up and down. The door slowly swings open with a slight creek and Pinky Pie hanging from the handle with her teeth clinched onto it. I drop my head back into the hard bed and cover my eyes again.

The door slams shut with a loud thud. “Why didn’t you open the door?” Twilight asks. “I have tried being supportive, caring, and not to mention patient with you, but, but. You can drive a pony crazy!” I lift my hand a bit a see Twilight a little frazzled with her eyes wide and stressed, her pupils shrunk, her mane is a mess. Pinky is backing away into a corner then sits down with a surprised look on her face as her eyes switch from Twilight and I.

“So here is where I see Crazy Twilight!” I reply and she stares at me with such a rage her cheek turn red as a whine screams in her throat.

“CRAZY!” She shouts and her horn flickers for a moment and I’m thrown of the bed and on to my feet. I look at the tiles on the ground wondering what just happened. My feet slide on the ground rotating me to face an intensely pissed of Twilight now standing on the bed bringing her to eye level. A force pushes me closer to her and I try to resist but I just glide on the slick floor. We are now face to face as I stare into her large enraged violet eyes. “You want to see crazy? I’ll show you crazy!” She says while she represses her anger. “I want you to apologize!”

I can only think of one thing to say. “Fuc-“ But before I can finish the light goes out and Twilight starts to  glow in a strong purple aura. Her eyes shine a bright white light where her violent irises disappear. I back away from her and she clinches her teeth as she leers at me violently.

“WHY ARE YOU SUCH A JERK! ALL I WANT TO DO IS HELP YOU! WHY WON’T YOU LET ME!” She yells at me with multiple pitches in her voice.

“Cause this is all in my head.” I shout back.

The light turns back on and Twilight is back to normal looking down on the ground distant and hurt. She turns to me with watery eyes. “We’re not in your head Chester. Not anymore!” She says and I feel Pinky Pie brushing up against my leg. I look down at her as she up look at me still with a chipper expression on her face.

“You stuck with us!” Pinky tells me and shows me a wide joyful grin. I feel an empty space in my chest and colder than I should.

The door opens and Doctor McHale steps through the threshold surprised to see me standing in the middle of the room.

“Mr. Wentworth!” His eyes shift and I see manufactured expressions of contentment. “Can you take a seat.” He gestures to the bed. Twilight stunned and nervous steps back on the bed giving me space. I take my seat and he takes his on a chair next to the counter with a folder in his hands as he looks at it solemnly. He takes a breath and Pinky jumps on the bed and sits next to Twilight behind me. “We-we checked the MIR results so many times then the machine and.”

“And what?” I ask.

“Nothing!” He says coldly.

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“You and a tumor.” He says painfully and I feel the empty space in my chest grow.

“But I thought you said that the MIR didn’t show anything?”

“It didn’t, but the Iodine mapping did. We found a large mass pressing against you medulla oblongata. For some reason the MIR can’t catch the tumor. As large as it is, It’s just invisible. I never came across something like it.” He rubs his hand over his face and grunts. “ Today has me full of questions. I had that kid from the construction accident come in. Fell twenty stories from the side of the building and somehow ended on the fifth floor with minor burns on his hands and bruises.” He says looking blankly at the wall. I turn around to see pair of ponies shattered by the grim news.

“Can you take it out?” I ask.

“It’s inoperable. Its roots travel from the medulla oblongata to the cerebral cortex. The risk of survival in this situation is beyond slim. I’m sorry!” He slumps over on the chair with his hands limp. “Do you have any family to talk to?” He asks.

“I’m not on speaking terms with them.” I respond remembering the resentment.

“You could make peace.” I look at the ground feeling Twilight’s head lean against me back. She moves under my arm and lies on my lap. Pinky forces herself under the other arm and leans against my chest. I feel their warms as they breathe softly. “If you can’t make peace, I believe you should be grateful for the friends you got.” The doctor says looking at me with a tired expression.

My eyes sting again resending the pain across my head stronger. I can’t move or say anything. Light burns brighter till it blinds. I fall back into the bed unable to breathe convulsing as my eyes roll back into my head. I choke on nothing trying to gasp for air.

“CODE BLUE! CODE BLUE!” The DR. McHale yells and an alarm sounds off.

“Chester! Please, Chester! Stay with me!” Twilight cries out.

Everything turns to black. I’m surrounded by thick darkness as I try to walk through. I spread my arms to feel around but only grasping air. I step on something that folds my ankle tripping me to my knees. The lights turn back on and I’m back in my apartment. The red painted walls, my lamp with a dirty shade, my sweet wet bar. I look down on the ground seeing the object that caused my fall and pick it pick up. A silver locket with a violet flower in the center. It’s beautifully engraved and heavy for a small item.

I push myself off the ground and fall into my leather chair. I study the locket noticing that it seems familiar. I push my thumb nail into the top opening it hearing a soft melody like a music box. I let it play until it music dies abruptly. I close it and my apartment walls disappear into the darkness. I jump off my chair looking around as everything starts to vanish. One by one, the items that make up my home fade into nothing. All that is left is my coffee table and a light beaming straight over it. A scotch glass sits on the table alone with something other than liquor. I grab the glass and raise closer seeing round pills and razors filling the glass.

Other familiar items, but their are all too familiar.

Suddenly my arms feel a slash riding upward from the palm to the bicep. I drop the glass and it doesn’t break, just falls flat on the floor with little wobble. Blood starts to seep through my business shirt and drip on the floor. My lungs start to burn as they are filled up with a liquid that forces its way out my mouth. I vomit a steady stream of pure bourbon not showing any signs if stopping as it burns my insides like acid. Drowning from my own thirst I fall onto the floor grabbing at my throat feeling my lung screaming for air.

I look at the cup of pills and razors and empty it out on to the wet ground.  I toss the glass and it shatters and I grab at the razors but only grab at the floor. Everything in the glass is now imprinted on the black floor where I bleed blood and spew alcohol. There is nothing left, nothing left but broken glass. I crawl to it feeling the suffocation taking its toll as I struggle to move with coordination but with weak trembles.

I pick up a shard of glass roll onto my back. The sharp cutting my fingers I bring it to my neck and drag it a across opening a passage where blood and booze flows strongly at an attempt of relief. I lay in the dark drowning in my own vice. I close my eyes as I slip away.

“Chester!” Twilight’s voice faintly ricochets around.

“Get the paddles, he’s not responding!”

“Get an intravenous line on him and give him a shot of adrenalin! We need to restart his heart!”

“I’m not getting a pulse!”

“Chester, please” I stare into Pinky’s sad scared blues eyes as she look down into mine. “I’m sorry if I was mean to you before.” My vision fades in and out like a dying flame.

I move my head and see Twilight’s eyes flowing clear tears down her cheeks as she sobs. She lowers her head next to mine.

“Call it. He’s gone. Time of death four forty-three.”

“I forgive you!” Twilight whispers into my ear.

I gasp for air seeing a blinding light that stings my eyes.