Element

Element VIII

First came nausea.

I woke up around 3 in the morning running into the bathroom to puke. As I leaned over the toilet to empty my stomach of its contents, I thought back to the last time I was ever sick. 

I remember it was the day of mom's funeral.

Walking into the chapel holding Michael's hand, all I could see were people crying. There were so many people, and I hardly recognized any of them.

As I looked up at Michael, I saw him starring straight ahead at something in the front of the room. As we approached the wooden box and looked inside, I saw it was my mom. 

Seeing her like that was hard for me to fathom, she looked plastic with too much makeup on, she smelt different and I knew this wasn't the mom I grew up with.

All I could feel was heat rush to my face and my mouth began to water and I knew I was going to be sick. 

Quickly, I let go of Michael's hand ran outside where I threw up in the snow. Michael came out after me and held my hair and gently rubbed my back.

To see our mom like that was too hard for me. I guess it was the first time I realized that she was really gone and seeing her for the last time made me realize that everything was about to change, everything was different.

Coming back to the present, I began feeling dizzy and I slumped to the floor in exhaustion. Assuming I ate something bad that day, I crawled over to my medicine cabinet and quickly took a swig of Pepto Bismol before brushing my teeth and heading back to bed. 

Crawling onto the bed, I lay on my back and closed my eyes to try to relax.

All the sudden, the nausea hit again and I knew I was about to throw up again. As I entered the bathroom, I threw on the lights and was hunching over the toilet again. Seeing as I had little left in my stomach, this time mostly consisted of dry heaving. 

As my stomach began to settle, I sat on the edge of the tub and waited to see if the feeling to puke would come again. As I sat there, I had a perfect view of myself in the mirror. As I stared at myself, I realized something was different. Standing up and walking closer, I leaned into the mirror and realized what it was.

My eyes, they were changing colors.

As I stood there and looked at myself, my eyes were literally shifting between all the colors. They would go from green to blue to red to gold then back to green. 

Frightened, I quickly took a step back and that's when the fire started.

No I don't mean actual fire but I don’t know how else to explain it. One second I'm watching my eyes change colors and the next, I'm hunched over grabbing my stomach because it feels like an inferno was raging in there. 

I had to get out of this house. I was too hot and the fire was consuming me. 

Trying to be as quiet as I could. I inched my way out of my room and into the hall. With each step, the feeling got worse and eventually I found myself running down the stairs and out the back door. I knew I had to get somewhere I could think and let this sensation pass so I quickly headed for the forest. 

I had no idea where I was going but I couldn’t stop. Eventually the pain became too much and I fell to my knees in the middle of a clearing. Black began to blur the edges of my vision and any minute I was going to pass out but that moment didn't come fast enough.

Suddenly I heard a crack and I slumped forward allowing my head to hit the forest floor. I heard a girl screaming and realized that it was me. I was screaming. The pain was excruciating. My back, it was broken. I couldn’t move anything, I was paralyzed.