Blood. Bright red. It hurt coming out. Smelled like sewage. Or rotting garbage. The pain made him sick. He wanted to throw up. Teeth sized bite marks had gotten brown and chapped.

Doctors had been no help. "It's nothing to worry about. It's probably just a small tear and constipation. Try a banana." The banana only made it worse. After a few days he stopped eating them. Fuck. Fuck that doctor. 

"If this is an emergency please dial 911, for all other callers please choose from the following menu options. The office is now closed. To leave a non-urgent message please dial 1. For urgent messages, that cannot wait until office hours resume, please dial 7 and a represenative will speak with you."

Dials 7.

Ring. Ring. Ring. This call may be monitored for quality assurance. "Hello?"

“Hi, my name is Alek Mersky, my birthday is July 9th 2001, I see doctor Manson Mengal”

“Hold on, what was your date of birth again?”

“ Seven, nine, zero, one."

“Alek?”

“Yes”

“Ok, what seems to be the problem?”

“The pain. There’s just so much blood when I go the bathroom. Please help me. My head is pounding. I’m feeling lightheaded.”

“Ok, hang on, I will page the on call. What teleportation number can we reach you at?”

“Thank you, Zone 714A, Section 704-884-4484”

“Sure, please call back if you don’t see doctor Gruberlin within 15 minutes.”

He felt some relief that a doctor would see him soon. But the pain in his head was blinding. His skull felt like it was pushing through his eyes.

10 minutes later. Alek had opened his laptop as he waited near the teleportation matt in his living room.

“Don’t jerk off.” His urges got stronger. “Please, come on not now.” Pulls open porn. “What if you die while jerking off.” Lowers shorts.  

Bring Bring… Bring Bring.

“Account number 8A7-9541-112 has requested permission to teleport to you. Would you like to accept?”

“yes”

“Confirmed. Please allow up to twenty seconds for transfer to complete.”

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Alek pulled up his shorts.

Swoosh. Light blue dots fizzled as the doctor entered.

“Please tell me your name and date of birth.”

“Alek Mersky, July 9th, 2001.”

She glanced at a paper in her hand.

“Okay and what seems to be the problem?”

“Blood in my stool. Lightheadedness. Pain when I go.”

“Okay, why don't you lie down for me.”

She pressed on his belly.

“Tell me if this hurts anywhere.”

“No. No. No.”

“Okay and what about now”

Warmth and a faint blue glow filled Alek’s belly. He winced.

“yes. Ahhhh.”

She continued to move her hand all over his belly. Pressing in then releasing so that his belly fat sprang back like jello.

“Okay, let’s take your vitals. Alcier!”

A small green slime appeared in her hand. It was translucent. But, implanted on top of the slime was a screen with wires that ran all the way down to its core. It wrapped around Alek’s chest. Tightly. It felt hard for alek to breath. But the tightness was fleeting, like the poke of a needle.

Ding.

“Heart rate normal. Dehydrated. Blood pressure, ah… Mana inflammation… have you taken any medication recently?"

“No, I hate taking pills.”

“Okay takes 3 tablets of Manodril now, I have some with me if you don’t have any here.”

“We have some.”

“Ok good. I am also going to write you a lab order for a CT scan to see why your mana is so high. Exceliohydrophil!”  A small clear ball appeared in her hands. It was covered in a plastic film with a label marked physicians only.

“I’m also going to leave you with this. It's a medical grade rehydration spell. Have you had one before?"

“No.”

“Let it attach to your body. It will balance your hydration and electrolytes for 24 hours, before it needs a refill of mana. That should be enough to last you to your CT scan tomorrow. Call our office in the morning, or have your parents call us, to get the CT scan order and to set up an appointment to talk about the results. Do you want me to talk to your parents now or should I email them?”

“No, I don’t want to wake them up, just email my mom, [email protected]. And wait, do I need to watch out for anything getting worse?”

“If the pain gets worse, vomiting, more blood, pain in your neck, call 911, but those are rare complications. Try not to worry, ok? Feel better.”

“Thank you doctor, and sorry for waking you up.”

“It’s fine, did you hit me or hit on me?”

“No?”

“Then don’t worry. I've had to call the police on two calls tonight. Okay, goodbye."

“bye”

Then she left. The Manodril quickly relieved his urge to go the bathroom and blunted his pain. After a long night Alek finally went to sleep.

It was dark outside. Like being in a black cloud. He wokeup in agony. The pain was worse. Alek’s belly was swelling. His neck felt like his spine was being stabbed into his mouth.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh”

He frantically screamed trying to wakeup his parents, but he couldn’t hear anything. His vision was blurry, he stumbled into the wall as he tried to turn the light on. The black was terror until the lights turned on. What was that smell? Am I having a stroke? A million thoughts raced through his head. The room was covered in tiny dust particles and bacteria. Like a small galaxy of organisms that had now been made visible.

Crash.

He fell into the hallway table trying to grab the phone. His parents shuffled awake.

His mom called out “what was that?”

Alek tried to answer but he couldn’t speak.

His dad rushed out to see what was going on. Alek was on the floor, in his boxers, his stomach looked like a balloon. Veiny stretch marks pulsed around his belly button.

“Alek?!”

Alek tried to get up, but he fell down the stairs. His head dented the drywall and he passed out.

Bloop.

Alek’s stomach exploded. His organs were now visible, spilling out onto his boxers. Blood dyed the white stairway carpet red and sizzled. Smoke rose from the carpet as it burst into flames.