I am dying, I know that. It’s funny, of all the creatures I have battled, all the injuries I have sustained, I’m dying in the hospital, of some disease even I don’t understand.
But I am not afraid of death, oh no. I have looked it in the face for many years, and have come to terms with it.
It’s the Sight I am worried about. I have to pass it on to someone else. Someone who can follow in my footprints, and keep the Earth safe from the things no one else can see.
I need to find an innocent soul. A strong body. And where can I find that in a hospital? Evryone here is destined for death, as I am.
I lie in the starched white, sterile sheets. Cooled air blows around me. All around me, people lie dying. I spend most of my time here, in the common. Where I can be around other people. I have to find someone. Maybe a visitor. But there aren’t many innocents left. Until today.
I sense I’ll be leaving soon. I’m getting a little bit desperate, now. I have to find someone. And I do. There is a woman near me. She isn’t here to die, no. She still has a few years left. But she has a baby. An innocent.
Transferring the Sight into a baby is going to be difficult. I cannot teach him as I would teach an older child. But he is who I have, and I must make due.
The woman is asleep. The baby, almost. He lies on her arms, his eyes closed, a look of contentment on his tiny face. His black hair is already long enough to cover the top of his head. He will be a beautiful child, no doubt about it.
I stare at him, and, sure enough, his eyes open. His black eyes look straight into mine. And I push the Sight into him. The life-seekers roosting on the ceiling fade from my view. And I know he can see them now. I close my eyes, and sink back into the soft bed. One of the life-seekers will be coming for me soon. I don’t mind. I have finished my last job.

Patricia Membrane opened her eyes. For a moment, she didn’t know where she was. Then she remembered. She was in the hospital. Her husband’s hospital. Because she had had Dib.
She looked at the little baby boy, expecting him to be asleep. He wasn’t. He was staring raptly at the ceiling. She looked where he was looking, didn’t see anything. She looked back down at Dib. He had twisted his little head around, he was now looking at the woman next to them. Patricia looked there, trying to find what her son was looking at.
The woman next to them sighed. Dib giggled. He pointed at her, and giggled.
A steady beeping echoed down the hall. Patricia jumped. Dib was no longer giggling. He was looking in horror at the woman. The woman who had just died.
Patricia pulled her baby closer, afraid, for a stupid reason, that death might be floating past, ready to grab anyone it could find.

Twelve years later, Dib walks along the street. It’s going to rain, he thinks. A ghost walks behind him, he doesn’t bother to point it out. He knows no one else can see it. Or the bigfeet. Or the aliens. Or anything else.
‘Why can’t anyone else see these things?’ He thinks. As he thinks it, his old resolve comes out. I’m going to beat them. All the creatures only I can see.

The end.