Watch Your Step

GREATER

Crack! goes Philip's neck after almost rotating it to a full 360 degrees. As he paced back and forth, his phone kept ringing from repeatedly trying to reach someone. He hoped anyone would pick up, his wife, Emily, or his brother's wife whom he only met once, but not their parents. No, they haven't been in contact since his father disowned him. As his heavy footsteps dragged on, he yelled, "Come'on, pick up!"

Crack-clack! His neck pops again. He sits down on a metallic chair set along the walls. Then he tries to silence the beeps of the counter nurse, the chattering of some patients, and the bubbles collapsing in his nape to hear what's on the news. So far, none has been reported about a mayor candidate having an accident.

Aside from his nape, his head hurts. What he only remembers was rushing to the ER because somehow, he survived the fall. He wipes his arm on the sweat dripping on his brow. His phone rings intermittently and all he can do is wait while the throbbing pain in his neck only gets heavier. A ton heavier! As if an imaginary collar hung on his neck and anchored him to the floor. Maybe I had a minor injury, he thought. And chuckles at the word, "minor."

He looked at his reflection in a window of the room in front of him. Then his blood suddenly pooled down on the floor when he saw what's behind his head, a dark wisp of shadow oozing from his nape — where he always cracked it. It formed into hands and slowly moved down to his shoulder. For a second he saw it twisted his neck, bone poking out, bruised purple, and his face became lifeless.

"I should get this check," he said, "I'm having hallucinations from the fall."

He closes his eyes, and as he does so, he can see dots of white. Little by little, the heaviness nails his whole body to the ground. Finally, his eyes sprung up when someone answered on the telephone, "Hello?" His tongue regurgitating from his mouth, he answered, "Emily?" He bolted from the chair, "It's me...Phil"

"Hi, this is Emily, please say your message after the..."

"Goddamit!" He screamed and almost threw his phone. But he remembers she's probably taking care of Jane, their daughter, at the public hospital.

He keeps checking the news on the TV hanging on the corner of the ceiling. It would not be long before they see it on the news. His brother is famous for being a mayoral candidate. While Philip, he was a no-one.

He tried to sit down again on the nearest chair but his foot kept fidgeting as if it was a jackhammer. He can see his reflection on the glass by the counter and the permeating black aura above his head.

He decided to go down to the lobby and buy something to drink. In front of a vending machine, he opened his wallet and got a coin. A picture of his wife and daughter was also in it, smiling so brightly. But underneath it was another picture he had forgotten was there. A picture of his family before he raised his own.

In the picture, their stepmother has her hands clasped together and her head held high, her smile is so wide. Beside her was his father and he was next to his brother, Mike, who's holding a trophy. And he's in the background with a blatant face, hidden with envy and curse. It was taken in their house where it all began, where his neck started to ache, and his ever-growing hatred for his brother embowed him deep into his core.

In his mind, it's not his fault, He didn't want this to happen. But why is he smiling? "It's that stupid curse that brought us to this point," he thought as he opened his wallet and looked at the picture of his family taken last year. He should've burned it years ago.

In a fleeting glance, a dark figure jutted at the corner of the hallway. Philip thought it was someone familiar. "Hello?" He called and stepped towards the corner of the hallway. It might just be hallucinations again or it might be something strange, something wicked. He turned to the corner and saw it was a kid. But he was right, it was someone familiar.

"Come on," Phil heard the kid say.

Instead of asking "Do I know you?" he asked. "Are you lost, kid?"

Then the kid said, "No, but you are."

Phil almost asked if the boy was real, but the kid repeated, "Come on, I'll show you the way."

Phil doesn't know why but if he could go anywhere but here, he would. So he followed.