Slam!
I violently shut the front door behind me. There is complete silence in the house - nobody else seems to be home. Jazz is probably still at school doing a project and my parents are at a ghost convention for a few days and would only come back later in the week. Trying to stop my head from spinning, I shuffle into the bathroom and snatch a thermometer out of the cupboard. Placing it in my mouth, I squint to read my temperature. I can only stare in awe and terror as the numbers continue to rise way above normal parameters. Surely it can't be right? I have an ice core, I should be lower than usual. At this rate, I should be dead! As if to ominously echo my previous thought, the thermometer cracks with a sharp fracturing sound. Then, I did the only thing a normal human being could do - I panicked. And as the thermometer splintered and cracked, so did the last bit of my calm.
Eyes full of unbridled terror, I stumble frantically over to the sink, turn on the tap and splash the cool water onto my burning face. Everything's going to be alright, I tell myself. The aggression, the temperature, the dizziness - it will all make sense. I just need to figure it out. I glance up and into the mirror to check my sanity, but unfamiliar crimson eyes stare back.
I jolt back as if struck by lightning. My limbs tremble as I clumsily grab each side of the small mirror and bring myself in for a closer look of my reflection. It's probably just a trick of the light. I'm not feeling well and the light is quite dim in here... but no amount of self-reassurance can make up for the fact that my eyes are now truly and undeniably a blood red. My head reels and I feel myself sinking into a heap on the ground in slow motion. A distant voice in my head echoes menacingly. I'm inevitable Daniel. You'll never get rid of me. I shudder in fear. No, this can't be happening! The deep baritone of my evil self echoes in my pounding skull until my legs give out beneath me and all I see is darkness.
Muffled sounds and the pounding in my head are the first things I notice when my consciousness starts to trickle back. Seriously, did anyone get the number plate of the bus that hit me? More like multiple buses judging by the burning pain in my heavy limbs. What the heck happened? Did I get into another late night fight with Skulker? Suddenly, my eyes fly open as I remember my reflection from the previous night. Please let it be a bad dream because I honestly don't know what I would do if it were real.
"Hey Danny!" Jazz walks through my bedroom door just in time to make me pause in my panicked delirium. "You're finally awake! Are you alright? I found you collapsed on the bathroom floor when I came home last night. I saw the thermometer that broke with your fall. If you were that sick you should have just told me," She lectures with an exasperated shake of her head as she sits next to me on my bed.
I look over to her concerned face. Rubbing my fingers over my temples, I answer her. "Yeah, I'm fine. Say, are mom and dad home? I can hear them in the kitchen."
Jazz gives me a nervous look. "Well about that... I sort of called them when I found you and they were so worried and well..." I stare at her with an unimpressed look in my eyes as she continues to talk at a lightning-fast pace. " ...They couldn't leave their convention yet so that called Vl-"
A knock on the door and we look up. There, leaning against the doorframe, is the confirmation that my life sucks.
"Hello Little Badger, seems you took quite a tumble last night."