The 1994 Pembroke Hollow Viewing Call

At exactly 9:42 a.m., I stepped into Willis & Sons Funeral Home in Pembroke Hollow, where every mourner in the chapel turned to stare as if I’d crashed my own service. The funeral director Niles Willis met me at the door, hands trembling and eyes fixed on my face, whispering my name and birthday with unnatural precision. At the front, an open casket waited under ghostly white lights, and lying inside was my own body-chest rising and falling, eyelids fluttering like caught in a nightmare. Niles leaned in, voice shaking, and said, "You’re not supposed to be here until tomorrow." As I stepped back toward the exit, the corpse in the casket snapped its eyes open and screamed, "Don’t let him leave! That’s the thing that killed me!"