horrors2

BenBiddick.The_Cough.tex

 1\chapauth{Ben Biddick}
 2\chapter{The Cough}
 3
 4He was so sick. He had a terminal disease. He vomited tears from his
 5eyes. He threw up over and over again. He was always sweating. Sweating
 6to the point of dehydration and delirium. The doctor couldn't find out
 7what was wrong. He just knew that my friend was going to die. Anyone
 8could see that! The doctor was dismissed from trying to help. He could
 9do about as much as I could.
10
11I sat by my friend day and night. Crying and cursing right along with
12him. It was driving me insane. My friend was going to die and I could do
13nothing to stop it! His bed sheets were soaked with the odor and liquid
14of perspiration. He was rambling on, mumbling nonsense. What could I do?
15My brain! His body! He screamed with all of our agony.
16
17I prayed constantly to God, First I prayed that my friend would
18heal. After no letup from this horrid sickness, I prayed that the Lord
19would take my friend's soul so that I could rest! You call me inhuman?!
20You can never understand. You did not see your best friend frothing and
21foaming, sweating unrelentlessly, going to the bathroom on himself and
22laying in it for days! That is what is inhuman, not me.
23
24The idea finally sprang into my mind. I laugh with the thought of some
25rest from this terrible nursing. I giggled with delirium myself! I would
26be rid of this forever! Yes, I would do it!
27
28I grabbed a urine stained pillow from the floor and shoved it over the
29face of my friend. I first heard him choke and giggle, than in a few
30seconds that seemed centuries, his body tensed. He scratched at me. He
31tried to get the pillow away but he was too frail. Ha! He soon began to
32relax eternally.. Soon enough, the man was dead.
33
34I took the pillow from my friend's face. He had no pulse. His chest
35showed no movement. He was dead. Suddenly, a wave of depression and
36sadness drenched my body. I cradled my friend's sweat-soaked head and
37began to cry. He was so cold and so gone. He had died with his eyes
38open. I was too tired to close them.
39
40I staggered out the door. I would finally be able to rest. Oh, Lord
41forgive me, I could rest. What was that? Something peculiar sounded from
42the room behind me. It was a dead man's cough\ldots