Whit late that night sits on the edge of his windowsill letting the cold breeze wash over him from the open window. The fever had returned, but unlike last time he doesn’t try to fight through it, he lets it overwhelm him to the point where he can barely even breathe. The winter air fills his lungs though with poignant reminders of what life feels like. The cold slides its way inside him him like knives made of ice and as the fever rages through his body Whit wonders if this might actually kill him. His body has become limp, he’s barely aware of anything save for his airways that are slowly becoming ice, what he can feel throughout the rest of his body is burning. Everything burning slowly, methodically, smothering him. Whit holds one of his hands up to look at the tips of his fingers that are turning a greenish black.

With a few quick breaths Whit pulls himself to his feet and using the wall as support he pushes himself forward when he falls to his knees the first time he just smiles and laughs almost delirious before picking himself up again and continuing till he’s out of his room, going down the stairs he puts all of his weight on the banister till he reaches the bottom step, on the bottom step he stops to catch his breath before he proceeds down the hallway, his laborious journey ends through the small door to the bathroom. Once in the bathroom Whit goes to the toilet and begins to retch and hack the contents of his stomach out. His stomach convulses and spasms until Whit feels like all of his insides are going to come spewing out instead a thick black goop spills out his mouth into the toilet bowl. When his body has finished cleansing itself Whit leans back against the ugly wallpapered bathroom walls and breathes. The fever had gone with the black goop and Whit feels more clearheaded than he’s ever felt in his entire life. He looks down at his fingertips that had changed again to a light green. He takes in a deep breath and concentrates on them and as he watches the green slowly fades back underneath the skin. Whit smiles and after flushing the remnants of his humanity down the toilet he goes back upstairs to sleep.