Illusion

All In Your Head

Stephen knew he would never sleep. The noises, those horrid sounds would keep him awake.

He did not remember when they had started haunting him, but he knew it was not always like this.

He couldn't comprehend what was happening with him. He had tried ignoring these voices but all in vain.

It had not always been like this. He remembered. There was a time when these voices were nice. Soothing. Friendly. They used to play together all the time. They were inseparable.

Initially, there had been only one noise, Nancy.She was sweet, funny, caring...everything a 5-year-old looked for to a friend.

And then came all his other 'friends'. The children in his neighborhood and school would never play with him. His parents were worried about him. A little too worried maybe.Stephen was annoyed by all this. He sought solace in his friends.'Push him', Nancy had whispered one day in Stephen's ear.Stephen wanted to ask why but was too timid and shy and...........afraid.Afraid of what? He had yet to figure out.So he pushed his classmate off the swing.He didn't regret it that much though. His 'friends' were happy, they had praised him and Stephen felt wanted and appreciated.Such incidents or rather "accidents" became more frequent.These 'friends' of Stephen were becoming more and more demanding day by day.He tried telling them to go away because he didn't like doing such violent stuff but why would they listen to him? They were inseparable after all.

At the age of 24, Stephen still couldn't understand how to get rid of them.

Finally, his parents took him to the hospital and came to know that it was schizophrenia. His treatment began. But Stephen felt them getting stronger. They were.........they were suffocating him. Making him a prisoner inside his own mind. They knew he was trying to get rid of them and so began to become louder and more....abusive.They wouldn't let him sleep, wouldn't let him be with another human.The treatment was a torture. It would leave him emotionally and physically drained and just when he would start drifting off to sleep, they would return.

7 years. It took seven whole years for Stephen to be able to go out on his own and actually make real breathing human friends. Things were finally coming together.

Stephen returned home with a huge grin on his face, ready to go to bed after partying with his friends.He went to the kitchen first, drank a glass of water. "Something doesn't feel right", he thought aloud as shivers ran down his spine.He shrugged it off but as he went towards his bedroom his eyes fell upon something that had his feet stuck to the ground.He tried to scream but nothing came out. His voice seemed to be stuck in his throat. He took petrified steps back as he stared at a picture of himself on the wall from 5 years ago, with wide eyes filled with fear, scratches and gashes adorning his arms and face and every other part of his body.................and Nancy in the background. As he wondered if hallucinations could be captured in a photograph, a whisper fell in his ear, 'Not a mere imagination now, was I?'