Julie awoke, her body drenched in sweat. She felt horrible, both emotionally and physically. Her body ached, and she was pretty sure that horrible odor she was smelling was coming from her.
She sat up slowly, and she felt her stomach lurch. Her hand instinctively went to her mouth, and her feet began moving her as fast as possible towards the bathroom.
After she had finished emptying out the small amount of food she had eaten the night before, she sat, leaning against the bathtub. The cold of the tiles felt so good, but every time she would get close to relaxing the smell of her own body odor would make her want to vomit again.
She stood, stripping off her clothes. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was greasy, and her skin was pale. She had dark circles under her eyes.
She had stayed up all night before, but it had never wrecked her so physically.
She turned on the water, and watched the tub begin to fill. The water seemed to hypnotize her. The shapes and waves of the light reflecting off of the clear surface allowed her mind, for a brief moment, to just empty out. The sound of her cellphone ringing forced her mind into reality. It had all the subtly of a brick wall, and it actually made her head begin to hurt.
As she walked back towards her room she was shocked at how badly her joints hurt. She was twenty five, but her body felt like it was eighty.
She flipped on the light in her room, and started towards her cellphone, but the rose from last night caught her eye.
It seemed to be... she couldn’t believe it, but it seemed to be bleeding.
She walked towards the small, wilting flower slowly, scared to get to close. She had never seen anything like that before. A thick, dark ooze dripped from the flower’s petals, and onto her table.
She reached out, but stopped, taking a step back. A centipede had made it’s way onto the dresser, and was crawling towards the small puddle forming under the flower. The second it reached the liquid, getting only as close as a few inches, it stopped, shook, and then died.
She grabbed her cellphone and rushed from the room.
Someone had tried to poison her! It wasn’t grief that was causing her to hurt so much, it was that damn flower.
She slammed the bathroom door shut, turned off the water, and dialed Roy’s number.
"Roy, where are you?" She spoke quickly.
"At The Hub, why?"
"I need to come and see you."
"I’ll be here till around five."
"I’ll be there in five minutes."
"What’s the matter? Julie, you sound terrified."
"I’ll tell you when I see you."
She hung up her cellphone, and stepped into the hot water, scrubbing every inch of her body. Whatever that was, she needed to get it off of her skin, out of her lungs, out of her body.
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