Crona sniffled. It was allergy season. Pollen was in the air, ruining the beautiful weather for any poor bastard with allergies, including Crona.

"Awe, jeez," they mumbled, rubbing their itchy eyes, "It's gonna be a long day."

Ragnarok was even more irritable than usual. His eyes itched, too, and he had a sore throat. He knew that Crona had the same symptoms, and refused to be the more miserabl out of the two of them.

"You idiot! Do something about this!" He beat his tiny fists on Crona's head.

"Ow- stop it! There's nothing to be done, remember? Every year we just suffer through the season!"

Hours dragged through the day. Crona did their best to keep from being a distraction in class, but their freinds were clearly noticing that they were having a problem. Tsubaki finally spoke up.

"Uh...Crona? Are you getting sick? I can walk you to go see Nygus, if you're nervous."

"No thank you. I'm just having allergies."

"Oh." Tsubaki smiled and reached into her purse. "Here, try one of these. Lots of people have problems this time of year, so I keep a few on hand just in case."

Crona examined a small, individually-wrapped tablet labelled "DEATHDRYLL" and shrugged. It couldn't hurt. As soon as class was over, they headed to the nearest water fountain and took the medicine.

It took around half an hour, but the relief was worth the wait. The swelling in their eyes went down, the itching stopped, the sore throat felt a little better, and the runny nose calmed down. It was like a miracle.

"We've got to get more of this stuff!" Ragnarok exclaimed giddily, "I feel great!"

It only took a quick trip to the local convenience store to find another box. Crona bought two, just to be safe.

The next morning was when the nightmare began. Crona awoke with one of the worst allergy attacks they'd ever had- their eyes were swollen shut and watering, feeling as though they'd burn right through their eyelids.

"GET THE BOX," Ragnarok barked, "WE'RE DYING."

They weren't, but it sure felt like they could be. They were miserable.

"I can't read the box," Crona admitted, "My eyes are too swollen." They had no idea how many to take.

"Just hand it over," Ragnarok ordered, "I'll do it!"

He didn't count how many he he took. He didn't care. He wasn't going to try and read through the tears and the swollen eyes, he just wanted some relief.

Soon, things started to feel wrong. The walls were closing in. Something was at the window, pounding on it, trying to get in. Snakes slithered out from under the bed and across the floor. Furniture was reaching out to grab them.

Crona raced to the sink to wash their face. It felt like their skin was crawling off. This was the most anxious they'd ever been, and that was really something.

As they reached for the stream of water, something grabbed their wrist and tried to yank them down the drain into the sink. They screeched at the top of their lungs for help.

"LET GO! LET ME GO!"

Footsteps thundered toward them from up the hall and pounded on the front door. Maka's voice came from the other side.

"Crona? Are you okay?" She juggled the knob. "Crona?"

"Help me!"

Maka kicked down the door, wielding Soul in his scythe form. She was expecting to see intruders in Crona's apartment, but all she only found furniture strewn across the living room.

"Where are you?"

"In here!"

That wasn't a very helpful response, but she could tell which direction it was coming from and, since the apartment was very small, it took her no time flat to find Crona laying on the bathroom floor, screaming. Nobody else was there, but they acted like they were under attack.

Black blood was everywhere, the mirror was broken, and the shower curtain was ripped to shreds by what Maka assumed had been bloody needle attacks.

"Crona? What happened in here?"

"Maka, please, make it let me go!" Crona whimpered, clutching one arm close to their chest.

"Crona, nothing's holding you. Look at me- you're okay!" She crouched by their side and held their shoulders.

Crona opened one eye and, to their horror, saw Maka kneeling next to them with blood all over her face and snakes pouring from her mouth. One particularly big snake flopped out and bit her, ripping her stomach open and crawling inside to feed on her organs.

"Crona? Are you okay?"

They pulled free of Maka's grasp and stumbled backwards, falling into the tub. "Maka, your face- you're bleeding! The snakes are eating you!"

"What snakes? There are no snakes!" Soul changed back to human form. "Get a hold of yourself there, buddy. Maka's just fine, see?"

Oh, they could see alright. They saw the snake just fine as it slithered out of the empty cavity of Maka's torso and out onto the floor in a heap, leaving a puddle of sticky crimson blood beneath it.

Maka and Soul took no time contacting Stein on a fragment of mirror from the floor. The professor showed up in no time and dragged Crona, kicking and screaming the whole way, to the infirmary.

The next day, Nygus had a diagnosis.

"You overdosed on Deathdryll."

Crona shot Ragnarok a dirty look.

"You said you'd handle it!"

"I mean the allergies, not the reading! I was itchy!"

"Well, hallucinating didn't feel too good, either, did it?"

"Hey, shut up!"

Nygus broke up the fight before it began.

"Easy, now. You've gotta be careful taking this stuff."

Stein nodded.

"In the future, be careful while taking these. There's no such thing as a good trip on this shit, kid."

Crona nodded. They planned on committing the dosage to memory because they never wanted to see that sort of fucked up shit again so long as they lived.

Crona was released that day and stayed with their friends to help keep from dwelling on the memories of the previous day.

"I'm sorry- this is all my fault!" Tsubaki hung her head in shame. "I forgot to warn you about the doses."

Ragnarok snorted. "Yeah, it really is. Fuck you!"

Crona did their best to hold the little demon back.

"N-No, really, it's our fault for not reading the box. You really helped with our allergies. Thank you!"

From that day on, Crona always read the box very, carefully before dealing with their allergies. Ragnarok wasn't allowed to touch the tablets at all.

AN:

Apparently hallucinating and not being able to tell it from reality is a legit thing that can happen with antihistamines and it's it's always horrible and terrifying so if you have allergies like me be careful and make sure you follow the recommended dosages!

(I've never personally had the displeasure of experiencing this but just thought I'd put it out there so nobody tries it.)