Nora

Nora was a regular 27-year-old girl. She had a 9-5 job, her own apartment, regularly hung out with her friends, and even had a boyfriend which she loved very much. She was what came to mind when you think 27-year-old. Everything about her and her life was regular until one day it wasn’t. 

My head throbbed when I woke up, I didn’t think I drank enough last night to make me hungover, but I guess I did. I have also come to learn recently that my body doesn’t handle alcohol the way it did when I was 21. I went into the kitchen and continued my morning routine as I always do only with some ibuprofen sprinkled in. It was my day off but I still had to swing by my work this morning to do something I had forgotten to do the day before. I’m lucky it wasn’t a day I was scheduled because I was so late in comparison to when I planned on arriving. I searched all over the house for my car keys for half an hour only to find them right on the kitchen counter. 

Nora brushed off the incident with her car keys assuming it was nothing and if anything simply the fact that she was hungover but if only she had known that was just the beginning. 

Nora arrived at her work taking the elevator up to her floor, she exited the elevator and made her way to her cubicle which was placed in a way where she always walked past the breakroom. It was basic, nothing special by any means but front and center in it was one of those water machines you always see in tv shows. Nora walked past glancing at the room out of habit only to stop and look at the breakroom again, she could have sworn that the water machine wasn’t there when she glanced at it just a second ago. She stood there and stared at the machine for a few moments wondering if she was going crazy before brushing it off and telling herself her brain had just played a trick on her just like one of those optical illusions. 

I arrived at my cubicle sat down and powered on my computer. I grabbed a piece of paper out of my drawer and a pen I had left right next to my computer. I was happy to see everything was in the same spot as it was yesterday. I swear I feel like I’m going crazy today but it’s probably some sort of brain fog from the drinking and the current headache I have. Once I finished I gathered my things and made my way back to my car starting it up and seeing what the next errand I had to do today was. Nora went about her errands she had to do that day just fine nothing peculiar or out of the ordinary happened until she arrived back home that evening. 

It was getting to be time for dinner so she got started on cooking, she and her boyfriend Brad would switch who made dinner every time they had dinner together and this time it was her turn and therefore at her place. Getting to the next step of the recipe she opened her cupboard and grabbed a couple of things out only to not find the third item she was looking for. She moved a couple of things around but still couldn't find it. She checked in her other cupboards and even in the fridge making sure she didn’t misplace it somewhere by accident but to no avail. So she grabbed her phone and looked up what she could use as a replacement for that ingredient after finding a couple of things she opened the cupboards again to see if she had the substitute ingredients and as she was looking she found the first ingredient she was looking for. Grabbing it and looked back and forth between the item and where it was in the cabinet dumbfounded at how she managed to not see it. Her cabinets were full but she kept them organized, there should have been no way she didn’t see it on her first look through the cabinet, it made no sense.

This was when a little thought started stirring in her head that said maybe this wasn’t just her hangover and something else was going on. She put the thought out of her mind. Jamming to her music she went about making dinner her boyfriend arrived just in time to set the table as dinner was ready. They talked about how their day went, and Nora told him about the weird stuff that happened. He thought it was quite strange but he didn’t want to add to any worries she might be having about it so he brushed it off agreeing with her that it was probably nothing and even offered to draw her a bath so that she might be able to relax. 

Nora accepted the offer taking the bath just as he had said. She had candles lit, and decided to put some bubble bath solution too just to add to it (she also really liked playing with the bubbles despite how childish it may be), and tried her best to relax. As she was lying in the tub staring at one of her candles daydreaming it began to morph and become something else. It began turning blue and red flickering in and out of existence and then the other candles and other parts of the room did. Nora realized what was happening and snapped out of it splashing some water on her face and when she looked back at all the candles they were perfectly normal. This was the first time that day she was certain that one of these weird occurrences was not simply something she had imagined. She abruptly got out and dried herself off and went into the living room to tell her boyfriend what had happened beginning to think there was something else going on. He hugged her and assured her everything was okay suggesting that maybe it was time she had some tea and went to the bed for the night. Reluctantly she agreed and did as he said. Nora slept peacefully that night but that would be her last restful sleep. 

Nora awoke groggy from the medicine she took the previous night to help her sleep. Rubbing her eyes she dragged herself out of bed and to the kitchen to get some coffee which her boyfriend had conveniently made before he left earlier that morning. Nora continued her morning routine as usual getting ready to leave for work that day. She gave herself extra time this morning to gather and make sure she had all her things to make sure she didn’t repeat yesterday's events. Everything was going swimmingly nothing out of the ordinary until Nora got to work and started her computer. 

I greeted my coworkers as I made my way to my cubicle also making a note that the water machine was in fact where it had always been in the breakroom. I sat down at my desk and powered on my computer and set out a few things I knew I would need for the day's work. Once the computer was powered on I logged in and got to work. About a half-hour into working, I took a drink of my water and when I looked back at my monitor it was black and glitching out, it looked as though someone had smashed it and broken it. I tried clicking the mouse and tapping a couple of buttons on my keyboard but it stayed the same. I turned to ask my coworker Sandy in the cubicle behind me to help me but as I looked back at my monitor to show her what was happening the monitor was back to normal right where it was before. I apologized and told her it must have fixed itself. I tried to just keep working and assume it was nothing but the computer acting funny as it does sometimes. 

Everything was swell until I returned to my work after lunch where my computer did the same thing. I asked Sandy once again to help she came over and after looking at my computer for a moment she cocked her head giving me a strange look “Um Nora are you sure?” 

“Yes of course, don’t you see what the monitor is doing? How strange it’s acting?” 

“No. I don’t see anything, it's not doing anything. It’s open on the document you were working on before lunch. Are you okay?” she leaned in and whispered, “Did you take anything that is making you see stuff?” 

“What?! No of course not! I wouldn’t do that, especially before work. You know I wouldn’t do that.”

“Yes, I didn’t mean to offend you I simply figured it was worth asking. How about you take a break and maybe go outside for a minute and get a breath of fresh air and I’ll restart your computer for you.” 

“O-okay yeah. I’ll go do that. Thanks, Sandy.” I got up and went to the bathroom and splashed some water on my face and took some deep breaths. I grabbed a paper towel and dried my face looking in the mirror to make sure I hadn’t messed up my makeup. But when I looked in the mirror everything aside from myself and the sink in front of me was gone, it was all black, just pure darkness. I jumped and turned around so I was facing the stalls. Everything was there just as it had been moments ago. I turned around looking in the mirror again and everything was normal in there too. 

I exited the bathroom and made my way back to my cubicle, glancing once more at the breakroom. The water machine was gone again. I started walking faster deciding that I was leaving for the day. I didn’t care if I got reprimanded or not I needed to figure out what was going on. I started packing my things up getting ready to leave. Sandy noticed I was back and informed me that she had restarted my computer and asked if I was alright when she noticed that I was hastily packing up my things to leave. “Honestly I’m not sure. All I know is I’m leaving for the day.” 

“Okay Nora, have a good rest of your day, feel better,” she said with a look of worry before turning around to continue her work. 

I quickly made my way to my car. I called Brad and told him what was going on and that I was going to the hospital to see if they could figure out what was going on. He said he would meet me at the emergency room as soon as possible. 

I tried keeping my composure on my way to the hospital. I was driving nothing out of the ordinary when the light I was approaching turned yellow so I came to a stop glancing at my phone to see how long it said before I arrived at the hospital. When I looked back at the street my eyes widened in horror as the intersection was completely gone, just a big black square where the center of the intersection would be. I opened my door and stood up out of my car rubbing my eyes not believing what I was seeing. Then I jumped as the person in the car behind me blared their horn and yelled at me to drive since the light had turned green. I got in my car and looked back at the intersection to see everything was normal. I sped to the hospital.

I was practically running to the emergency room once I had parked my car. I arrived and the nurse at the front desk asked what I came in for and some other basic information. Luckily there was only one other person there so the wait wasn’t very long but those few minutes were grueling. I laid my head back against the wall keeping my eyes closed while trying to stay calm. 

The nurse called my name and escorted me to a private room. She had me sit down on the bed and asked me some basic questions about myself and why I was there then proceeded to take my blood pressure and do a couple of other things. She nodded and assured me it was all gonna be okay before leaving me telling me she would be back with the doctor in just a few minutes. I grabbed my phone getting on social media to try and provide myself with some sort of distraction while I waited for the nurse to return with the doctor. 

There was a knock on the door before the doctor popped his head in and came into the room with the nurse following close behind. I could tell that they were tense the nurse in particular but the doctor kept his cool charming composure probably meant to reassure and soothe patients in situations such as this. Sitting down on the wheeled stool the doctor rolled over to the bed I was on and asked me some of the same questions that the nurse had asked followed by some new ones such as “have you taken any hallucinogens?” stuff like that. He grabbed some sort of device off the wall and a little plastic cover for it and then came over and asked if he could take a peek at my eyes and throat. He told me to open my eyes wide and shone the light of the device directly in my eyes. Once he was done I closed my eyes rubbing them for a moment while he told me he didn’t think I had any drugs in my system but that he’d still like to do a urine test to make sure. 

When I opened my eyes I couldn’t process what I was seeing. The doctor and the nurse were melting at least they appeared like they were. It was as if the sun was in the hospital room with us melting them down to nothing. I screamed and backed away onto the bed against the wall. The doctor was asking what was wrong as I screamed and pushed him away, he tried assuring me it was all okay as I screamed in horror. I held my knees to my chest and told myself it wasn’t real as I closed my eyes tight. I don’t know how long went by minutes or seconds before I heard the doctor again and opened my eyes where I saw the doctor standing in front of me and the nurse behind him. Both of them were perfectly intact and not melty. 

“It’s okay we are right here. Can you tell me what's wrong, what you saw?” 

I stuttered trying to get my words out, “I-I, after I opened my eyes after you shined the light in them I saw you two but you, you were melting like something straight out of a horror movie.”

“But now you see as we are? Not melting?”

“Yes, right now there is nothing wrong everything looks fine.” 

Just then another nurse knocked on the door saying someone was there to see me and then Brad came in. He and the doctor introduced themselves before the doctor asked to speak with him outside. I couldn’t hear anything besides hushed murmurs. When they came back in Brad had a look of concern and sadness on his face. I asked him and the doctor what they talked about and what was going on. 

“Mrs. we think you may have something going on mentally that is causing you to see things that are not there. So we are going to move you to the psychiatric wing of the hospital where we're gonna keep you for a few days to keep an eye on you and hopefully be able to treat you. How does that sound?” 

“What? What are you saying? You think I’m going crazy?!”

“Honey they just wanna help you and they think this is the best way to do it,” Brad said trying to comfort me. 

“And you agreed with them?! You think I’m going crazy too don't you? I could tell you knew something was going on last night but you didn’t want to say anything!”

The doctor and Brad began talking over each other trying to convince me this was the best thing to do. As I went to shoot back at Brad and the doctor that’s when it all crashed down. The world began splitting apart all around me the pixels of it all disintegrating and tearing each other apart until there was nothing except darkness.