#weatherarchives

The ocean. Finally, he got to see it himself. The waves rising and falling from the shore. How is it that it looks so calm now and yet, the last he saw of it, it was consuming everything in it's path.

He stared at the sand for a while, waiting for something, anything to prove what had happened. Suddenly a hand grabbed his shoulder. It was a nurse, "How'd you get out here?"

Virgil glared at the nurse and pulled himself away from their hand. He hissed, "I'm not fucking crazy. I know what I saw."

He looked back at the ocean to a large, dark wave. So big it could swallow a building.

Virgil began to run in the opposite direction, but he could not run fast enough. The wave crashed into him like a wall. Virgil found himself being pushed around and spun in the water, until he hit his head on a rock and it all went black.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Virgil?"

"Virgil, are you listening?"

Virgil blinked. He was in a grey room. Virgil rolled his eyes.

"I need you to answer the questions. Was it the same vision or a different one?"

Virgil answered, annoyed, in a monotone voice, "No. It wasn't the same."

"How? How was it different?"

Virgil ran his fingers through his hair, "I don't know, it just wasn't. This time it was just crashing into me at the beach. Can I go now?"

They sighed, "Yes, please don't escape again."

Virgil rolled his eyes and stood up. He walked out of the room.

Click. A recorder was turned off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A man sat at a desk, cassette tapes in files filled the room around him in organized rows.

Another person walked in holding a thick envelope, "Logan, we've got a new tape from the mental hospital." They placed the envelope on the desk and left the room.

Logan took the tape out of the envelope and put it into a cassette player. He placed the headphones on his head and listened.

"Patient 35 is our newest. He's our third patient to have similar symptoms, but each time it's a different natural disaster.

Patient 35's name is Virgil. He apparently used to be apart of a gang, the same gang the other two patients with similar symptoms were apart of. Virgil's father didn't know he was in a gang because he would lie and say he had a job and was working. They could barely afford rent and Virgil couldn't find an actual job, so he joined a gang and sold drugs on the street.

We had to press him a bit to get him to speak about what he saw, but we finally got him to speak.

Virgil stated that he was at home and it was lightly raining outside. He watched the rain for a while. The rain seemed never ending. Yet it was peaceful. Lightning struck nearby and apparently the electricity shut off.

The lightning must've struck a power line or something. Virgil's dad lit a candle and put it at the window sill. It was very quiet, except for the slushing of water outside the door and the sound of pouring rain.

The rain had increased, falling like sheets onto the ground.

The water began making it's way under the front door. Virgil's dad went to grab a towel from the bathroom, but by the time he came back with one, the water was to their ankles.

The wind seemed to roar and whistle outside. The house creaked.

Virgil watched as the water outside made it to the window sill. All they could do is watch.

The water coming under the door seemed to pour inside faster. The door creaked and made cracking sounds under the pressure.

Virgil told his dad that they should go upstairs. His dad ran upstairs, expecting Virgil to follow.

But suddenly the door broke open under the pressure and water shot inside through it.

Virgil rushed back down the stairs to see if he could secure the door. The water was loud. He quickly started pushing the door, in attempts to shut it.

His dad must've seen a large wave approaching outside because his dad had yelled his name right before a strong wave seemed to consume the house.

The door swinging open again and Virgil found himself spinning in the water out of his control. He kept getting knocked and pushed until eventually Virgil was under the water.

He could no longer see the door or the walls or even the ceiling or floor. All around him was just a void of black and foggy blue.

It felt like his insides were being torn apart. He could feel a burning, tightness in his chest. Which eventually turned into a sort of calmness.

The feeling of sleepiness overtook him and suddenly it all went black.

He woke up in the hospital. Virgil made these claims of experiencing this storm, but there was never any storm, nor was there any flooding or rain.

He had been taken to the hospital completely dry. No physical signs of drowning despite his unconscious state.

Not even his father could recall this storm.

Once Virgil had woken, he was asked questions and was then diagnosed with psychosis and nothing else, despite his claims that it was real.

An investigator even investigated his house for any signs of water damage or flooding and there was none.

He had another vision today at the beach, but didn't go into much detail. All he said was there was a large wave that knocked him out.

The other two patients had similar experiences. We don't know why. It could be nothing.

End of recording." Click.

Chapter 2:

~~~~~~~~~~~A week before patient 35~~~~~~~~~~

"Patient 34, do you know what you're in here for?"

The patient replied, almost amused, "You think I've gone terribly insane."

"We found you asleep in your storm cellar after the neighbors reported seeing you run around in a panicked state."

The patient responded, "There was a tornado, how else would you want me to respond? It was the biggest tornado I've ever seen."

"Right. Sense you've got here, you've refused to tell us your name. Could you please tell us?"

The patient snickered, "Fine, you'll probably figure it out either way. Janus is my name."

The nurse wrote something down on a clipboard, "Your face, it has a mark on it, is it some sort of birthmark?"

Janus shrugged slightly, "You could say that."

The nurse nods, "Alright, Janus, could you tell me about the hallucination you had?"

Janus grinned as if the nurse was joking, "Hallucination? How dystopian this hospital is! Acting like nothing's wrong when, in reality, you all know the only reason we're in here is so you could control us! Don't want the "crazy" people roaming around, so let's lock them up instead! So what, rather than seeing if there actually was a tornado, you just call me crazy and stuff me in a dark room?" He chuckled a bit and spoke sarcastically, "Makes so much sense!"

"We investigated your house. There were no signs of any tornadoes in or around the area. But we did find the glass of wine you were drinking from beforehand."

Janus's grin faltered.

"Please, tell us what you saw." Click.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Someone places a thick envelope on the desk, "I guess there must've been another incident with another patient at the mental hospital. That's kind of odd, right? I wonder if they're related."

Logan grabbed the envelope and took the tape out, "Well, we will find out eventually."

The person nodded and left the room.

Logan put the tape into the cassette player and put the headphones on.

"Patient 34 had a hallucination similar to patient 33, but this time it was a different weather event.

Patient 34's name is Janus. We suspect that he is married to patient 33. They live in the same house and have the same last name. Not to mention, they both are in a small gang. They sell drugs on the streets for money.

Janus's husband was recently taken here after having hallucinations of a large fire, so Janus was alone when he witnessed his own hallucinations.

What he had told us was that it was a rainy day and a very windy day. Janus just got home from doing another drug deal and was relaxing, drinking wine on the couch while watching TV.

It was late at night. The wind was heavy. He could hear the wind screaming as it rushed against the house. And the sound of the rain turned into the sound of rocks falling on the roof.

Janus had glanced out the window, seeing hail fall from the sky. He shrugged it off and continued sipping his wine.

The house creaked with the wind. The clouds slowly turned into a hideous shade of green. The sound of thunder grew more frequent and so did the flash of lightning that filled the sky.

The lights flickered until they entirely shut off, leaving only the sound of hell outside.

Janus took one more sip of his wine before lighting a candle and setting it down on a small table beside the couch.

Janus glanced out the window again to see clouds swirling, like black holes, in the distance.

Suddenly his phone went off with a blaring tornado warning. Janus went to a closet in the hallway and grabbed some boxes and his suitcase.

He quickly started packing important items; clothes, food, pictures, ect. Then he headed towards the back door with his stuff.

Janus quickly opened the door and headed to the storm cellar. The wind grew stronger. He quickly made it into the storm cellar.

Janus mumbled to himself, "Thank god."

He set down his stuff and sat down on the poorly made bed. Janus heard the muffled wind outside.

It was a long night, but Janus managed to get at least a little sleep before he was suddenly woken in the middle of the night.

Janus sat up from the creaking bed of the cellar, the tornado still blaring outside. He could hear the tornado sirens screaming, it's sound being almost drowned out by the sound of wind and lightning.

What had awoken Janus was the sound of cracking and creaking in the ceiling of the cellar. He watched the ceiling, waiting. It's all he could do.

Suddenly the screaming winds turned into a freight train of noise. The ceiling of the cellar lifted just as quickly as the sound started. And Janus found himself being lifted from the ground quickly. He quickly grabbed onto a loose floor board. Planks of wood and debris flew through the air like spears cutting and slicing anything in it's path.

Janus could feel his body being sliced by flying debris. He let out a scream as a large sharp plank of wood pierced into his chest and suddenly it all went black.

Janus woke up in the hospital, with no physical injuries. There was no sign of a tornado in or around the area.

End of recording."

Click.

Episode 1:

Credit to my friend Alice for help with research.