Annie Nevins has been working as a nurse in the same hospital for almost six years and in those six years she had never come across anything particularly strange, unusual or out of the ordinary, well that was or is until right at the end of one shift in particular.

Having made her way into an elevator so she could then make her way out of that hospital she had been working in for almost six years to then begin the journey home, something very odd would occur. Now obviously enough she has not been working almost six years right through, she did have her time off, at this moment she has indeed just come to an end of a particular shift and was looking forward to having an upcoming day off.

Making her way into this elevator Annie could see a young boy, a boy she reckoned to be no older than thirteen or fourteen years of age and this boy was just standing there right unaccompanied in the centre of the lift. Having turned and while waiting for the elevator door to close Annie could see a rather strange looking man moving slowly towards the lift to which she stood within. This man wore hospital clothing, appeared to be drained of all colour and was dragging his right foot which slightly curled along the ground.

The young boy moved and pressed a button to hold the doors open. Annie took one look at the boy then looked back towards the strange looking man before she herself pressed a button to have the elevator doors close. They weren’t closing, well not quickly enough anyway for the strange looking man was getting closer and closer to the lift. Annie began to panic and started pressing any and all buttons. The elevator doors did manage to close before the strange looking man could get close enough to enter.

‘Why did you do that?’ asked the boy.

‘Did you not see that strange looking man? Did he not scare you?’

‘I did see him though he did not scare me.’

‘Did you notice those thin red tags that man was wearing? He had one on his right wrist and one on his left ankle.’

‘Yes I did see those too.’

‘Well’ spoke Annie, ‘we put them on people who have unfortunately passed away.’

‘You mean that man is dead? But he was moving towards us.’

‘That is why I got scared and tried closing the doors.’

At this point, the young boy pulled up his right sleeve and left trouser leg revealing that he was wearing thin red tags of his own. Annie’s eyes opened wide and she took a step to the side but there was nowhere for her to go.

‘Does this mean that I am dead?’ asked the boy. ‘I can’t be dead for I am right here, right now with you.’

To Annie, this boy looked healthy and well and nothing at all like the man who had been approaching the elevator. Before she could offer any kind of answer, the elevator stopped and all power except for emergency lighting went out.

‘No, no, no …’ Annie spoke to herself looking for some sort of way to get the elevator working again, she knew what she was doing was futile, it was just that she didn’t want to be right where she found herself at this moment in time.

‘It is alright, I am sure that someone will fix things soon’ spoke the boy.

Annie turned and looked at the boy and he did indeed look perfectly healthy so Annie began to calm herself, now being sure that there must be a good reason as to why he is wearing these thin red tags, though the position of where those tags were or are made it all the more difficult for Annie to completely settle herself.

‘So my name is Annie, what is your name?’

‘Michael.’

‘What age are you Michael?’

‘Thirteen.’

‘And where are your parents?’

Before Michael could give an answer, power was restored. The elevator began moving again and Annie turned her head away, focusing on getting things going again. When she turned back, Michael was no longer in the elevator, and Annie had no idea how to react to that. There was nowhere he could have gone. She would go home, try not to dwell too much on what happened and come back to work two days later, however the strange and the weird that she had experienced had not completely gone away, in fact, it had not gone away at all.

Annie arrived to work on time and no sooner had she entered the building that she noticed a man coming her way. She was sure that this man was the same man who had slowly approached the elevator two days before, though on this occasion he looked more normal, not looking drained of all colour, not moving slowly, not dragging a curled right foot and also not wearing hospital clothing.

Another thing too was that this man wore casual clothing along with a hat. He smiled and tipped a hello with his hat as he got closer to Annie. Annie’s jaw dropped though she kept moving and turned as she watched the man pass and continue on his way. She could not see if this man was wearing any thin red tags though it would probably be safe to say that he wasn’t.

In the ward where Annie works there is a new patient who just so happens to be thirteen years old, he is wearing hospital clothing and has no thin red tags either. This new patient’s name? Well, that just so happens to be Michael…