Blinking in confusion he started coming around to the sounds of thrashing and screaming. His first thought was that Carl must have been trying to get in, he began panicking "was he safe here, wait where was he?". The clearer his mind became and the more into consciousness he rose, the realization hit him and the true horror finally clicked in his head.

As the last of the darkness subsided all he could think was "Pain, so much pain" his entire leg felt like an army of wasps were stinging him over and over and over...

Realizing you're the one thrashing around in hysteria and stopping it arent quite the same thing apparently. Especially when your body decides you are an idiot and goes into full pain-induced auto mode.

For an unknown time his body just lay there spasming and thrashing, he couldn't do anything but cry out through the pure agony he felt. At some point hours later, he noticed the sun starting to illuminate his surroundings. His throat was raw and the pain was still like nothing he had ever felt before now, but this was the first time he had managed a single thought other than the pain so far.

Mind still reeling and wanting to go back to screaming, he steeled his resolve. Looking down, the place he had been bitten was looking worse than the night before. The now fully brown oozing bite mark had dark tendril-like lines of what he assumed to be infection making its way under the skin towards the knee. The skin was pale now but it looked melted with blisters and peeling skin all over. The whole thing looked like someone's failed attempt at Halloween makeup.

With how pale his exposed leg had become and the fact he was uncontrollably shivering now with how cold he felt, he assumed the virus had definitely not been stopped by the boiling water.

What else could he do though? He wasn't a doctor and he definitely wasn't some action hero who would lop it off with a butter knife then go save the day. Nope, he would bleed out on the floor cowering from the first shallow cut, nope that really isn't an option. He didn't have a first aid kit or any antibiotics either, all he could really do was bandage it right?

?????.... Salt!

"Salt? yeah, that might work! Why didn't I think of that?, wait I did think of it" he croaked a laugh at his idiocy.

He managed to reach onto the kitchen counter near him without moving the leg too much. Thumbling around he reached what he was looking for. He pulled the flat metal tray towards himself and grabbed the clear glass salt shaker from its stand. Having gotten the salt, he let go and gravity dealt with the landing for him. Back on the floor with a thump, he realized he no longer feared Carl hearing him at least. If he didn't come with the screaming he had made, it's unlikely this was enough noise.

Deciding pouring salt directly on the wound was a bad idea, he opened the lower cupboard door on his left and grabbed a tea towel from the pile. Pouring the salt onto the floral rag, he began to wrap it around the leg. The moment the salt touched his raw burned skin a new level of pain hit him. He suppressed his screaming this time, but tears streamed down his face, it hurt so bad he thought.

??????.... ha ha ha

He was sure this time, he heard it, a mocking type of laugh from somewhere close. Looking all around sporadically he couldn't see anything weird. Straining to hear, there wasn't anything unusual so far as he could tell. "Oh god, I'm going insane," he thought. Thinking back now, he regretted ever coming off the meds. His mind was obviously being slowly broken and now he was hallucinating shit.

After the initial pain of the salt though, it slowly started subsiding and within minutes, sweet numbness returned to the leg. Not sure if that meant it was a good thing or a bad thing, he was just relieved. The heat and pain had let up finally and he just hoped the feeling of pain was gone and not going to come back in a few minutes with vengeance.

He could handle hobbling for now, but the pain of his boiled blistery leg was not ideal if he needed to run. When one knock could send him into spasm, numbness was welcomed as an alternative.

Wishing he had learned a little more about basic first aid, the most he could accomplish now with his knowledge was to wrap a clean dish rag around the leg and hope it was enough!

Finally, fully alert and wound taken care of, he noticed the sun was pretty high, he assumed maybe 11am.

With the pain settled his stomach decided it wanted a little attention now and started grumbling to let him know it. The honey hoops cereal he had brought the other day was pretty close to him, snatching the box from the counter he began eating, "oh god, these are so good!" He thought. before he realized it the entire box was empty and he was reaching for a box of cornflakes. It was as he was ripping into the second box that his stomach started to talk to him again.

Grumbling started with a growing churning feeling, as with everything this week even food was now fucking with him. He threw up chunks of cereal all over, coughing and retching he decided maybe he should wait to eat anything else.

Feeling still too weak to stand he dragged his way across the room to the ruffled couch. Pulling the cushions onto the floor he got into a propped position. The electricity was on but when he tried the tv every channel was just black showing a message of no signal. He'd placed the phone on charge a while ago but even that was acting up now it was back on. The signal was full bars but all it displayed was "emergency only". "Was this because of that band wave thing the call operator had said about?", he thought.

A few long hours past and at some point he must have dozed off, he came back around to darkness and screaming from everywhere, he was pretty sure he could hear Carls's voice in the fray but it came from inside and outside all at once, some distant and some close. He looked at his phone in alarm, the clock read 6pm. Being in autumn it was dark outside now, but this was stranger. His apartment gets dark at night sure, but there is always some form of light, living in a city you don't realize how bright it is with street lamps, signs, electronics, etc...

This wasn't normal dark, he couldn't make out anything in the place without his phone for light. The power seemed to be off now and his phone was no longer charging. Unplugging the phone from its charging point he used the couch to prop himself up. Feeling a little better after the rest he managed to stand using his good leg to carry the weight, once stable he made his way slowly to the window hobbling along. The dark was bad on its own but the screaming sounds were making it terrifying.

Reaching the window, he pulled back the blinds to look out nervously.

His view had never been amazing but tonight he could barely make out even the rooftops near his in this darkness. There were no street lights on at all and everything looked eerily still, it was like being in the countryside on a cloudy night. In the distance, he thought he could see flashes or maybe fire, but it was too far away to be sure.

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Staring out there into the sightless screaming void just made him more on edge the longer he looked. He had to stop looking after a while though, he was no closer to seeing what was causing the screams but every now and again he thought he saw something move. He was sure it was in his head but every so often a shadow would catch his eye or a reflection would make him think of hungry eyes staring back. It was too freaky, and he was probably making anything out there ten times worse in his imagination. Slumping back to the couch he spent the night cradling his poker and hiding in the sofa fort he had arranged the cushions into.

Intermittently checking the time on his phone waiting for the safety of morning sun. He was left feeling completely distraught and in wonder when his clock was showing 9am but everything was still not illuminated by glorious sunlight at all. This wasn't even gloomy British weather's fault, it was just pure darkness. "This wasn't right!" Is all he could think, he kept checking the time but unless the clock was trolling him, "it should at least be bright enough to see by now right?".

By 10.36am he had given up on the idea of the sun helping him in any way and threw the situation into the pile of everything else happening he couldn't make sense of.

Realizing the phone's battery wouldn't last if he kept using it as a make-shift torch, he set his mind to searching his apartment for something to use instead.

By the end of his scouring of the place, he had found one windup torch, one dusty half-burned pomegranate scented candle jar, an old box of four unused Christmas LED lights, and an assortment of clipper lighters. Grimacing at his lack of readiness for any disaster at all, he placed the torch into his pocket for when he needed a hand light and lit the scented candle. Despite its small size the lack of any other light source in the room, made the tiny flame fill the room in a warm soft glow.

He kept checking the window though, just hoping it was maybe a weird eclipse or even something stupid like the clock being wrong but by 4pm he had given up on this idea. By this point, the hellish screaming had almost become like white noise to him and after hours and hours was no longer even scary. Now the sound was like a buzzing his background he knew about but ignored.

Sometime later that evening while reading an old X-Men comic he had found on his search earlier, he tried to eat again. He slowly snacked on some dry instant noodles, "just hope it stays down this time" he groaned to himself. He was so so hungry, his body was still in a cold shivering sweat trying to fight the virus and his fatigue just kept growing with the passing hours... He needed food in him!

It wasn't that he couldn't eat, it was just so far every attempt at eating ended up being a waste of effort and food. He would start eating the food and within minutes the grumbling churning feeling would start. As it was some sentient being, right on cue, he snatched up the bowl he had placed close by learning from his past three attempts. By this point the stuff coming out didn't even look like vomit anymore, it was just soggy undigested mushed-up food. Feeling worse than ever, his head was pounding after all the strain of retching up his precious dwindling food supply.

?????.... Yummy!

Feeling too weak he didn't even look around for the sound this time, his Brain was breaking and he knew it!

Unsure whether it was because of the events leading to now or because of some virus-induced delirium. He kept hearing it, every now and again, always like a hushed whisper or at a time when he was deep in thought. By now he was sure it was a voice though, he just wondered whether it was his mind or the infection causing it?

If he was in a better state of mind he would have realized his next idea wasn't as great as he thought it was, but he wasn't in a great state of mind at all so... He made a decision, "let's test it" he thought.

He could no longer get up by this point, so feeling weak, he dragged his fatigued sickly pale body across the floor to the drawers near his bed.

Reaching up, he grabbed the little plastic bottle from the top it had been left on. Pulling it up to his face to look, he smiled at the pills he knew were inside waiting to make the voices go away. He popped it open and poured the last two pills into his mouth, with no water close by he just swallowed until they were forcibly gone down his throat. Allowing his self to flop down onto the floor he laid there waiting... but he was an idiot!

What was he thinking the pills didn't work that fast, "Fuck" he shouted as this realization dawned. It would take hours if at all. From this miserable understanding, it wasn't clarity that struck him now, nope it was his second dumb idea in minutes instead.

Grinning he thought of a way to test it faster than unreliable meds. His mind had left all reasonable thought behind by now, so thinking back to his visit with Candy which now felt so long ago but was in fact a few days ago. He remembered about that brown package in the middle draw sat just above him right now. "They would work faster right?", "could he even keep them down though?" He wondered.

Feeling rather down and miserable with everything, he made his mind up. "Fuck it," he thought, what's the worst that could happen now?...

Unsure of dosage, he just ate and ate until they were gone. He was surprised when not only could he actually eat these disgusting mushrooms but he even felt full after. Laying there grinning at finally feeling fulfilled he started to dose off happy.

This peaceful slumber didn't last though, he awoke to maniacal laughter filling his entire room, it was from every direction all at once. From here though the night just got worse, within hours he was cowering watching his walls bleeding and pulsing like veins. Worst of all was the dancing demons that would fade in and out of the shadows, tormenting him all night.

Unsure when the hallucinations finally passed but by morning the effects of the pills were taking over the pilot seat. He crashed hard, replacing the hallucinations, dark thoughts slowly started to seep inside his head. At first, they weren't too bad just minor things, but like his dwindling candlelight, everything got darker and darker until like the sky outside there was no light at all in his mind.

Thoughts of becoming like his Landlord started floating, he didn't want to turn into a psychotic madman until eventually, he died from his body giving out. Then the regret of his last contact with his dad kept popping into his head, would his parents be ok?

Then worst of all the dark thoughts came, "does he even care, none of his family love him right?", even his so-called friends online were no better!

He knew deep down these weren't his real thoughts but he couldn't drown it out, "was he even worth saving?", even the call operator had sounded like he was a "burden" as well!

With that one word though "Burden"...

he finally hit the bottom, there was no light anymore, he had always been just that! A burden to everyone, he had been a drain to his parent's finances, his friends just a distraction he used to get through the boredom of daily life. And that was it really right? He was bored of it all, just going through the actions of surviving but never actually living.

He didn't even realize he had decided on his last plan before he was already moving, using his last bit of fading motivation and energy. Dragging himself like a pathetic slug, he made it to the bathroom door with its thick sturdy metal knob. Almost like it was natural and right, it all went so easy now, no struggling the journey across the room came fast. Even the tool he needed was right there laying in his path like it was always meant to be.

He smiled while he looped one end of the fabric belt to the doorknob, again it just felt right to him, the belt's larger empty loop when created even sat at a perfect height not too low and not too high!

Tears falling down his cheek now he laughed, why had it taken so long to see what he really needed. Even before this whole bullshit started "was he ever happy?", He couldn't remember.

Pulling himself up so his head was lazily resting on the door, he slipped the makeshift hangman's knot over his head to rest on his neck. With just one final laugh and no goodbyes, feeling content he just slid down embracing the warm dark end he knew was close...

Within mere moments before the tension was even felt on his neck, he sobered up instantly. Like a sudden light bulb screaming in his head terror at what he had done hit him. The fucking cheap fabric belt tightened now as he fell. He thrashed and shouted but gravity cut the voice coming out along with the air coming in. He just made gurgling sounds while foamy spittle flew out his horrified face.

He tugged and scratched at the belt around his neck, thrashing and kicking against the door he couldn't prop himself up, he wasn't strong enough. Mind reeling in terror fighting with everything fiber of the will to live he had left, the darkness finally won, his vision started to blur fast. Everything slowly faded and his fleeting adrenalin finally gave out, until nothing was left. The darkness swallowing him into its embrace and finally, he was gone too...