December 19, 2025
Friday Morning
Beep...Beep.....Beep.....
The long and sharp sound of the hospital monitor echoed in a cold stark grey hospital room.
This place was dark and eerie. Barely any light could make it into the room. Only the long line of monitors, and other various hospital equipment seldom lit up the room just enough.
The grey and white checkered dotted flooring was cracked in many places. While the walls showed signs of mold and decaying.
Obviously this place was not very well kept up.
On the further part of the room, near a corner. A hospital bed lay still, on the bed lie a young patient.
But upon looking at the person, you'd think it was a zombie.
The bald patches on the person's head looked as if someone ripped them out by force. Especially since they weren't wrapped and bandaged.
Even the skin lacked anything that made the word human stand out.
The person's skin was deathly pale, wrinkly like an old person, and small signs of bruising could be seen along the person's arms. Arms that were surprisingly resting on the person's chest.
"I.... guess this....is it.... huh?"
A weak and tired male voice spoke from the person's dry and cracked purple lips.
"This…shit hurts….so fucking much!"
The male voice tiredly growled out from his mouth, like he was some rabid dog.
Coming up to the young man's face, we could see by looking at his stark and steel-like grey eyes that this was once a person of semi pretty good looks. But now he was nothing more than a breathing corpse.
And as the seconds and minutes passed, the light slowly escaped his eyes as he lay there on the old gray hospital bed.
"Seems like it is Tao. I had a good run. Even though I'm only thirty years old, heh!"
A mocking sound of self-loathing could be heard and felt from his voice. Tao really hated his current self, once strong and healthy, now a living corpse waiting to die. Ever since the rapid progression of his condition, his body has been in such pain that he wanted to die.
And it seems death has finally caught up to him.
"Hope the staff keeps my books, and clear's my web browser history once I'm gone." joking to himself, Tao began to reminisce or better, yet his life began flashing through his eyes and mind one last time.
Born an orphan, Tao never knew his parents. He was obviously bi-raciacl, you could tell by his skin color, and his hair that was like wool.
Tao had lived like an animal on the streets of Vicksburg, Mississippi, for the better part of ten years. Ducking and dodging local law enforcement like the plague, as the police, and judicial system of Mississippi was just horrid.
He learned this by listening in on the other random homeless people that he had met along his routes.
And he smoothly escaped all attention for quite a while.
That was... until he caught the attention of some random thug.
And looking back, he wished that he never even met that person.
Said thug's name was Trixie!
Yeah, Trixie was a hilarious name to say the least. But the man himself was a monster beyond normal. Tao always assumed that his name played a part in his mannerisms.
It was like he always had a chip on his shoulder and would always go beyond normal means whenever he got in a fight.
He was smart, tricky, and bloodthirsty.
But you see Trixie had a bad proclivity for certain things.
He liked kids… young kids. And Tao was a young and very pretty kid at that.
One time when Tao was eleven, he watched as Trixie castrated a man that owed him money.
To say that didn't scare Tao would be a lie.
That memory never left him. The raw, animalistic scream. The blood pooling on the pavement.
The way Trixie had smiled.
Tao had tried to leave—tried to escape. That was when he learned the truth about the world.
But Tao had no say, he found out the hard way when he tried to leave Trixie. And he also found out why Trixie took him in.
That day he realized the cruel and brutal truth of the world.
The strong prey on the weak.
And Tao was a weak scrawny boy, while Trixie was a six-foot four behemoth of a man. Said man perfectly made that concept very clear to Tao.
Tao laying in the bed could still feel the heat of the blade along his chest and back to this day.
The heat of his breath and the sharp pain that Trixie left when he was finished playing.
Those were dark days for Tao, and he barely survived them.
He even wondered if he could get some help, but that's when he found out about another one of life's cruel jokes.
Money!
Yeah, money made the race of man what they are. And no one cared about you or your problems.
Not even those whose jobs it is to care.
They only care when money is involved.
And so, from that day on Tao just kept to himself and waited for the day he could escape Trixie.
That day came sooner than he thought, but not in the way he thought.
It was just another day, Tao was hungry. He didn't want to eat out of the trash cans from certain stores. And so, he decided to rob a local small corner store.
That plan went horribly wrong, not even twelve minutes in when he got caught by a cop of all things!
Like what kind of luck did he have for a cop to arrive directly after him.
There was no trial, no plea. The court and people only saw a sixteen-year-old boy that stole. And so, he got sentenced for two years.
That was that and he was sent to juvie. And contrary to belief, for him juvie was like a paradise.
It was a weird sense of freedom for him. Crazy train of thought, but for someone like Tao it was the only thing he knew.
The free food, and semi warm bed greatly made his day. Well besides the crazy amount of fighting and sexual stuff that went on.
Though to be honest, he really couldn't remember some things. his memory has always been very shitty for some reason. He just chalked it up to his illness.
Tao had barely any desire for much, or to do much. And was that way until his condition, or his sickness came upon him like a thief in the night.
It started slow—fatigue, coughing, weight loss. Then the blood. By the time the prison doctors noticed, it was too late.
Once he got bad enough, to the point that he really couldn't stand, and spitting up blood. Thanks to the warden not caring about the young boys in his care.
The doctors told him that it was already too late.
"Stage 4 lung cancer, what a fucking joke." Tao half groaned and roared out.
And so, thanks to his lackluster self, many people barely cared about him. The warden only let him go on the fact that he was extremely weak and could barely walk.
So, he was transferred to a psychiatric hospital of all things!
"West Chester Marrys," was the name.
The days that followed were.... horrid, to say the least. Feeling yourself slowly die and observing the difference in treatment you receive in care was an eye opener.
No one gave a shit about him, or his needs.
And the needles, Tao hated needles very much.
Tao mainly scrapped by keeping his head down and not drawing any attention to himself.
It was here he found his one and only passion for reading, web novels were his favorite thing to read about the most.
All the cultivation, young people fighting for glory, the crazy power, and eternal life made him yearn for it.
Especially eternal life. Tao never knew why but when he read and repeated that word over and over in his mind, he felt an insane lust for it.
A desire he never knew he had before.
It was like an all-consuming inferno that damn near drove him insane.
Now he really wished to be like those sons and daughters of fortune. He'd give anything to be like that, anything he had.
It was a fool's dream, but it was his dream. And he'd pay any price for it.
"Ah... reaching out and struggling with his right-hand, Tao's body and mind tried to scream out, "I really wish...that I could have..."
He never finished his words, his hand fell beside him on the bed as the last light in his eyes faded, and his heart stopped entirely.
The monitor went off, but no one came.
Tao died on this day, on a cold December morning, in an old rusted hospital room.
He died in pain.
He died in suffering.
He died not knowing if his wish would come true.
But fate had other plans for him. And someone had plans for fate.