The man lay prepped on the hospital bed his gown doing little to stop the cold sending fits of shivers up his spine. For years he had been healing people on stage, or at least that is what he had a reputation for. Now in his moment of sickness he lay in an operating theater waiting for the miracle of modern medical treatment to save his life. Meanwhile hundreds of people who's faith in him stopped them from receiving similar procedures died and rot. He would be saved! because he had so much to live for because he deserved it. The doctor looked over his tools checking everything was in order before the operation.  

"Doctor?" he spoke nervously. "I tell myself that I am not afraid, but I'll tell you that I'm terrified."  

"I know." Replied the doctor looking at him. "Your in good hands now you don't have to worry." 

"What.. if something goes.. wrong?" He stammered back. 

"I'm one hundred percent certain of the outcome of this case." The doctor smiled like the Cheshire Cat, it struck the man that his doctor looked a lot like John Lennon. He turned away as the anesthesiologist began to clamp the face mask tightly across his face. Panic welled up inside him causing him to struggle but strong hands held him down. Pushing on his chest preventing him from rising, his arms meeting similar resistance and he realized that he was strapped down. The heart monitor bleeping like crazy as he fought to stay conscious holding his breath until the pain tore at his chest and he was forced to breath the gas.

Seconds later and he was awake again, a bad taste inhabiting his mouth. His body numb from the operation, the bed jerked as it was being pushed down the hall on old wheels, like a shopping trolley with a mind of its own. He turned his head on the pillow and tried to get some comfort but not feeling his body was unnerving and his unease was growing like a memory of a reoccurring nightmare. 

"Where are we going?" He managed to mumble with numb lips to the nurse pushing him. 

"To see your family." She replied uncareingly. 

His heart sank as the bed was wheeled into the elevator. Family was not the kind of people he wanted to see, all those judging faces, looking down on him in his moment of weakness. The lords supposed messanger, a liar, a fraud, begging the help of a doctor. And they would see it too, it would be all over his face for everyone to see. The elevator chimed as the doors slid open, the bed bumping as it was pushed over the divide into the lobby. One by one the other elevators chimed in sequence and family members stepped out. His wife with his two children, his mother, an older brother, his father from who he wanted approval but never got any. The elevators dinged more and more people joined them in the lobby, a fourteen your old girl who adored him do much so, she did the most depraved acts to please him. The twelve year old with her devout parents who left their precious daughter with him on Tuesday's. What were they doing here? All of them watching him reveling in his weakest moments. The doctor was there too looking more like Lennon now with his glases on, speaking to his mother. In his hand he held a scalpel hidden behind his back and they all laughed at some joke the doctor had made right before he turned to address his paitent. 

"Ah here he is now."  

The crowd turned to look at him disapproval and disgust plastered across their faces. The only two left smiling were the doctor and the twelve year old Stacy. The nurse propped his bed up forcing him to face them. Had he been a more humble man he might have wished himself dead but humble he was not. As if reading his mind the doctor plunged the scalpel into his mothers neck. It sunk deep severing the jugular artery, she sagged to her knees as blood sprayed up the wall in massive arc. His brother turned, shocked as the doctor slashed at his face leaving large gashes that blood flowed freely from. His hands receiving the same cuts as he moved to defend himself. The others ran screaming pushing elevator buttons while his wife tried to stop his mothers bleeding. Trying to move he found he couldn't, all he could do was watch as the people he had hoped would one day admire him so much were stripped of him and of their flesh. The scalpel made short work of his daughter slicing her gut and letting her intestines slip free of their constrains. She lay not dead, hunched over trying to keep her insides from spreading on the floor as the doctor who now looked more like Ozzy Osbourne scalped his son. The father of Stacey threw himself upon the mad man knocking the scalpel free only to succumb to the mans grip as his long powerful fingers separated his spine from his body tearing the man in two with his bare hands. One by one they died, the walls thick with their blood until only he remained. Slumping from the bed he knelt at his mothers corps and the uncaring nurse wheeled his bed back into the now working elevator.  

"Is that not what you wanted?" The doctors inquiry seemed ludicrous, as the man sobbed and stroked his mothers hair.  

"Are you ready for the operation now?" The doctor smiled once more. Shock had taken the man now, his mind unable to comprehend what his eyes had just witnessed.  

"Nevermind, I have a cure for that." Dr Lennon whispered, cutting the skin cleanly down the mans chest and leg. Too late he responded, fighting for his life as the mad doctor pulled every chance he got freeing a little more hide each time until the whole of his chest was hanging free. Still the man struck out at the demon doctor who's strength seemed to be leaving him and rightly so. He was a man of god, although he never took it that serious. Was god so weak that he would let one of his flock, even one as fallen as he be tortured by the devil. Still he fought with vigor his skin peeling more with every grab his assailant took at him, until it hung on him like clothes that didn't fit. Time was his weakness and as the fight wore on his pain came seeping through the adrenaline. Small spikes at first and then larger ones. His body shaking uncontrolably as his system began to fail him and just when he thought to give it away and let death take him, a miricle happened.

A loud bang sounded as the doctor's body ruptured in a meaty splash. Two more shots rang out before he went down amongst the blood and dismembered corpses. A warm glow filled the room and a golden solider in a mask stood above him offering a hand.  

"I can't." Said the man, the pain so severe that he shook and convulsed trying to worm his way free of his own body and into the next world. "Please just end me." All pride gone now he begged for death. 

"I was sent by god." The man whispered to him from beyond the mask. "He says you debt is paid, that you are forgiven."  

Helping him up his skin still hanging free they limped to the elevator, the golden man giving him the strength to carry on.

The secconds felt like hours before the door opened and the darkness flowed out of it enveloping them both. A face resembling John Lennon appeared floating like the cheshire cat he was. The soldier moved to slow as Amy pulled them both into the elevator.  

"Down." He commanded the elevator obeying dropping into a free fall. The man in the mask fought well but was counted at every move beaten by speed, strength and skill. As the two fought fiercely the half skun man lay on the floor waiting for the sudden stop he knew would come. The drop went on longer that he thought was possible before the crunch that would end his life at last. He didn't feel any pain when it did happen, I stead replaces with the surreal feeling of bones shattering inside his body. Flesh compressing only to split, leaking his vital fluid onto the floor amongst his savior who fared only a little better than himself, for he was dead.  

"Think of all the joy you'll find when you leave the world behind and bid your cares goodbye." Spoke Amy as the man looked up into his face unharmed once more. Outside the elevator people walked, going about their business, doing their shopping as Amy dragged his wretched body into the daylight and proceeded to skin him alive. For he would never die, condemned to live a reoccurring nightmare of pain and anguish for eternity.