The room was pitch black. I could feel bruises on my arms and stomach, and two concrete walls on either side of me; I was in a corner. I was panting and tears were running down my face. My heart palpitated, jack hammering on my ribcage to hard it hurt. The air was hot and humid enough to make me sweat. It stunk of low tide.

Someone slapped my face; the smack was so loud that it made my ears ring. I could sense a cold, dead ache in the air— a vampire.

“Breathe quieter, piece of shit,” a voice hissed, “Don’t make me tell you again. I have no reason not to kill you.”

I wondered why I’m not dead, then. I suppose that they just want to torture me.

“You never should have told your friend, Maxwell. I told you what would happen, and you were stupid enough to do it anyway.”

I never told Howie anything! No one knew about supernatural creatures. Even when they tried to get it out of me I never said anything revealing! Did I? Had Howie figured it out somehow?! I didn’t say anything though, because I wasn’t allowed to talk. I just held my breath in an attempt to obey the monster in front of me. I could feel my pulse and heartbeat in my fingers and head. Eventually, my head started to hurt and the swelling urge to breathe started to overwhelm me. I realized that I hadn’t thought this through very well. I gasped for air.

“I said stop it!” the vampire rasped. They grabbed my neck and shoved me hard into the corner. A low cackle sounded from in front of me.

“You know you have no idea how delectable you smell right now. All that sweet adrenaline pumping in you makes you even more appetizing, you know?”

Someone opened a trapdoor on the ceiling, allowing yellow light to pour in. I saw the man’s beard and I watch him lick his lips.

“Mmmmm. What did you do to him to invoke such terror?”

He jumps down onto the floor gracefully, and the trapdoor closed. His eyes glowed gold and his boots struck the floor menacingly as he walked over. Goosebumps infested my arms like baby spiders fresh from their casing.

“Not much. He gets scared pretty easy.” said the mystery vampire. I don’t know if I can resist any longer, Geo. He’s just so tempting.”

“Can we share?”

“Sure, but don’t kill him.”

Never had a vampire actually bitten me. I think they are scared of what might happen to them if they bite someone like me. But these vampires didn’t seem to mind, because one of them pulled at the collar of my shirt and the other removed their hand from my neck and licked it slowly. They move to either side of me and Geo gave me a hickey on my shoulder, while the other one mouths my neck until their fangs elongate. Geo bit first, sending a shooting pain through my shoulder. I whimpered and tried to squirm, but that only made it hurt worse. Soon after, the first vampire bit down and I cry out. Pain now pumped into my veins and through my whole body. I stood in horror, praying that I wasn’t going to become one of them. They let out little moans of pleasure occasionally, definitely enjoying the adrenalin pulsing through me. Breathing started to get hard and I started to feel like I was floating. They said they wouldn’t kill me, but it sure felt like they were going to. Maybe that was the easier path. Death. But I couldn’t die. Howie would kill himself.

“Don’t… kill me…”

I tried to remind them, hoping they could hear me. My eyelids were getting too heavy to hold up. When I closed my eyes, it was no darker than it was with my eyes open.

I woke up sweating and panting. My heart thought I just ran a marathon. I sat up, looking around the white room. I was safe. Back in the hospital, where nothing could hurt me. Right? Right? I couldn’t help but remember the strange behavior of the other patients. What if they were dangerous somehow? What if they were monsters?

Wait, no.

That was crazy. Those things I saw, they weren’t real. No matter how dangerous they seemed, they were normal people. They never threatened to kill everyone I care about, that was a hallucination. And my dream was just a dream. A nightmare.

Still, my skin crawled. I could almost sense the blood curdling chill of death. What if I was a vampire? What if they turned me in my dreams?

No!

That couldn’t be true. Vampires weren’t real. I knew that. Maybe. Was I getting sick again? I start to panic.

Then I heard a roar in another room.

I froze. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. There was something dangerous here. A werewolf maybe. A demon possessing someone. I’d never met an insane vampire before, but it could have been one of those. My imagination ran wild. It could be something I’d never even encountered, which made it even more terrifying.

Maybe it was just me being nuts.

No, no, no! This shouldn’t be happening. I was taking my medication. I wanted my sanity! I was having normal feelings, normal experiences and I liked it that way! I start to hyperventilate, and I couldn’t stop blinking and running my hands through my hair over and over. I had no control over what I was doing, as if something horrible was pulling me to do what it wanted, which only made me feel worse. It had to be real! I was on my meds! I didn’t hear things like that on my meds! My eyes fill with tears. I had no control of anything. Even when I did the right thing, the same bad things happen! There was no escaping the cruel prison of my mutilated reality.

Okay, okay, this was a panic attack. I focused on remembering what my countless psychologists told me to do right now. Five things I can see. Bed, sheet, light, another bed, shelf. Had the second bed been there the whole time? Was it real? Was anything real? Was this all a delusion?

Okay, okay, okay. Come back Mac. Four things I can touch. It didn’t matter if I was hallucinating. Just do it to calm down, I told myself. Bed, sheet, shirt, boxers. Those probably aren’t hallucinations. Three things I could hear. There had been no more roars. The guards were talking somewhere, but they weren’t in the hallway. (Why weren’t they in the hallway?) I couldn’t hear them well enough to understand them. The light above me was humming. What else? I listened closely. My breathing. I took a shaky deep breath. Two things I could smell. I couldn’t smell death anymore. It just smelled like bleach, which was what the whole room always smelled like, and sweat. I took more deep breaths. One thing I could taste. All I could taste was my mouth. It was no longer minty from the swab. I swallowed.

Okay. Alright. All was right.

It was just a dream. It had probably triggered a small lapse in sanity. I would be okay. I would ask about a higher dose of something. No matter how much I hated being so dopey, it was better than schizophrenia.

I laid awake in bed all night, fearing that I’d have another nightmare. I tried my best not to overthink. I read a book that I snuck in. We weren’t supposed to have anything in our rooms, but when they did room checks I never have any problems. I was almost finished with the book when I heard Rafael unlocking doors and shouting good morning joyously. He seemed more joyous than usual, almost forced. Was that me being paranoid? Or was I being paranoid about being paranoid? There was no way to be sure. Maybe Howie could help bring me back down to Earth.

Rafael unlocked my door and pokes his head in.

“Hey there, the guards said you sounded like you had a rough night. Everything okay?”

What should I say? I definitely didn’t feel okay. But could I trust him?

“Ah, yes. Just a bad dream. I had a panic attack, but I’m okay now. Would a higher dose of something relieve any amount of anxiety?”

“Sure, I can give you a higher dose of xanax. I know you have been feeling anxious lately. We can talk about your dream later today, sound good?”

I shrugged. I didn’t know if I’d tell him about it or not. Surely I could trust the doctor right? Why wouldn’t I? Maybe he knew what was going on, I thought. Maybe he was causing it. I scolded myself yet again. Stop it, stop it! Stop overthinking.

I stepped outside my room and took my neatly folded, clean outfit and deodorant packet off of the floor near the doorway, then I went into my bathroom and got ready. I looked at myself in the mirror, which was just a piece of polished metal. My orange hair was a mess. I splashed my face with cold water to wake myself up and wet my hair in an attempt to tame it. I wasn’t looking forward to breakfast.