Illusions of Reality

The universe is moving all around us. It expands and contracts, builds and decays. It moves along a track, growing in almost measurable amounts. Sometimes, however, it skips the track, so to speak. This send ripples out like a stone in a pond. Most of the effects are small, and harmless such as taking a new route to work for no reason, or animals acting strangely. Some of the more severe effects can be turning suddenly mute, blind, or deaf, paralyzed, or combinations of other maladies. Very rarely the ripples affect people much more seriously. They may experience horrible hallucinations where the lines of what is real and what is not begin to blur and merge. Eventually, everything becomes distorted, and the person cannot tell what real is anymore. These effects worsen until the person either dies or the universe rights itself. However even if the universe rights itself before the person leaves this world the hallucinatory effects can be permanent. These events happen, and to show you, I present the story of Michael Richards, one who was unfortunate enough to feel the full effects of this universal slip.



The day started out as any other day. Michael got out of bed at 8:45 a.m. and took a shower. He was a sophomore at Arcadia University. He had been lucky enough to be put in a single room dorm, meaning he got his own shower and his own space. He had never been a very big people person, so being alone suited him just fine. This is not to say that he didn’t have any friends, just that at the end of the day he preferred quietness and few distractions. After he finished his shower, he dressed and took out a bowl and some cereal. It was a Tuesday, and usually he didn’t have to wake up this early, but he had a study session for his twelve o’ clock class. He was meeting with Vicky Wilson, a girl he had been eyeing for a while. He had been too shy to ask her out, and had been excited when they had been paired as study partners. Well he had been secretly excited about it, but Vicky didn’t seem to care. He poured the cereal and milk into the bowl, and took a bite. Something wiggled inside his mouth, and burst as he bit into it. A thick slime slid down his throat. It coated the sides of his throat as it went down, causing him to gag reflexively. He looked down into the bowl and brought his spoon back out. Sitting on his spoon, squirming in his Cornflakes was a fat, white maggot. He let his spoon fall back into the bowl. Apparently he had waited to long to buy new cereal. He poured out the bowl into the sink and the maggots mixed in with the milk. Before he tossed the cereal box he looked into it, and had to stop himself from throwing up as he saw hordes of maggots crawling in the box. He threw the box away in disgust, and took the trash bag out to the third floors garbage chute. It was a large dorm, reaching up eight stories. Most of the students lived in this one building, so it made it easy for the university to keep up with them.


He went back to his room and grabbed his books. He had the chemistry class from twelve to two, meaning after the study session he would grab a quick lunch and then head to class. He checked around his room to make sure that everything was secure and that all the windows were shut and locked. Everything looked fine so he locked his door and headed down. It was a deathly hot day already and it was supposed to get worse, even the shade of the oaks and maples that covered the campus grounds did little to stop the heat. He went quickly across the shaded campus, making good time as he headed to the library. As he passed Davidson Hall he saw a figure robed completely in black. Michael dismissed him as one of the Goths that lived on campus. All he knew is that he must be burning alive in that cloak. He laughed softly to himself at the poor fortune of that kid, and he wondered how he hadn’t passed out from the heat. Michael saw the steps of the library and quickly ascended them.
Michael arrived at the Himly Library and Media Center at 9:25, five minutes before Vicky would arrive. He sat his books on one of the tables and grabbed a few books off the shelves that would be helpful.


At 9:35, arriving fashionably late, Vicky strode in though the library doors. She waved at Michael, and hurried to where he sat. They greeted each other, and began to work. As they studied Michael looked up whenever he could, however it was only for brief, fleeting moments. One would call out enzymes, definitions, and such while the other answered the questions. This continued for half an hour before he really had a chance to look at her. Usually, her face was perfect, as well as her hair, and eyes. Today something was different. There was pimple on the middle of her left cheek. He had never seen any blemish on her face before. As he looked at it, it grew. She seemed not to notice. Her arms began to swell, more bumps raised on her face, and she continued to work. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head to try and clear his mind. One of the bumps on her face burst leaking out a noxious white-green fluid. More of the bumps burst. It looked as if the skin was melting off of her. He tried to talk but his voice was jammed in his throat. He had no idea what was happening to Vicky. As she reached for another book some of the ooze slung towards him. He fell back in his chair. Michael was breathing hard now. She stood on the other side of the table, and as she raised her arm to her mouth, he could see skin falling off, revealing bone. He scooted back with his hands. She moved around the table, and in a burbled voice asked if he was all right. Globs of her skin fell to the floor, revealing decaying muscle in some places and bone in others. One of her eyed melted out of its socket and slid down her cheek. The nerve was still attached to the inside of her head, and he could see it keep the eye from sliding any farther. When the nerve weakened, the eye broke loose and hit he floor with a sickening plop. The iris stared right at him.


Someone was laughing in the corner of the library. He looked and saw the black robed figure from earlier. Michael found his legs and ran from the library. He went back to his dorm as fast as he could. He guessed the stress of the past weeks had caught up with him. He had decided to skip his classes, and made a mental note to apologize to Vicky later. It must have been a nightmare or some kind of mirage. He unlocked the door to his room and stepped inside. He had only been up two hours, but already his eyes were blurring and tired. He collapsed onto his bed and drifted a nightmare filled sleep.



He awoke suddenly after a series of horrible dreams. They had been filled with the death of his parents, the tragic car crash, and the loss of his little brother. He felt as if he was on fire himself. The room was horrible hot. As he starred at the ceiling something skittered across his arm. He grabbed at it with his hand, and brought it up to see what it was. A roach moved its legs feebly, squirming in a dying frenzy. He sat up and looked in horror at his floor. Roaches scurried everywhere, huge spiders and scorpions mingled in amongst them. Some were deformed having to many legs, or multiple bodies. He also saw some bugs he didn’t recognize, with claws and sharp pincers. These bugs feasted on the others. He saw one of the spiders grasp a roach and pierce its armor with its fangs. Another insect came and began to pull at the spider’s legs. He jumped out of bed, he was thankful he hadn’t removed his shoes, and crunched through his moving carpet of insects. He saw the time as he was leaving; it was 8:45 p.m. Exactly twelve hours since he had awakened this morning. He left his dorm and saw the bugs had spread to the halls as well. Vines with sharp thorns covered the elevator door. Bugs crawled on the walls as well as the floor. Giant slugs left there silver trails where the slithered. His head hurt, he could not believe what he was seeing. It couldn’t be real, things like this didn’t happen in the real world. This hall felt like an inferno. He found the stairs, and threw open the door. Hot air blasted him in the face. He peered down and saw fire licking up the walls and steps. He tried to open up the door again, but it wouldn’t budge. Michael yelled for help. The fire moved upward, causing the bugs to burst with a disturbing pop. He ran up the stairs and kept going past the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh floors. All of those doors were locked. The door to the eighth floor was open, and he burst into the hallway. He saw the students standing in their own oozing. It was far worse than what he had seen with Vicky. Some had lost appendages and others had lost their eyes, leaving only holes for them to look out of, or had holes in their abdomen where their entrails were leaking out. The intestines trailed on the ground, squelching when another’s foot stepped on it. One boy’s arm separated from his body, the bony fingers opened and closed even after it hit the ground. Michael could not control himself, and he threw up violently covering the floor around his feet. The bugs that had not been drowned by the projection, came and congregated near that spot, picking up any of the bits of food that hadn’t been digested. Some of the larger bugs went to bigger prey climbing up the oozing students and burying into their soft abdomens, and some even pushed them selves into the skulls of the students. The students moved toward the doorway, toward him.


Michael ran back though the door, and up towards the roof. The fire and the students followed him. The fire had caught some of them and they had burst into flames. They kept going even after the fire had caught him. When he reached the roof door he pushed and it didn’t budge. He pushed again and the door creaked open. He ran out on the roof, and peered over the edge. Lava poured though the campus. Walkways and the grassy student park were covered in the bubbling yellow lava. It shot up in geysers from manholes and engulfed everything it touched. The huge oaks and maples were set ablaze before they were consumed into the hungry inferno. He saw the being in black on the roof with him. It was laughing as it pulled back its hood to reveal a bony skull with red light beaming from the sockets. It put out a hand from under his cloak and beckoned Michael to come and join him. Behind him the things that used to be students approached, and below him lava poured. Michael stood up on the ledge of the building. Death approached him from all sides. Michael knew he had to make a choice. He closed his eyes and fell.


But as it always does the universe rights itself. Sometimes it takes hours, sometimes years. But alas, as the universe righted itself on its tracks, Michael’s world was crashing into an eternal darkness, one that is never escaped. You see the lines of what is real and what were imagined had been crossed to complexly. No one understood the real reason that Michael had taken that final leap. No one but you know of the horrors he had faced in the hours before his death. It was written off as stress, or rejection. Some dared even to say he was depressed and troubled. Even his parents didn’t question that. He was buried in Elysian Fields cemetery, in a plot under the shade of an oak. No one saw the figure in black that moved among the mourners. Only Michael saw him as he took the bone white hand and was lead to whatever heaven or hell waited for him.