I see death and suffering all the time

I’m sharing this here because I’ve had a few experiences I just can’t explain. I don’t know who else to tell without sounding completely insane. I’m a paramedic in a busy city, working the night shift—6 PM to 6 AM.

About two weeks ago, I got a call for a cardiac arrest. My job is to try to bring the person back and, if possible, get them to the hospital.

When I arrived at the apartment building, there were already firefighters and two police officers on the scene. As I walked up to the front door, I noticed a man sitting outside in a patio chair, smoking a cigarette. He was wearing a white tank top, and his eyes… they looked empty, like he wasn’t really there. It was the kind of stare people give when they’ve just woken up from a deep sleep.

I figured he was just some bystander, maybe a drug addict, so I didn’t say anything to him. But then, he looked right at me and said, “Hey… hey! I remember you. Is he alright up there?!”

Something about him felt off. I don’t get rattled easily—I see death and suffering all the time. It doesn’t usually get to me. But this guy? He gave me a bad, uneasy feeling. I pushed it aside and headed upstairs to the third-floor apartment.

That’s when I saw him.

The exact same man.

Dead.

He was kneeling at the foot of a twin mattress, completely stiff with rigor mortis. There was blood around his feet and some kind of wound on the back of his head. He had clearly been dead for a while.

I confirmed the death, reported it to the officers, and went back downstairs to find who I assumed was his twin brother—the guy I had just spoken to outside. But when I got down there, he was gone.

I asked the neighbor where he went and if the man had a twin. The neighbor looked at me like I was crazy—he had no idea who I was talking about. He said nobody had been outside smoking.

I asked the police and firefighters. They all swore up and down that no one else had been there.

So who—or what—did I see?