On the fourth day, the doctors took blood from us. The woman next to me said they did so every other week. “You better start appreciating needles,” she said. “Because they won’t appreciate you.” “It’s to see if we’re clean,” Frank said as the doctor wrapped my arm.
“They have about thirty of us in here, but the whole town is sick. People are dying left and right, and if they can clear us to go home, they can bring in more people.” I looked at the man, incredulous of what he was preaching. “How do you know this?” I asked. “I have my sources.” “Do you think the shots they give us actually help?” I asked him without missing a beat. He and the woman cackled, and the man pretended to wipe away a tear. “Don’t you know the only way to not be sick is to get rid of illusion?”
Before I could ask him what he meant, a nurse walked up to us, clad in her hazmat suit, and helped Frank off of the ground. “We need to disinfect you,” she said. “And then you’re free to go.” The man jumped up and down giddily. The nurse put a mask over him and as they walked away, he turned and said, “See? You need to get rid of illusion.” I stood and ripped the wires and tubes off of me. “What do you mean?” I shouted, following closely behind them. Another doctor came up to me and stopped me. “You can’t go any farther, ma’am,” he said. I didn’t try to struggle, knowing it only would make things worse. “Just tell me what you mean!” I shouted one last time. The man stopped and turned around, much to the nurse’s dismay. “I know you’ve seen it, lady. I don’t know what it is you’ve seen, but I know you’ve seen it.”
Frank and the nurse disappeared and I returned to my spot. The doctor hooked the machines back up to me. I heard a slow, methodical laugh coming from behind me. I half expected it to be the crazy woman next to me, but when I looked over, she was sleeping. I felt a hot breath on the back of my neck, and when I turned around I was looking into the gray eyes of the woman. I closed my eyes, hoping she would disappear, but when I opened them she was still there. She was breathing heavily, her smile gone. I felt the hairs rise on the back of my neck. I noticed a necklace draped around her neck. It was gold and had a small heart charm on it with a green rhinestone in the center. It looked just like the one I gave my mom for her birthday last year. She noticed that I was staring at it, and with an awkward grunt, she crawled away.
My fifth day there, while in a hot, frenzied sleep, I dreamt I was back at the cobblestone paths with Ryan. He was normal and happy; the willow tree was still fallen over, the cottage deserted. He was telling me a story of a time when he and his family went camping. He had gotten up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom when he noticed a strange animal rummaging through their supplies. The animal had horns and long claws and tufts of its fur were missing. Ryan tried not to make a sound, scared the animal would pounce on him, but he stepped on a twig, and in an instant the animal was staring at him. Its eyes were red and beady. I never found out how that story ended, but every time our senior class would take a trip out to the campgrounds, Ryan never went.
When I woke up, I realized it wasn’t a dream I had had, but a mere recollection of something that had happened a few months prior. Frank’s words sat at the edge of my brain, taunting me with what had to be done. “Get rid of illusion,” he said, like the whole disease was a placebo. The blisters on my arms burst and puss came out freely. My hair still hadn’t stopped falling out and my skin was still an awkward yellow. “I don’t know what you’ve seen, but I know you’ve seen it,” his words repeated in my head over and over again. I knew I had only a couple more days.