Time had become irrelevant in the halls of the hospital. The once busy corridors appeared more like hollow arteries. Places where people once walked. The facility was a peculiar place. One part medical laboratory, and the other, small town. Each hospital room was more designed like a home. The halls like the streets which connected places together, and the foliage tricked one into forgetting that they remained inside a building.

In recent days I had noticed that the people have been growing fewer. Hellibor never took me looking for that man by the river, nor looking for the commissary lady. I found myself sitting on the rim of a fountain in a ghostly empty park, losing hours. The worst of it, no one seemed the least bit concerned, aside from myself. I spent a lot of time gazing up at the lonesome sky. It was during this lengthy period of mindlessly watching the sky; I noticed one of the window panels appeared washed out, a dull wave rolling over the glass It reminded me of a television screen. As I watched the sky more, I noticed subtle flickers and bursts of static washing over all the windows. With a gasp, I realized the ceilings projected a blue sky that fooled even the most keen eye to believe it was true.

“If the sky isn’t real here, what else is not real?” I commented to myself. The fountain behind me creaked a weathered whimper. The very walls of this place felt as though they were decaying, like cancer had taken the body of this building. Small particles of dust shimmered in the “suns” rays as they descended like little silver grains of sand.

And the weeks passed; things inside the hospital were collapsing; a once paradise falling into the rusted ruins of death. I never saw Azamoth again and Cody, Cody soon after became missing as well. A thousand ghosts wandered the halls of my mind’s palace. All familiar spirits which knocked occasionally upon the alter of my memories.

After receiving my morning treatments, I would wander the empty halls of the building. The now desolate park lost my interest. Without anyone to talk to, the whole hospital had become boring. Vanity herself had grown more scarce as well, but I think Hellibor had something to do with that. Returning to my room, I am greeted by walls plastered with about one hundred crudely drawn pictures. My room had become a gallery colored in crayon of fantastic things and the people living inside the hospital; of memories and some even of black horrors from dreams long dead. I sat at my desk looking at a raw white sheet. Taking my pen in hand, I began to draw Azamoth. I considered his memory deserving of a spot among the many faces.

Several hours passed in my lonesome state. Looking at the work I had done, I couldn’t help but smile at the picture. “It looks like him.” I tried to convince myself. I took a roll of tape and removed a small band. After folding the sticky strip into a nice loop, I pressed the end of the tape onto the back of the picture. There is an empty place on the wall between a picture of the fountain and Helibore’s office. I planted it snugly between the two.

As I stepped back and looked at all the faces of the people I once knew. The smile on my face drooped further and further as the many faces shot back so many memories. With closed fists, anger swelled in my chest like a beating fire. “Why won’t anyone tell me anything!” I roared to the walls that enclosed me. Raising both my hands to my face I released a pained yelp dropping onto my knees. No longer was there anyone to hear my tantrum and instead of being suspended in nothingness, trapped in eternal slumber, my gift was eternal solitude. To slowly watch everyone sucked away from me… and then the decay.

Wiping the salty rivers from my eyes, I looked up. No, no. Something else must have had been going on. I was convinced of this. I just, I had to talk to Vanity. If I begged maybe, then she would tell me. I sat on my bed looking at the door for hours. Sitting on my bed, looking at my door. Too afraid to seek the answers. Too many nagging suggestions, but I also knew I could not wait any longer. I had to know. I rose to my feet and marched to hear my fate.

Leaving my room, I entered the large empty foyer; over the polished black onyx floors toward a standing staircase which led to the medical floor where Vanity’s office was. At the edges of the staircase was a steady stream of decorative water which feeds the fauna and grew in their organized fashion. Around the black cast iron hand rails a line of ivy had coiled itself along its channel.

At the juncture in front of the stairs there were many colored lines leading in all directions. The blue ones led to residential homes. The green ones were to restaurants and food courts. Yellow represented financial. The line I followed is the red line, which led to the medical wards. Not that I needed it any longer. I could walk from my room to Vanity’s office with my eyes closed. I knew every uneven portion of ground along the dirty walkway. The pattern of inlays in the white walls. The tiles were so clean in spots they reflected the glassy sky above. They reminded me of little puddles. Now that the illusion was broken no longer did it inspire believe at all. Instead now I could see the flaw, the scan lines washing like a tide over the many screens above.

As I walked through the long halls, I pass areas where small gardens were established. They resembled something or a model of nature. A tree growing with a rock and maybe a small patch of flowers or a small pond with painted patches of colorful mosses and at the end of the line was Vanity’s office.

The twin white doors part open, revealing a room defined by tabula rasa. Everything inside looked like white plastic aside from a few invasive objects; and Vanity herself, who sat in front of a screen looking over a file of some sort. Her desk is covered with paperwork spread out. Either she did not hear me enter her room or she was too consumed in her work to acknowledge me, but she continued reading over the file with intent. Not wanting to break her consecrations I sat on the medical bed in her office. After several minutes of waiting, I made myself known. “Vanity.”

She froze for a moment then turned her head, revealing a surprised smile as she turned her hips to face me. “I didn’t even hear you come in.” Vanity replied. “Are you just stopping by for a visit?”

I shook my head. “No, actually,” Vanity’s warm face turned from expressive to frozen. “I ah, what is this place?”

Vanity released a high-pitched laugh. “What do you mean? You are in my office. Are you feeling alright honey?”

“I think so.” I replied without thinking about it. The proposition I raised shocked me a little. “I mean, I think I am.” I sighed. “I know the sky isn’t real.” Vanity didn’t say a word to my little confession. Instead, she rubbed her fingernails together and looked at me with that static smile. “The screen in the central park broke. I kind of put two and two together.” Further explaining my remark.

Vanity’s head moved side to side as if floating against a series of waves. She paddled against her inner reflection, only to be answered with another wave. I could not quiet make out exactly what it meant. “They are for the patients. It is just to make people feel more comfortable. If people felt like they were indoors for months on end, it has a mental effect on people. The illusion of being outdoors is what we are trying to provide. It is a service, honest. A lie, but a noble one.” Her face never moved. Her expression didn’t change. It was as if she was a machine. Like a porcelain doll made of gears which were well hidden within her hollowed form. “You understand, right Prina?” I nodded my head, a lie, but honestly I didn’t really know what to think anymore. “Is that all that is bothering you?”

I couldn’t help it, I needed answers and so I shook my head and sheepishly croaked. “The people are missing. Where is everyone? Where is Cody?”

“Cody is in his office, hard at work. Why do you ask?”

“Are you even listening to me?” I whimper, fearing that she too is nothing more than an artificial sky.

Vanity shakes her head. “I have work to do honey. Later, I can take you to see Cody.”

“I want to see him now.” I demanded.

Where is the girl I knew? “He is busy right now, Prina. Now, stop all this nonsense talk.”

The one that tickled me in the park. Before Hellibore scared her away. This Vanity was not my Vanity. “Nonsense?” I could not believe what I was hearing. I jumped off the medical bed, marching up to Vanity. “Why are you being like this?” I cried.

“I am not being like anything.” that mechanical doll coldly replied. I looked into her charcoal eyes for what seemed like minutes, speechless. Without saying another word, I turned and made myself leave from the room. The door closed behind me like scraping metal.