Kenneth Wiltshire was laying in his private hospital room and next to him sat his physician and longtime family friend Howard Phillips. While Mr. Wiltshire was donned in a simple hospital gown and terry-cloth robe, Howard was dressed to the nines. He wore a tasteful, light grey paisley waistcoat and a golden cravat tied to perfection. A charcoal grey frock coat, medium grey striped trousers, and black leather shoes rounded out the neo-Victorian outfit. All in all, it looked like Howard had just stepped out of a very high-end tailor's shop.

Howard was reading to Mr. Wiltshire, his spectacles glinting in the fluorescent room lights. As usual, he was reading a classic from the twentieth century. This time it was The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien since he knew that the elderly man had a penchant for the mystical.

"That's enough Howard. You need to get home to your family, don't you? It's well past dinnertime after all."

"Don't worry Mr. Wiltshire, as I have mentioned before we have a tendency to eat after sundown."

"Please be careful of the company that you keep..." Mr. Wiltshire began, only to be cut off by Howard.

"Now don't start. I won't make the same mistakes that Nathan made."

Despite all the years that had gone by since the passing of his only child, the venerable old man's wrinkled visage showed a flash of grief at the simple mention of his name.

"I didn't say that you would. Just be very careful when dealing with the denizens of the night. There is a war going on here in the shadows of Arkham. All over an ancient prophecy that will probably never come true."

"I will be careful, just as I have been for the past thirty-some years," Howard said as he ran his fingers through his short black hair. This was a clear sign he was becoming exasperated and the older man knew Howard well enough to know that Howard was growing irritated.

"Okay, I don't want to upset you. You know my boy you have always been like a nephew to me. The way that you would come over and play with my son on the weekends while I shot the breeze with your father made you both seem like family."

"I remember those days fondly. Running around your old house, exploring various rooms and the old attic. Those were fun days," Howard reminisced.

"Well, now the attic leaks and there are entire sections of the house which go unused."

"I'm sure that when you recover from your next heart surgery, you will have the energy to care for the house once again. It's such a lovely place," Howard said with a smile.

"Tell you what, if you promise to keep the house up and pay the annual taxes I'd be happy to give it to you."

"You know I would restore the house to its full glory, but that home is yours," Howard said, a frown forming on his shaved features.

"I'm talking about when I pass on to the afterlife."

"Stop," Howard replied. "You're only eighty-five and other than for the need for a heart bypass you are in good health. You should be fine."

"I have a bad feeling about this one Howard, and you know I am usually right about such things."

"True, but my intuition has an excellent track record as well. I think you will get through this surgery just fine," Howard insisted.

"Alright, I won't argue anymore," Mr. Wiltshire capitulated. "Only time will tell which of us is correct."

——

Moments after Howard left for the evening Mr. Wiltshire picked up the phone and called a number he knew by heart.

As soon as the phone connected the elderly man said, "Martins, I would like to update my will."

——

Two weeks later, Howard looked out over the Miskatonic River and down into the city of Arkham below. This was one of Howard's places, a large park on the Essex county side of the river which offered an unrivaled view of the city, lovely nature trails, and a small lake on the side opposite the city. As he watched over the city, the sun slowly rose to his left, illuminating the streets and traffic below.

Howard looked more bedraggled than usual, less worried about his appearance than the news that he had received the evening before. It had turned out that both he and Mr. Wiltshire had been right. Howard had been correct in that the operation had been a complete success. The only problem was that a blood clot from the surgery had broken loose late that afternoon and Mr. Wiltshire had gone into cardiac arrest shortly afterward. To put it simply, Howard had just lost one of his oldest and closest family friends.

After learning the news, Howard had spent the rest of the night in shock. As soon as the household staff had heard the account, they had called over one of Howard's closest companions, Lady Catherine Devereux. Catherine had spent the entire night with Howard, and it was she who had recommended that she and Howard should go to the park together.

Just before sunrise, Catherine had returned to her home, but Howard had stayed behind. However, Catherine had gotten a promise from Howard before she left that he would soon go home and get some rest.

'I just cannot believe that he is gone. It was all so sudden,' Howard thought, his gaze shifting to the dancing reflection of the sun in the river below. 'Since the passing of Mother and Father, he was the closest thing to a parent that I had left.'

Howard kept wracking his brain. As Mr. Wiltshire's primary physician, he had reviewed all the medical records himself before Mr. Wiltshire had been released from the hospital. While not a cardiologist, Howard consulted with several of them on the hospital staff and everything had checked out. That was why he had signed off on Mr. Wiltshire's discharge.

'What could I have missed?' Howard agonized. He couldn't help but blame himself. 'I have got to get to the hospital and double-check the records to make sure I didn't make some form of a mistake.'

However, despite spending all morning pouring through Mr. Wiltshire's medical record he couldn't find any issues that might have led to his friend's passing.

By this point, fatigue had finally overtaken his sorrow. He subsequently took a cab home to get some rest.