At Eternity's Edge

The phone rang a fourth time on the wall, but Terry Fields was in a craze of misery as he grasped for the scattered, milky excedrin pills on the tile floor of the kitchen that he had knocked over when this latest migrane ignited his brain.

RING! RING!

Every ring was like a sharp hammer to his temples, his eyes were raining salty drops of fear and anguish onto his shadowy reflection of the waxed tile floor.

RING! RING!

Two more quick swings of the sharp hammer into his temples made Terry cover his mouth as he felt nausea rising to the surface. Choking back his gag reflex, Terry prayed, "Dear God, please! Stop the phone! Please...make it stop!"

A couple of intense seconds passed and Terry waited for another double smack to his temples, but the silence continued. Terry's face was drenched in sweat and his head was hot to the touch as if it were only seconds from combusting. Terry thanked God that the person on the other line had given up calling him when they did.

The migrane's searing claws were slowly unhinging from Terry's soft brain, as he steadied his breath and shoved three excedrin pills into his mouth and dry-swallowed them.

Carefully cleaning the mess of pills on the floor, Terry put the pills back into the kitchen cupboard and held his head in his hand while leaning against the refrigerator. The pain had receded to manageable levels. Checking his watch, Terry cursed under his breath as he hurried into his Walgreen's Chemist Coat uniform and rushed out of the door to take his shift.

Stoplights in Flint seemed to have conspired against him as he caught every red one into work. He blundered through the line of patient customers at the "Prescription Drop-Off" window in order to reach the door to the back office.

"Excuse me...pardon me, miss...sir, I'm so sorry...whoops...LULU!"

A little tight-faced old harpy narrowed her eyes up at Terry as he fumbled through the door to the back of the pharmacy's countertop.

"It's 10:30, Terry," Lulu hissed venomously. Terry gulped and attempted to explain himself but Lulu held up a withered hand, "Nevermind! Get to work and help out your life partner, Danny, over there at the desk. He's already overdosed three clients and switched an antibiotic for an anti-psychotic! I swear to GOD Terry...!"

"Yes ma'am!" Terry yelped and rushed over to Danny Ronalds, Terry's best friend since school. He helped Danny land a job at Walgreen's with himself, but Danny's been showing a great deal of counterproduction. Since Danny's worked with Terry, Lulu has received seven lawsuit threats, but Terry had always been able to smooth things over.

"Sorry, Ter. I guess the ol' bloodsucker's going to kick me out this time."

"Don't be silly, Dan," Terry glanced back over at Lulu who was rearranging the mismatched bags of medicine Danny had arranged earlier and was swearing under her breath so viciously, her dentures flopped out of her wrinkled growl, "she...uh, loves you."

"Yeah right!" Danny chuckled and proceeded to help the next customer in line.

Terry and Danny were nearing the end of the drop-off line, when Terry felt the pain rebounding in his head. Holding his forehead, he moaned slightly when the cash register's money cache slammed shut.

"Ter?" Danny glanced over at Terry, "Man, again? You need to get that looked at, man. You should NOT be having that many headaches."

"I swear, Danny...the one I had just before coming here...I thought I was going to die."

"Geez..." Danny finished with the last customer and turned to Terry, "What's Vivi say?"

"Ah, I haven't told her. She knows I have headaches, but just not how bad."

"Well, you do whatcha gotta do, but I'm tellin' ya, if I were you, I'd get myself checked out."

"DANNY!" Lulu screamed. Terry clapped his hands over his ears and fell to a knee in agony. Lulu's voice fueled the monster in his head and the sharp hammers started up again in his temples. "Guess who was on the phone!"

"Terry, are you alright!" Danny was not even paying attention to the purple-faced Lulu.

"Do you remember, Carol Smith, Danny? Of course you don't! She came in for vicodin, and you gave her friggin' RIDDLIN! Now, not only is she in pain, but she's depressed too!"

The pain doubled, and then tripled in Terry's head, the very blood vessels on his face and skull were popping to the surface and seething. In a matter of seconds, Terry was back to the extreme agony of his last migrane.

"But guess who got the vicodin, Danny! Little Timmy Johnson! His mother's frantic, because not only is he not calming down, but now when he runs into the wall, he says, 'It's okay mama, I CAN'T FEEL A THING!"

"TERRY!" Danny was crouching down next to his friend.

Terry Fields was drowning in searing hot agony. A trickle of warm wettness flowed out of his ear and nostrils, and the pharmacy began to unfocus and soon fade into total black.

"Lord, Terry, you're bleeding!" Danny yelped.

Not even noticing her employee on the ground...or perhaps not caring, Lulu continued to rave, "That's lawsuit number eight AND nine, Danny! Why dontcha just inject the next slob that meanders up here with HEROIN and make it an even TEN!"

"SHUT UP!" Danny screamed back, "Call an ambulance!"

Lulu was taken back at Danny's sudden counterattack. The two of them continued to yell at each other while Terry's pain both blinded and deafened him. Falling into a black nothingness, surrounded on all sides with pain, Terry felt himself growing weary, his consciousness wavering under the pressure beneath his skull.

It was so sudden. A shot of unimaginable pain ripped through the darkness. Terry felt his limbs go numb and a flash of light protruded through the eternal black. A great crescent blade of light seared into Terry's mind, its sharp edge seemed to divide him from the abyss beyond it. The crescent light mirrored an image to Terry and in that moment, he witnessed Lulu, her face was contorted in pain, her hand clutching her chest as she fell face down to the floor dead.

The darkness retreated behind the blade and the migrane released Terry's brain entirely, flinging him back to the pharmacy where Danny was still yelling, but this time at the EMS drivers who were fastening Terry to a gurney.

"One, two, three!" the EMS drivers hoisted the gurney up into the ambulance and Danny crawled in beside Terry. Outside, Lulu was being questioned by a policeman, she was taking a long drag of a cigarette and rolling her eyes at her inquisitor.

"Terry?" Danny breathed anxiously.

"Lulu..." Terry slurred out.

"Bloodsucker! Had to force my way through her to get to the phone and call the ambulance. Sometimes I wish she'd just drop dead!"

The doors to the ambulance were pulled shut and Terry felt himself sink into a deep sleep beneath its whirring lights and sirens.