When Tomorrow Comes

Beep! Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep! Beep!

In the darkness an arm slowly emerges from beneath the blankets that had sheltered it throughout the night.

Beep! Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep! Beep!

The hand clumsily searches the nightstand for the source of the noise.

Beep! Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep! Beep!

After several agonizing seconds the hand reaches its destination and turns off the alarm.

“Who gets up this early?,” John asked aloud. Slowly awakening, John lays spread eagle on the bed and lets the cool spring breeze flow from the window and gently drift over his body. The breeze caused a slight shiver and John jumps out of bed and to his feet.

Normally on a Sunday morning at 4:30 John is still asleep but on this day he needs to get ready for work.

“WAKE UP!,” he screams at the top of his lungs down the hall, “if I have to get up this damn early so do the rest of you.”

The night before, John and his roommate Peter, had a party for Pete's girlfriend Lisa. It was her 25th birthday and they wanted it special. John and Pete took almost two months planning out the details so that they all could have off the same night, have enough beer and drugs, have enough party supplies, and enough food. For the most part it worked, but in order for John to have the night off he needed to switch shifts and now he's stuck waking up at the crack of dawn.

The party must have been a pretty good one because John was having a hard time remembering exactly what had happened. He could remember the guests coming, one by one, he could remember the surprise on Lisa's face when she finally got there, and he could remember the drugs and alcohol, thanks to the unforgiving headache he had. He couldn't remember how the night ended or going to bed.

Grabbing a towel and some clothes John heads out the door and down the hall to get ready for work. On his way past his roommates door he banged as hard as he could and yelled again, WAKE UP, YOU LAZY ASS,” and continued on to the bathroom. A few steps past Peters door John steps into something sticky and cool. He assumed that someone must have spilled beer the night before and never cleaned it up.

“When you get up make sure you clean up this damn mess in the hall,” John added.

John was going to head out into the living room, to see how many people crashed there last night, but decided against it when he steps into another pool of sticky liquid.

The tile on the bathroom floor was cold and he could feel the stickiness of what ever he stepped in as he walked across the floor of the small room. Turning on the bathroom light John could see that what he walked through wasn't beer at all, both soles of his feet were covered in blood.

“What the hell?,” he thought to himself. Thinking that maybe he cut himself on some glass he wiped the blood from his feet to check. Seeing no wound he then went back out into the hall to investigate.

Beep! Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep! Beep!

“I must have hit the snooze button instead of turning off the alarm,” he thought while walking back to his room to shut off the alarm again.

After shutting off the alarm for the second time, John reentered the hall, and this time turned on the light. About halfway between his room and the bathroom was a rather large pool of blood which trailed of towards a smaller pool, right in front of the bathroom. From this second pool John sees drops heading off towards the kitchen. He followed the blood trail from the hallway, into the kitchen, past the front door, and then into the living room. John's confused that there aren't people sleeping in there, although there were definitely signs of a party, because he and Pete never left anyone drink and drive. There were empty pizza boxes, empty beer bottles, and a few empty baggies. The trail of blood ended, or as John figured out, began at the sofa. There was a pool of blood on the coffee table. It looked as though someone got a nose bleed and ran off to the bathroom trailing the blood throughout the house.

John sat there, on the sofa starring at the blood, for what seemed like an eternity trying to remember what had happened last night and why there wasn't anyone asleep in his living room. He decided that the best thing to do was to wake up Pete, besides he wasn't going to clean up this mess himself.

Beep! Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep! Beep!

“I know I turned off that clock the last time I was in there,” John said as if he were talking to someone else in the room.

“PETE, you better be awake before I get to your room or I'm gonna kick your ass.”

John walked back through the apartment following the trail of blood again, this time stopping at Pete's door.

Beep! Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep! Beep!

Pounding on the door again as he passed by John yelled to Pete, “Wake up!”

Entering his room for the second time John wasn't going to take any chances, this time, he grabbed the cord to the alarm clock and yanked it out of the wall!

“There! Now beep,” John snarled almost proud of himself.

Turning to head back to the bathroom John trips over his brothers skateboard in the middle of the floor. "Damn him," John thinks aloud, "he always has this thing in the way."

John went to Peters room and walked right in. Figuring if Pete didn't have the decency to answer him and let him know he was awake, then John didn't need to have the decency to knock. Walking through the doorway John was shocked to see an empty bed. It wasn't slept in at all. Now he was really confused there was blood all over the house, no one was sleeping in the living room, his brothers skateboard was in his bedrrom and he never went anywhere without it, the alarm clock was acting strange, and Pete's bed was empty.

John decided to solve this mystery later, because if he didn't get a move on he was going to be late for work. John came to the conclusion, while showering, that everyone must of went out for breakfast and crashed somewhere else because they all knew that he had to work in the morning. Drying off, the phone began to ring.

“That's probably Pete calling to make sure I'm awake, “ John thought wrapping a towel around his waist and heading for the phone being careful not to step in any of the blood again.

Beep! Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep! Beep!

John froze and spun around towards his room. He was more angered at the fact that the alarm was going off again, especially since he unplugged it, then he was frightened. He marched back into his room thinking that maybe he unplugged the wrong cord, but he didn't and he knew he didn't.

Beep! Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep! Beep!

Grabbing a hammer from off the shelf next to his desk John proceeded to smash the beeping alarm clock into several pieces, while the phone continued to ring. John ran down the hall and grabbed it just before the answering machine was about to pick up.

“Pete, you ain't gonna believe this...”

“This isn't Pete,” the voice interrupted.

“I'm sorry I figured no one else would be calling this early. Well if you're not Pete who are you?”

“I was sent over to give you a lift to the hospital. So hurry up and finish getting ready so we're not late!”

“Late for what?” John asked, "and Hospital?"

“I'll explain on the way now hurry up and meet me outside,” the the phone went silent.

“Now I'm really confused,” John thought while he scratched his head and finished dressing. Grabbing his keys and a jacket he headed for the door. Closing the door behind him John once again heard the beeping.

Beep! Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep! Beep!

“I am not going back there again,” he said, “I know I broke that thing into a hundred pieces.”

Running down the stairs John was trying to put together all the pieces but it wasn't happening. Why was there blood all over the place? Why was he the only one in the apartment? Why was a stranger picking him up and taking him to the hospital? Why would his brother leave his skateboard in his room? Why he had a pounding headache? Most of all why was his alarm clock still beeping after he turned it off, unplugged it, and broke it? He hoped that the strange would have at least a few answers for him.

“Over here,” a voice yelled. The man was leaning against a snow white Ford Mustang convertible. The top was down and the car was running. “Hop in,” the stranger said as he walked around to the drivers side and climbed behind the steering wheel.

“Who are you?” John asked.

“You'll get all the answers soon, just be a little patient!”

“Be patient? How the hell am I supposed to be patient? There is blood in my house, I woke up alone, and my alarm...”

Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep!

The beeps interrupted Johns thoughts. This time the beeps came from the strangers watch and not Johns clock, although they sounded eerily similar.

“And the beeps,” John started again.

“Sorry 'bout that. I had my alarm set so we wouldn't be late.”

“Be late for what?”

“All in good time!”

The car pulled to a red light and stopped.

“Ok talk, or I'm getting out right here,” John demanded.

“Well that's fine by me,” said the stranger, “but you'll have to walk the rest of the way. Then you're going to be late and that would upset a few people and get me in a bit of trouble with the boss!"

“Damn it, late for what?” John asked again. The stranger made no attempt to either stop John from exiting the car or answering his questions.

“We're almost there,” the stranger calmly replied.

The car parked under a huge Dogwood tree near the emergency entrance and John jumped out and headed for the doors.

“Where are you going?” asked the stranger. “You have no idea why you're here or where to go. I think it might be best to wait for me.”

“Speaking of me, who are you?” John asked.

“The name's Michael, but you can call me Mike.”

“Ok Mike! Now tell me what is going on.”

“Just follow me and you'll see.”

They walked through the automatic doors that lead into the waiting room. Inside John saw Pete, Lisa, and a bunch of other people from the party last night. Pete was crying and holding Lisa. Walking down the hall he also notices a few of his aunts and uncles.

Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep!

Michael fiddled with his wristwatch again.

“I'm not going to lie to you those beeps are driving me crazy,” John said to Michael.

Michael grabbed Johns arm and pulled him back away from his group of friends.

“I want to go talk to my friends,” John began, “at least they will tell me what's going on here!”

“Not right now we are going to be late.”

“Fine whatever. I don't want to be late for something that I didn't even know I was going to be going to, now do I, “ John shot back sarcasticly.

Michael and John walked through two huge swinging doors and into an operating room.

Beep! Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep! Beep!

John thought that those beeps from the hospital machines sounded a lot like his alarm.

“What are we doing here?” John asked.

“Look around John what do you see?”

John quickly scanned the room and saw nothing out of the ordinary other than the fact that he was in a hospital operating room. The doors behind him swung open and John noticed his parents being lead into the room by a doctor. All of a sudden Johns stomach was in his throat.

“What happened to my brother,” John screamed.

The stranger did not answer.

Instead Michael walked to the operating table and motioned for John to follow. As John got closer he could see that the person on the table wasn't his brother, but instead he was looking at himself. When John stared into his own empty, dark, and lifeless eyes he collapsed to the floor in complete darkness.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!