Time is at its longest when you are waiting to die. Every second stretches into an hour and every hour stretches itself into a year. Everything came into hyper focuses, the way the fabric felt rough against my skin.How my lungs ached for soothing cold air, the way the heat slowly rose under the irrational blanket shelter I created for myself. Yet I dared not even peak at the outside world. Every trail of sweat that trickled down my neck was torture. It took all my strength to convince myself that that’s all it was, just sweat. The flies weren’t real.

I had absolutely no perception of how long I stay curled like that, might have been minutes might have been days. I was prepared to stay this way for the rest of my life if necessary. The only thing that grabbed at my ignorant, idiotic, absolutely moronic curiously was the fact that the sound had faded. Not even the vital monitor could be heard, which wasn't a comforting thought at all. The only thing worse than being in a room looking at Satan himself, was when Satan was no longer insight, when the danger sifts from obvious to the unknown.

I knew where this shit was heading, I would look out from under the safety of my covers and see nothing. I would sigh in relief then look up too see the monster above me. It would jump down on my stupid existence and I would die a slow and gruesome death of rot and fly consumption.

“He’s in a state of delusion.” I actually screamed at the sound of the voice.

“Woah woah Charlie it's ok, I have your anti-psychotics here please come out we don't want to use force.” The voice sounded familiar but my mother looked familiar and that didn’t turn out so well for her. This was a trap, a guaranteed trap.

“We aren’t trying to trick you Charlie , its me nurse Wahise” That’s exactly what someone who is trying to trap you would say. I wrapped the blankets around myself tighter.

“Charlie we need to check up on you, we heard screaming coming from your room. I understand you went through a traumatic experience with your sister, anyone would be scared.” The voiced did sound exactly like nurse Wahise. She was my assigned nurse for any issues I was having. She had been caring for me for years now, basically raised me in this place.

“Where is my sister ?” My voice was squeaky and small sounding, I hated how small I sounded right now.

“She is perfectly safe with a doctor they are evaluating why she was triggered like that. She has never bitten you so badly before.”

“She didn’t mean to, it's not her fault. She told me herself she didn’t want to hurt me.”

“I’m sure that is true Charlie but the fact of the matter is, she did hurt you. Do you know where you are right now?”

“No...I want to go back to my dorm.”

“Charlie you are in your dorm.” This statement was the sole reason I lifted the covers just the slightest bit. Through the small crevice I could make out familiar shapes. My desk at the corner of the room, covered in useless papers and old yellowed books. I shifted the blanket again and could make out a waist, dressed in blue scrubs with a pager attached at the hip. No flies and no white currents. Now that I mention it, the bed had gotten softer as well, I sank into it . The blankets weren’t thin, coarse medical blankets. They were my red plaid ones, puffy and warm, the covers on the pillows were their usual Anime girl covered selves. (Don’t you dare judge me for my choice in comforting sleep wear, I am aloud these basic freedoms at least.)

“Take about five steps towards the wall and I will poke my head out.” Wahise obliged and through my crevice I could see it was really her. She had skin the color of dark chocolate an short curly hair, the ends of which she preferred to bleach blond. Wahise had the strong built of someone who had been carrying mental patients on her shoulders for the past twenty years. Deep set smile lines framed her mouth and warm brown eyes worked hard to make a person feel safe. She could easily have been my grandma but didn’t look like the years had affected her much at all. Cautiously I came out from underneath my shelter.

“What exactly happened...from your perspective?” I asked because there was always more then one truth to every story. I just needed to know if my truth was too far out for the nurses to comprehend.

“After the incident with your sister, which is entirely not your fault Charlie I don't want you blaming yourself.” She had no way of confirming this information, because just earlier she told me Ivy was being evaluated. Meaning they didn’t know why she jumped me so therefore it very well might have been my fault. Which furthermore meant Wahise was lying in a poor attempt to comfort me. She was using her “broken boy voice” The voice she used on me when she thought I was acting a little more crazy than expected.

“Anyway after that we rushed you to the infirmary to look at the damage. The blood probably shocked you and that was the main reason you passed out, but there actually wasn’t much damaged. She luckily missed arteries by a long shot. You did need about five stitches but it wasn't anything we were worried you couldn’t recover from so we put you back in bed. I was to wait outside for when you woke up again.”

“You said you heard me scream though ?” I asked.

“Well yes honey, you were screaming your head off. Scared the ever loving hell out of poor Margie, we were talking outside your door when we heard it. I come in here and find you curled up in the blankets and trembling like you just seen a ghost...Did you see a ghost ?”

“No I didn’t see a fucking ghost.” I avoided eye contact, slightly embarrassed with the entire situation. If what she said was right though, then it meant I had only stayed under those blankets for a couple minutes at most. It felt like so much longer, I could have sworn I’d been there for hours.

“Do you want to tell me what you saw then? I’m assuming you weren’t screaming bloody murder just for the fun of it.” She held out the bottle of anti-psychotics with a warm smile. “Can I sits with ya ?”