The Falling Sickness

Chapter 1

I've been having trouble sleeping lately, and I don't know why. It's three thirty AM and I have to be up by five, so all I can do is lay here and wait. Wait for sleep to come and overtake me. If it comes at all. As I wait for sleep all I can think of is how much debt I'm in. It's not easy raising a ten year old, you know? I haven't been able to pay bills on time, and I'm working my ass off with two jobs for what? This dingy little two bedroom apartment? No, that's not it. I do it for Zoe.

I had finally started to drift off just as the sound of my alarm drug me right back out of it. I always dread the weekend. It should be time spent with my daughter, but instead I'm spending them at my second job. Part time. It's what gets us by, if I didn't do it we'd have nowhere to go. I have no family. All I have is Zoe, and she has me, she needs me. So it looks like it's time to drag myself out of bed and to start the day. Great.

It's a Saturday morning so of course Zoe doesn't have school, but luckily our neighbor, who is a kind old lady, watches Zoe for me every weekend. Her name is Ms. Nelly, and I'm not sure what we'd do without her. As I slip on my waitress uniform and tie my long coppery hair off into a knot, I go to wake up Zoe. As I pass the mirror in the hallway I notice my pale skin, and the bags under my blue eyes. My cheekbones are high and soft, and my lips are full. Despite being a redhead, I don't have a single freckle on my body, not even on my thin, but prominent nose.

As I get closer to Zoe's door I notice that it's completely closed, which it never is. I always leave it ajar so I can check on her if I get up in the middle of the night. So this is odd. As I approach the door I grab hold of the handle and gently tap on the door a few times. "Zoe, hunny? Are you awake?" I ask as I slowly open the door, only to reveal her laying at the foot of her bed. I sit on the edge of the bed and place my hand on her shoulder, "Zoe, it's time to get up." I say as I gently shake her.

Her eyes slowly open to reveal her ocean blue eyes. She brings her hand up to wipe the sleep sand from her eyes, the light shining in through the windows, enhancing her little button nose. "I'm awake.." she says groggily, as she props herself up on her right elbow before sitting up completely. I plant a kiss on her forehead and give her a little time to wake up, she's never gotten used to waking up this early, and she probably never will.

I walk to her door and turn back to her, "C'mon Zo, brush your teeth real quick, and grab your bag. You know the drill, Mommy has to work." She slowly slides out of bed and grabs her bag off of the chair next to her bed before following me out of her room and towards the bathroom. She hates sitting with Ms. Nelly for the majority of the day, but she knows that there's nothing else that we can do.

As I hear the water running as she's brushing her teeth I start to hear a thumping noise and it's coming from the living room, I slowly start walking and the thumping gets louder the closer I get. It's coming from the front door. I look out through the peep hole and for a second it's black before showing me what's on the other side. It's Ms. Nelly and she repeatedly walks into my front door, her head bumping into it each time. I've never known Ms. Nelly to do anything likes this and it's starting to freak me out.

I open the door as far as the chain lock will let me, which is only about as wide as the width of my forearm. "Ms. Nelly.." I say as I peek through the gap, with her eyeing me the instance the door opens. She instantly lets out a loud screech as she launches forward into the door, causing me to fall backwards onto my butt, scaring the hell out of me.

I look up, unsure what to do, I mean, what damage could she do? She's a seventy year old lady. "Ms. Nelly, are you alright?" I ask raising my voice so that she can hear me. She backs away and slams back into the door, I hear a bone snap as the chain lock breaks and she comes barreling in, knocking me over and falling on top of me just as I started to get up. Panic shoots through my veins as her teeth are snapping at me, and blood is dripping from her mouth. I had let out an involuntary scream, which had scared me as soon as I had processed the noise. Struggling to get her off of me as she keeps trying to bite, I try to squirm out from beneath her, to get her to lose her grip without her teeth ripping into my flesh.

I can't. She's too strong and my arms are shaking, I can't keep this up, my arms are going to give out. I close my eyes and think of Zoe, of what'll happen to her. Though as soon as I do the pressure on top of me is gone, and my arms fall weakly on top of me. I open my eyes to see Zoe standing over top of me with a hammer in her hand, blood dripping from the blunt end.. What has she had to do..