"3 little kiddies playing in the park, said the first kiddie, let's go home before it gets dark, the first two went on their merry way home. The third stayed playing. All alone. Come here little child, come to me!
The bushes whispered softly, I have got wonders for you to see"
Simon chanted the song in the darkness of the main deck, it was an old memory from his childhood that for some unknown reason surfaced from the depth of his mind.
He could not understand why, yet he was glad that he had something to keep himself busy on this gloomy night.
It filled his head with a familiar sound, from a time where he still had control over his thoughts, when there were no other voices besides his own.
But the voices inside his head stopped talking a long time ago, back when he defeated the worst part of himself, during that fateful night, the monster that dwelled within his mind was long deceased just as the nightmares that once haunted him.
Simon enjoyed the rare moments of solitude he had, away from his doctor's treatments, away from his hometown and away from the ghosts of his past.
Doctor Purnell received a letter from a colleague in London, it said that he needed his help to cure one of his most stubborn patients, at first he was surprised to receive notices from a friend he hasn't seen in many years, but surprise was quickly overcome by enthusiasm, as he could not wait to meet one of his dearest friends once again and took a ship to London as soon as possible.
Purnell decided it was best to bring Simon along with him, his conditions became a lot more stable in past month but he still had a long way to go and a strict therapy to follow.
Simon, on the other hand, truly could not understand why his doctor insisted so much in bringing him along, he didn't want to get involved in his affairs.
They left Sweden two weeks ago in an old rusty ship as a second class passenger, probably with the worst weather of the season, which considering Simon frail health and general restlessness, caused him to have even more sleepless nights and difficulty to eat solid food.
The doctor tried to patch him up as best as could with the medicines he had, but their destination was still far away and Simon's patience was running short.
He found himself a nice cozy spot on the ship's main deck where he could rest in peace and reflect without the presence of the other passengers that snubbed him for being stuck in a wheelchair.
An empty bucket stood on his lap, in case of another attack of seasickness, with his arms folded around the tiny metal object in a greedy yet protective manner.
Simon looked over the rusty metal railing of the deck and down to the dark water below, the moon was shining brightly above him painting the sea with shades of white and silver, a cold wind blowing through his scarf.
In the mist of his thoughts, he contemplated the possibility of falling off the ship to his doom, no one was on sight and in the immensity of the ocean, it was very unlikely to find his body.
But he knew that his paralysis made all of his plans impossible, his suicidal thoughts weren't as frequent as they once were which he assumed was a sign that Purnell's therapy was working.
With his peripheral vision, Simon spotted a familiar shape coming towards him, the sound of his footsteps getting louder and louder with each step until it reached his side.
"Speaking of the devil" Simon murmured to himself.
"Good evening Simon, how are you feeling tonight?" Doctor Purnell asked.
The doctor had just returned from the dining hall and he was wearing rather elegant white attire; a choice of clothing which Simon never saw him wearing.
HOW AM I FEELING? You perfectly know how am I feeling yet you insist to ask me this goddam question every single day.
It was something that made his blood boil, yet he tried his best to control his temper.
"My guts are killing me doc, how far we are from London?" Said Simon.
"I can't tell you precisely Simon, but for what I know the shores of England are not too far away" the doctor replied as he looked at the horizon.
"You said the exact same thing a week ago and we are still stuck on this fucking ship" Simon slammed one hateful fist onto his wheelchair but Purnell remained unfazed but his display of anger, continuing to speak with his usual calm and professional tone.
"You have to be patient Simon, I am not enjoying our current accommodation too, but we have to endure a little longer because, in the end, we are all in the same boat".
Simon cringed at his poor attempt to make a joke and tried to sink into his chair as much as he could.
"Just bring me to my cabin already" Simon begged.
"Are you sure about that?" the doctor asked
"Yes doc it's been a long day; I am tired" the crippled man pleaded one more time.
Luckily for him, the captain had been merciful enough to give them a cabin the least amount of stairs in their way, Purnell went behind Simon and pushed his wheelchair through the main deck and into the depth of the ship.
There was still activity going on in some areas of the ship, but mostly the rooms and windows were dark and quiet save for the occasional chatter coming from the few crew members left to clean the kitchens.
They reached the second class quarter where they shared a room, it was a Purnell's idea to save some money just in case they had to stay in London a little longer than expected, Simon didn't mind sharing his room with his doctor since he was the only one that could assist him with his paralysis.
When they entered their room Purnell lit a single oil lamp to illuminate the place, he then aided Simon to change into his nightgown.
Purnell lifted the crippled from his wheelchair and tucked him into his bed, he then placed Simon's wheelchair beside his bed and also changed his clothes.
As both mans rested in their own bed Simon asked about the past of Purnell's colleague, the doctor told Simon that he met him during university back at Oxford, they followed the same courses and quickly became friends, but he had moved to Sweden before he could see his friend graduate.
Their talk didn't last for long, and after a brief exchange of goodnights, Purnell was the first to fell asleep which left Simon alone in the dark.
Simon wasn't really all that tired; it was all a lie he said just so he could get back to his room.
He laid down on his bed, his gaze pointing up towards the ceiling, thinking, he looked at the sleeping figure of his doctor on the other side of the room, oblivious to his thoughts.
He had other plans for this "vacation", other than being a puppet for his doctor, in fact, he always did most of his things during the night.
Coughing blood on the floor of a dim square the hideous abomination emitted a shriek of pain from his bloody mouth, it was pinned down on the ground by the weight of Simon's foot pressing on his chest, staring at the barrel of his gun, starring at Simon with his black hollow eye sockets.
With a look of satisfaction on his face, Simon pulled the trigger, a bullet flew through the air and went inside the monster skull, ending its life instantly.
It was probably his favorite thing to do in his free time, even though he had defeated his arch enemy a long time ago his mind was still infested with anomalies, a more sophisticated name that he gave to the monsters that kept haunting him.
His dreams always brought him back to the streets of his hometown for no real reason.
He wasn't afraid of the monsters anymore, they were only an annoyance for him, parasites that didn't deserve live.
Simon pulled out his diary from his bag to read some notes written inside, he had discovered that the book possessed powers, not only he could use it as a powerful weapon but acted as sort of guide that told him the position of all the anomalies within a short range.
Simon quickly flipped the pages of the book until he reached the one that shown the current day, he had already executed other anomalies that same day so he just skipped the previous location until he reached the bottom of the page, where a new note had just appeared.
Suddenly Simon felt the strong grip of a hand pulling him backward, his body flew through the air and then was slammed to the ground with great force.
A groan of pain escaped his mouth as he looked up to see the face of his aggressor, a Taller towered over him, his immense grey figure was one of the few things that still sent shivers down his spine, but it was nothing that he didn't already experience before.
The huge anomaly raised a foot to crush his head, but promptly Simon took his revolver and fired a shot through the monster knee.
The creature made a guttural noise from his gaping mouth before losing balance and kneeling on the ground.
Simon took this opportunity to slide away from his gip and get back on his feet, the Taller extended one long arm and tried to grab Simon, but the man easily dodged its attack and thrust his pocket knife into the monster's throat.
The blade wasn't very long but it was sharp enough to slice through flesh, in a swift move Simon run the blade along the Taller's neck and then backed off.
The taller placed a hand on his wound to stop the bleeding, but it was already too late, the blood was pouring down like a river and its hands could not close the wound.
It made a few futile attempts to crawl towards Simon, but with each movement the Taller grew weaker until it lay lifeless on the ground, face first in a pool of his own blood.
"That was a close one," Simon told to himself.
He kicked the Taller's body to see if it was actually dead, but thankfully it made no sign of movement
Simon looked around to see if there were other anomalies lurking in the shadows, but the square and alleys around him looked all empty.
Releasing a breath of relief, he made a mental note to self to be more aware of his surroundings.
He picked up his diary from the ground and wiped off of the dust on it, the pages were stained with the blood of the Taller but other than that it was intact.
There at the end of the page, Simon found a note that had just appeared and the ink was still fresh, it gave him the position of an anomaly through a series of precise indications.
With the aid of the book, things were a lot easier, it almost looked like someone was helping him, purposely guiding him through the city.
But Simon wasn't very impressionable and rarely questioned the cryptic trials of his mind, he had one job to do and the night was still young.
After hours spent hunting down anomalies, Simon decided to call it a day and went back to his apartment, where he could rest before returning to the real world.
He was sitting at his kitchen table writing notes on his diary like he used to do every night, it all started as a therapy, grew into a habit and ended up into an addiction, to the point he felt the need to write even the most insignificant events.
Simon raised one hand to wipe some sweat from his forehead, only to find out that he had ink smeared all over his hand and forearm.
He noticed that the room was painfully hot, something very unnatural to happen in the dead of the night, he placed the diary in his bag and got up from his seat to take a breath of fresh air.
Outside his balcony, he pulled out a cigar from a pocket inside his jacket, lit a match a burnt the end of the cigar.
He looked down at the quiet city's streets, it was much different from when he first returned to his mind before the cleansing the streets were crawling with anomalies.
But Simon and his doctor erased a lot of monsters in relatively little time, an achievement that surprised him to this day.
Speaking of the doctor, Simon noticed that he had not encountered him this night, which wasn't all that surprising since the doctor liked to be on his own.
Not that he particularly enjoyed his company since he was always scolding him about being too reckless and "acting too much and thinking too less" as he liked to say, but having a helping hand when fighting disgusting creatures was always welcomed.
Simon pushed this thought out of his mind and kept smoking, savoring the intoxicating taste of the cigar and burning wood.
Burning wood? Simon spun around to see if anything in his house was burning, but everything was in order and the oil lamp on the table was left untouched.
His gaze then fell to his apartment's door, and the eerie orange glow that was coming from underneath it.
Simon blew the smoke out of his mouth and threw what was left of the cigar over the balcony before making a B line towards the door, taking his bag and pistol along the way.
A burning hot wind and black smoke blew in his face as he opened the front door, Simon covers his mouth with a hand and stepped forward into the hallway of a house he has never seen before, the whole place was enveloped with fire.
He could hear human voices coming from the rooms nearby, along with grunts, hisses, and screams of pain.
Simon checked his surroundings for any survivors, there were three doors on the hallway including the one where he came from, the first one was locked from the other side and had a key inserted in the keyhole, the second one opened with ease, revealing a child bedroom.
Inside he found a little girl, probably no older than eight, in her bed, her arms were tightly folded around a stuffed animal.
Her green eyes narrowed Simon down as soon as he noticed his presence, an expression of terror was printed all over her face.
Simon tried to rescue the little girl but suddenly parts of the ceiling collapsed into a burning pile right before him, trapping the little girl inside her bedroom.
Some wood splinters fell onto his jacket spreading fire upon his arm as he made his way through the fire, he promptly threw the jacket away to avoid any burns but it wasn't enough, the fire spread from his arm to his shoulder and then his back, and in the space of seconds Simon had his body completely engulfed by the flames.
Quickly he turned to the door from which he came only to find out that it was closed, Simon slammed one bloody fist onto the door.
He kept hitting the door hoping that it would open, but the door didn't budge.
Simon crumbled to his knees almost curling up into a ball, the pain was becoming unbearable, he could feel his burned skin dripping off the flesh.
Like an animal trapped in a cage Simon desperately searched for a way to escape from this inferno.
There he saw it, just out of reach, he saw a window right at the end of the hallway, it was his only way out, his only salvation.
He gathered all the strength he had left in himself to sprint forward, he ran like he never did before.
When he finally reached the window Simon leaped towards the window, shattering the glass and escaped from the fire.
Simon closed his eyes to avoid any glass shards, he could not see where he was but he could feel that his body was falling through the air.
He kept his eyes closed, preparing his body for the imminent impact, only to find himself still in the air.
His body didn't hit the ground, instead, he kept falling, the scorched hot air gradually turned cold as he escaped from the burning house.
As he descended into darkness the agonizing pain subsided, his weakened body turned numb and his mind blank.
Simon fainted, but before his consciousness slipped away he saw that same little girl by his side, falling along with him.