What? I thought to myself. That’s not what I sound like in my own head.

I said, please don’t let them kill me. The voice was young and innocent, like a child asking their mom to please buy them some ice cream.

Hello? I ask. Not being able to think of anything more clever to say to a disembodied voice.

You can hear me? Oh that’s great. I just got the eyes and ears working when the big men in white coats told you about me. Please don’t let them kill me.

Well, um, that’s, that’s very odd. I’m sorry, who are you exactly? I wasn’t about to make any deals with something I didn’t know anything about. For all I knew this was some sort of psychosis caused by the parasite, and I was talking to myself right now.

My name is Tim. I’ve only been in here for a few minutes and I really don’t want to leave.

Thank you for telling me Tim, but that really barely scratches the surface of the questions I’ve got. I assume you’re the parasite? How one Earth can you talk?

I’m not entirely sure. And I guess I’m not really Tim, I’m a vessel for him.

This was taking a turn for the even weirder. A vessel? I’m sorry Tim but that doesn’t help me. A vessel for what?

A vessel for the boy in a coma in the next ward. He’s only got nine months to live and he wanted to have one last look at life. You’ve got a wife, kids, a nice home, a stable job, all of the things that Tim wanted out of life. So an angel heard his last wish, and allowed him to spend his last nine months inside you. I’m the vessel for his consciousness. You have a choice in the matter. That’s why I’m a parasite. If you don’t want this you can get rid of me. But please don’t let them kill me nice man. If you do, my consciousness will return to my own body. I don’t want to spend nine months in the dark.

The doctors were coming back with the anesthesia now. I thought about how ridiculous this all was. There was no way I could be sure that this was real. It certainly sounded completely ridiculous to me. And even if it is real, how do I know this ‘vessel’ or whatever, wasn’t going to do permanent damage to me.

Then I looked over into the next ward, and saw a kid on a ventilator. On the door to his room, the sign said ‘Tim’. I noticed he didn’t have any friends or family waiting with him, even though it was time for visiting hours, and during the holiday season too.

Of course Tim. You can stay as long as you like.