𝖁𝖊𝖓𝖔𝖒𝖔𝖚𝖘 𝕿𝖎𝖊𝖘

Ch. 2 A Cold Feaver

I sit up with a start, my vision blurs as my body jerks awake. The first thing I realise is my temperature, everything feels so hot. A sheet of sweat covering my skin. My stomach lurches and I feel a thick substance rising up my throat. I try my best to hold it in but it feels like I'm drowning somehow. As if I'll choke and suffocate on the substance. I lean over my bedside and expel a forign substance from my mouth. Blood? Do I have internal bleeding? I take another look. It's too dark to be blood. It was black, I've never seen anything like it.

It felt hot, like it burned my throat. I release a groan. Everything hurts, I feel as if my head is about to split down the middle. Like I can feel my brain swelling to the point of combustion. My eyes water as I lean back onto my bed. Bed? I attempt to take in more of my surroundings, everything is spinning. I try to inhale but my breaths come out short, my hair sticking to my damp forehead, shirt clinging to my body.

I'm in my bed, I recognize, my brain functioning a lot slower than it normally is. I leisurely glance downwards. Blood coats my sheets, gluing them to my legs. Last night's memories come flooding back to me with haste. The running through the preserve at an ungodly hour, hearing something behind me, nearing my car, the slash in my leg, and the enormous unforgettable creature that chased me down and ripped open my arm. I lay back down.

My chest burns with every breath I take, my throat sore. A wave of agony quivvers through my body and I do my best to curl into a fetal position. My leg throbs in pain from the movement.That's the last thing I feel before darkness overtakes me.

I come into consciousness again as trembles shake my body. I feel like I'm choking, I roll over and retch up more black goo, it splashes against the white flooring of my bedroom. I pull myself to sit up and immediately break out in a fit of wet coughs, feeling the black goo in the back of my throat.

I think back on the events of last night once again, in a desperate attempt to find a way to fix this. Looking over the events slowly so as to not miss any important details that give me a solution. I was looking for a rare plant that I have recently done some research on. I read about it online and figured it would be an interesting thing to have, okay? It's also pretty valuable. I was also curious if it would be everything it was coughed up to be. Healing herb my ass. Just look what that got me.

I went into the preserve looking for it. It's not like I was being unreasonable looking there, I have seen plenty of odd plants in the forest when I go on my jogs all the time. I recall the strange noises I heard on my search. The scream, the howling. My phone is dying. I look over my bedside table. Where is my phone anyway? I remember hearing something behind me then running to my car, before the thing tore my ankle open. The agonizing pain in my ankle is proof of the memory, if the blood I'm coated in isn't enough.

I saw it. I remember its animal-like features. Its eyes along with its large stature, the claws and fangs. Fangs that tore open my arm as it pinned me to the forest floor. Then it just left. It didn't make any further attempts to eat or mawl at me. Maybe I just tasted gross, though it seems unlikely, I'm amazing so naturally I would probably taste amazing too. Maybe it was full from the other person it recently killed. The thing was coated in blood when it attacked me.

I try to keep my focus, ignoring the pain in my lower half. I'm in my bed now, which obviously means I got home. I try to jog my memory but nothing comes up. Maybe it was just adrenaline that got me in my car, then I just could have found my way home. That doesn't make any sense since I was too injured to drive, it would be miraculous if I really did get to my car, but it's a stretch to even consider that I might have driven myself home. How am I here then? A question for another time. Now I have to get myself together.