Syndicate Origins: Persona [NaNoWriMo2014, 2015]

CHAPTER THREE: THE SICKNESS

CHAPTER THREE

The sun's morning rays slowly edged across my floor, taunting me with its cheerful mood. My head ached as I staggered out my cozy bed to get ready for the day. My bones felt heavier, my skin was hot at the touch and my muscles were sore. I didn't understand why I felt so badly. I wasn't sick because I wasn't hacking up stuff or coughing. My stomach didn't bother me at all.

Knock, knock.

The knock itself was soft, but the sound seemed to target my headache and poke it. I groaned as I attempted to get my door. My vision swam and my room moved to tilt sideways, leaving me confused as my knees weakened. I reached for my bed as my legs gave out underneath me, but my hands didn't make it. I distantly heard the loud thump I made when I hit my floor and the sound of my bedroom door opening.

"Mae!"

Ah, so that wasn't my father. I didn't think it was anyway, but I had hoped.

"Look at me, Mae. You gotta look at me."

I tried to comply and opened my eyes, seeing nothing but blurred figures and colors. It's not like I could tell him that, though. My notepad was on my nightstand and I clearly could not write neatly at this time.

Kyle hands and warm body left me suddenly. Where had he gone?

"I'm calling 911. Where the hell is the phone?"

Calm washed over me and my vision stopped swimming. I blinked. I could see my ceiling fan and my body didn't hurt anymore. Whatever had been bothering me had vanished and had left only the headache behind.

"How can you not have a cell phone lying around?" Kyle muttered as he hurriedly searched my nightstand, having already searched most of my room.

I sat up on the floor and snapped my fingers to get his attention. It worked and he practically ran to my side, helping me stand up and sit down on my bed.

"You lay down while I call 911."

I shook my head.

He laughed at me. "Yeah, you're clearly delusional. You looked like you were seizing or having some kind of fit. I don't think that's a good sign, Mae."

My hand shook as I waved it off. I knew he was right, but I didn't want to go to the hospital. That place was only a bad memory for me.

But was that worth my life?

A cold sweat broke out on my skin and my body started to shake. Images of Mom's dead body darted across my mind, leaving trails of blood in their wake. Hysterical sobs and hands tearing at me to take me away from her. Bright lights that illuminated her cold skin and a white sheet that hid her body from me.

Yes, it was worth my life. I couldn't go back to that hospital, to any hospital.

I just couldn't.

"Do you have a private doctor? Maybe a friend of . . . Dad's?" Kyle asked, his voice soft as if he was worried that I would break.

Father did have a friend that was a doctor, but I didn't know how to contact him. Father had never given me any contact information for that friend of his, Dr. Whittle. Not that he had any reason to, of course, besides the fact that Dr. Whittle had been my doctor since Mom's death.

I nodded to Kyle and pulled my notepad out of my nightstand along with my pencil. This conversation would be a lot easier if I could write down my response rather than gesturing my limbs.

I don't know how to get ahold of him, though, I wrote down, but I'm sure I'm fine.

No, I wasn't, but I wasn't about to let him know that. He would force me to go to the hospital and I would have another breakdown. That would lead to Kyle finding out just how messed up I was and I couldn't have that happening. Not when we were forming a connection. If he found out now, he would hate me just like the others. I knew he would.