The Sleeping Man

A young man sleeps peacefully and seemingly ignorant of the discussion happening at his bedside. "Why won't he wake up doctor?" chokes out a young woman with tears streaming down her face.

The doctor furrows his brows in frustration. "I've never seen anything like this! His body is malnourished and dehydrated but his reflexes are normal and there does not seem to be any head trauma. There is no logical reason why he is still asleep."

"Does that mean it's possible he will wake up soon?" questions the young lady with a tinge of hope in her voice.

"It's possible he could wake up any second. Unfortunately, based on the decline in the other functions of his body, I believe he's been in this state for a while. Since it's like this, it means there is no guarantee that he will ever wake up." The doctor says solemnly. "How long did you say he's been absent from work?"

"Five days…" the woman mumbles while staring at the young man in the bed.

"Five days?! The doctor exclaims incredulously. "It's a miracle that he's survived this long. There is only so much I can do here, I will have to move him to the hospital to ensure he doesn't die before we find the cause of his predicament."

The young lady nods in agreement with a blank look on her face. Meanwhile the doctor's colleagues file into the room with a stretcher and ease his body onto it.

Seeing them move his body onto the stretcher causes her to stop spacing out. "I'll let you handle it from here. I have to get back to work." She says with slight reluctance to leave him. "Here is my number. Please take care of him and call me if anything changes. I'll also foot his medical bill."

"Wait," the doctor calls out. "Does he have any immediate family I can contact?"

The woman shakes her sadly in response and takes one last glance the face of her friend before leaving.

The doctor turns his attention back to the sleeping young man and sighs. "Load him into the ambulance. We can only hope to maintain his body until he regains consciousness."

A few days later, the young man still remains asleep only this time his body lies in a hospital bed and is seemingly forgotten by even the medical staff. Because of it being so late in the night, only the occasional shuffling of a nurse in the outside hallway can be heard.

Suddenly, an immense aura fills his room as a large figure appears at his bedside. The newly appeared guest looks at the young man's body with an expression of interest. "I knew I sensed an anomaly here. This young man's soul is actually refusing to return to this material plane and has even gone as far as to travel to another plane while in its ethereal dream state." He mutters to himself. "What a fascinating scenario!"

After pondering for a minute, the dark figure continues to talk to himself quietly. "While I cannot forcibly bring his soul back, I suppose I could reunite his body and soul by sending the body over to the realm where his soul has fled."

The figure nods his head, as if assuring himself that his intentions were reasonable. "Even if it's not my jurisdiction, he is a soul from my realm. It's only natural that he receives some of my care." With a slight flick of the mysterious figure's wrist, a tear in the fabric of space appears, causing the young man and his hospital bed to disappear.