The Curious Mr. Coogan

Mr. Alexander Coogan sat at the cold metal table attempting to extract some dirt from under his fingernail, his dirty yellowish finger nail. Suddenly he sniffed the air... cigarette smoke? He glanced around the room frantically, behind him, above him, then straight in front of him on the table: a small black plastic ashtray holding a fresh Lucky Strike brand cigarette. He looked up suddenly, noticing his Doctor sitting in front of him.1

The Doctor smiled warmly as he glanced up from his notes. "Good day Mr. Coogan. How are you this afternoon?"2

Mr. Coogan sighed as he reached into the ashtray to retrieve the unfiltered cigarette, then placed it between his pale chapped lips.3

"Oh... not so good Doc, not so good," Mr. Coogan said as he ran his pale, scratched up left hand through his oily short blond hair. "I'm just waiting, you know... waiting for it. And I gotta tell ya Doc, the suspense is just unbearable."4

The Doctor retrieved a cigarette from the pack on the table and lit one for himself. "What are you waiting for Mr. Coogan?"5

"Well," Mr. Coogan ran his tongue over his yellowish teeth, tasting the coppery tarter film. "Three weeks ago I had a vision... a meteor on which rode the Horseman of Death. I traveled there that evening, carried up into space upon a silver thread with which he hoisted me up to his celestial transport."6

The Doctor glanced up, "He brought you to him, then. I imagine he told you something in this dream?"7

"Vision." Mr. Coogan glared across the table and exhaled the bluish smoke plume in the Doctor's direction. "It was a fucking vision." His cold steel eyes glared with hatred for this pencil thin mustache sporting, glasses wearing, degree having fuck.8

Noting the added tension in the room, the Doctor jotted notes, then glanced back up at Mr. Coogan. "And what did the Horseman tell you in this... vision," he asked selecting his words carefully.9

"He said that in three weeks, he would crash his transport into the western wing of this hospital. So I checked myself in here to warn you."10

The Doctor raised his brow and prepared to speak, but was interrupted by a loud crash and a tremor which shook the entire room. Mr. Coogan stared forward at the Doctor, and inhaled on his cigarette.11

The Doctor rushed to the window just in time to see the two story west wing of the hospital's roof cave in upon itself and the flames that shot out from the building. Shocked, he stood there flabbergasted at what had just transpired.12

Mr. Coogan breathed out another blue plume of smoke and extinguished his cigarette in the ashtray with his long, pale fingers. "Told you so," he quietly exclaimed.