Things were bad, very bad.
I entered my apartment, knowing that it would only get worse if I didn’t figure out a way to quell the darkness. But I had no idea where to even begin.
I stared down at my hands…reliving the moment when they held the rat. I could almost feel the fur and the scared animal’s trembling body once again.
And then there was the blood – warm and thick as it slid down my throat.
I instantly felt nauseous, but it was only mental. My physical body had no reaction to the rat’s blood that now rested in my stomach. I dry heaved a few times, but it was all in vain.
I needed sleep. Sleep would be my only escape. I walked to my bedroom, hoping that it would not continue to elude me.
I laid down on the bed, fully dressed. Before too long…the sounds of the city and the night faded from my consciousness and I fell asleep.
I slept until the morning.
I woke up right before the sun with the semblance of a plan. I decided that I’d attempt to recreate some normalcy in my life…even if was just an illusion. I got up and got dressed just as I would on a normal work day.
I hadn’t yet decided if I’d actually try and go to work today. I worked at a local agency as a low-level community organizer…a job that sort of fell on my lap because of who my mother used to know. It definitely wasn’t something that I was passionate about.
I knew that going to work would be tough. There’s no way I’d be able to survive a day in a crowded office full of community workers and interns. The sounds and smells would probably kill me.
I sat down at my computer and tried a new search instead. I pulled up my search engine and typed in, “real-life vampires”
What I saw nearly dropped my jaw. There were endless cases and stories of people who supposedly lived their life as vampires. I scrolled through about twenty pages of search results, but there appeared to be a million more.
The site was from a medical blog and it described an illness called the Vampire Virus.
Eventually, I did and began to read…
Without thinking I shut down my computer and slid back in my chair. It took another moment before I realized that I was holding my breath the entire time I was reading.
A freaking virus…it sounded way too real and legit. Worse yet…I’d experienced the symptoms that I’d just read. It’s the reason why I couldn’t eat for days. But how the hell…? Then I remembered my so-called dream. Did I actually drink the blood of a real-life vampire?
I felt like I was reading my own life in a novel. I didn’t know what to do, so I stepped out to my balcony. I didn’t want to believe any of it.
Outside…my usual place of refuge. The place I’d go to clear my head or come up with a new idea. I stood there trying to ingest it all, but it was like reliving my experience with the rat all over again. I could feel my throat constricting, attempting to reject and shut out everything I knew to be true.
At least that’s what I thought was causing it…
Then, I suddenly started to feel hot. Too hot…abnormally hot.
The pain started slowly…like how it takes a while for water to heat up in a pot. Then, also like water… it became a rolling boil. My skin was on fire…literally. I could feel each and every cell of my epidermis heating up.
It felt like I had been buried in a bed of hot coals.
Searing, ripping…the pain was so intense that it took me a while to figure out what was causing it.
I was like a frog who sits in a pot of water too long before it realizes that it’s about to be cooked alive.
Then I figured it out. It was the sun. I didn’t start burning until I stepped out into the sun. I fanned at the tiny flames that were beginning to pop up from my skin…but that only made it worse.
My fight or flight responses finally kicked in and I hurried back inside. The pain stopped instantly but was replaced by breath snatching, deep sobs.
I stood there realizing that everything was slowly being taken away from me. Everything! First food, my friendly relationships, and now my love for the outdoors. Finding an answer was no longer just a need…
…it was now life or death because I knew I could not go on living this way.
I went back to my computer to continue my research. I went to my search history and found the website that I was reading earlier. I continued reading…
