Psychosis Negative

James was in a fog. It obscured everything. He could hardly see the television that stood six feet in front of him or his girlfriend reading a book five feet away from him. He wondered if it was his eyes or his mind that was incapable of penetrating this boding fog but he could not discern which; his thoughts were weak and he was incapable of thinking anything to deep or that required much time. He was tired too; it seemed like a weight pressed down on his body and mind. He had never experienced sleepiness like he did now and as he sat on the chair in his living room the thought crossed his mind that he might never sleep again. He had tried everything, sleeping pills, warm milk and every other home remedy he knew of. So he knew there wasn’t much he could do. So, with a grunt of frustration, he lay back further in his chair and let the comfort of it tease him with the possibility of sleep.

James woke up from his daze in a panic. Suddenly his mind was sharp again, the exhaustion had left him completely and the fog had been cleared. He crept slowly into the kitchen, stopping at the front door. Standing there were two silhouettes arguing with one another inaudibly. They were waving there arms up and down and shoving one another. Before he could call for help the weariness and fog came back and James collapsed onto the floor, his last glimpse being that of the silhouettes stalking towards him.

He had slept. Whether or not it was for very long it didn’t matter because he had slept. James had awoken on the couch with Jane leaning over him. Yet he didn’t feel any better for having slept and the fog around his mind was still there. James had decided that this fog, this gloom that hung over him and obscured his view, was of the mind because his thoughts had the same fog hanging over them. Outside of his mind Jane was leaning over him, caressing his forehead, but her gentle touch did little to wipe away the fog.

"What's wrong honey? Are you feeling alright?" she asked in her most loving tone.

"I'm fine," was his spurious answer. "I was just going to get a glass of orange juice and must've fallen asleep on the spot." Jane rubbed his forehead again and tucked him in.

The next day James left early for work, he worked as a lawyer for a big law firm, handling small cases usually relating to business affairs. It was the slowest day that James had seen in a while so he sat at his desk and tried to sleep, but he couldn’t. Finally, about a half hour before closing time at 7:00 pm, a beautiful woman walked in. Instantly the fogginess around James’ mind was lifted and the tiredness left his body. She walked right up to James’ desk and sat down.

“Hello,” she said, “My name is Lucy. Perhaps I should tell you why I’m here before we go any further?” James couldn’t say anything, his eyes were fixated on hers and he couldn’t make himself look away. “I was fired the other day simply for doing what everyone tries to do in this world, advance. You see, I’m the co-owner of a large business and when an offer came my way that would put me as owner, well; I just had to take it. Anyone would have, right? But my co-owner found out and then turned all the workers against me. They drove me right out! Surly there must be some legal precedence here? Some sort of conviction on her part?”

James continued to stare at her for almost a minute before he realized she had stopped talking. He began telling her the rights she had and explaining his rates. Lucy nodded at everything he said, her eyes fixated on his and his on hers. She licked her lips.

James couldn't help himself any longer; a force came upon him practically lifting him out of the chair. He lunged for the lady and she returned his embrace. Outside, the sun was just dipping into the horizon.

James arrived home late that evening; his girlfriend had probably been long asleep. He laid in bed next to her but couldn't bring himself to wrap his arm around her or kiss her goodnight. The guilt of being with another woman weighed down on him like a steam press, threatening to flatten him at any moment. He closed his eyes but no sleep came.

It was now very early in the morning and James had given up trying to sleep. He opened his eyes and stared blankly at the ceiling when a soft purring drew his attention to the edge of the bed. When he looked up there stood a creature with the size and appearance of a baby. Its skin was a sickly color, the color of a bruise or someone who might’ve drowned. Its eyes were too big for its body and completely black, there were no pupils at all. Its eyes focused in on James’ eyes and for an instant James could not think a single thought. Then the creature leapt onto James' stomach and started punching him all over. It felt to James that he was being hit with a sledgehammer and he could taste the blood pouring from his nose. James last thought was not of the peculiarity of the creature but of the clearness of thought he was now having and how rested he felt, then his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out.

The next day James called in sick. He was disappointed when Jane insisted that she did the same so she could look after him. He avoided her at all costs, the guilt of being with another woman still hung thickly over his head. All day James lay in his bed trying to sleep. Jane would come in and offer to help but something would come over James and he’d yell horrible words at her until she’d leave the room crying. He was just too tired to care and he still couldn’t think straight. It seemed to him that the fog was getting thicker.

At about 3:00 in the afternoon of that same day James finally felt sleep coming. Right before he drifted off James became aware of a rushing around his head. “It’s probably an open window,” he said to himself but then he remembered that he had closed the windows that morning due to the cool fall air. Suddenly, his mind was made clear again and the sleepiness left him. He sat up and opened his eyes to see three small creatures dancing in the air around his head. They had the body of adults with faces resembling that of a Neanderthal. They were all naked and seemed to have no visible gentiles. They danced and laughed around him, all the while singing an indecipherable song whose melody pierced through to James soul and triggered that primal fear that all creatures possess. "Jane!" he screamed, but she didn’t hear him. James looked up at the ceiling and screamed again as the dancing and laughing continued around his head. Then it was over.

James looked around, there was nothing there. He stood up and went over to the window to get some fresh air. There was an unfamiliar sports car in the driveway and then a knock on the door. Oh no!, he thought, it’s Lucy! Jane was just about to open the door when he dove at her feet. “Honey, please. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, it meant nothing, I love you, I love you, I love you…” he said.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, "It's just the mail man. He always comes at this time." She opened the door and suspense hung over James like an axe then dropped when he saw she was right. He looked past the mailman towards his driveway and noticed that the sports car parked there was now the familiar postal truck. "What were you talking about?"

He didn’t answer. Instead he rushed through the door, past the startled mailman and down the empty street. He had no idea where he was going but he felt a need to run, a need to escape something. He was still very tired, his mind was cloudier than ever and he was afraid of something of which he knew nothing about. He did know, however, that whatever was happening to him wasn’t normal.

James stopped by a tree and leaned against it to catch his breath. He heard a growl behind him. Slowly he turned around. Behind him were six huge dogs, resembling German shepherds. They were all black causing their sharp white teeth to stand out. They were all foaming around the mouth and their eyes were an eerie white.
James backed up a little ways then took off running, but the dogs were much faster than him. Within a minute they were on top of James, tearing flesh from his face, feeding on his innards and gnawing his bones. James was dead, or, so he thought. He woke up once again on his couch, his girlfriend standing in the corner of the living room with her head hung down.

"Are you okay?" She asked with less sympathy in her voice than before, "You passed out again. Some of the neighbors saw you running and then they said you just dropped." James' hands went for his face and he was relieved to feel the flesh covering it.
“Listen, James. We really need to talk. If we…if you want to make this work then we need some change.” James looked at the floor and then back at her and saw the little baby creature that just a few nights ago was on his bed, perched over Jane with a knife in his hand. “I don’t want this to end, but you’ve been so…different these past few weeks.”

Without a moments hesitation James grabbed a nearby book and threw it at the monster. The book was in mid flight when the monster gave a grim smile and morphed into Jane, the book hitting her right in the eye. "Goodbye James!" she sobbed, as she stormed out of the house. James lay there, horrified at what had happened.
Was he going nuts? No, he wasn't. He could feel it. This was real and he had to stop it. All night long James thought of how to get rid of these monsters until he came up with, what he thought, was the perfect plan. He decided to do it the next night which, he realized, would be his birthday. He was no longer tired and there was no more fog.

The plan was ready to go. He would trap one of these creatures and show the world they were real. He hadn't even attempted telling anyone about it yet, who would believe him without proof? They’d probably have him committed for this. But if he could do this, if he could prove to the world, and most importantly himself, that he was not crazy, then everything would be alright. He could get the help that he needed to combat these beasts and maybe even Jane would forgive him and come back. He took the day off from work again and started to prepare.

James had been waiting all night for one of those creatures to appear and at 3:00 am one did. The monster staggered clumsily through the door frame, bending over to fit his tall, lanky frame through the door. He was very skinny; so skinny, in fact, that you could make out his skeleton through his skin. His head was lopsided and his eyes were all black making for a ghostly contrast against his deathly green skin and ragged white tuxedo. The monster laughed a deep, hearty laugh and that was enough for James. He grabbed the rope that lay coiled and noosed next to him and wrapped it around the monsters throat. The monster retaliated in a most unexpected way; he reached into his pocket and pulled out a huge black crow.

The crow flew around the room a few times then dove at James and attempted to peck his eyes out. James tried to block the bird all the while tightening the noose around the tall monsters neck. The tall monster didn’t even put up a fight, every once in a while he’d jiggle but the crow was doing the fighting for him. After a minute James snuck in a well placed smack on the crow and it went careening into a wall where it was enveloped in flames.
Now he had only to continue choking the tall monster until it died, there was no way he was going to risk taking it alive. But before he could finish him off, the small baby monster jumped onto James’ back and started to choke him with his little blue hands. He didn't care about that though and continued to squeeze whatever life the tall monster had out of it. The harder he pulled the harder the little monster behind James squeezed his throat and in a few minutes of struggling both the tall monster and James were dead.

EPILOGUE

The paramedics and the investigators had James’ body on the cart and were waiting to haul it to the morgue. Jane was standing in the bedroom trying not to look at the noose or the mass on top of the cart. The investigator asked her a few brisk questions and then told her she could leave.

"I got the full story from the girlfriend. It was a definite suicide," he said to one of the paramedics.

"Are you sure?"

"Oh, there's no doubt about it. According to his girlfriend he’d been showing all the symptoms. Insomnia, severe agitation, paranoia, it’s almost certain. She said he fainted a lot too, must’ve been anxiety. The poor guy probably had some kind of mental disorder, psychosis or something like that. C’mon, let’s get this body out of here.”

                                                                                                              * * *

Standing in the corner of the room, invisible to everyone, was the tall man, the baby, the two silhouettes and the three little men who were still dancing and singing. The rest were laughing and shouting at the dead body of James. In the blink of an eye Lucy and her bloodhounds appeared beside them and they stood there, gazing at the noose swinging from the ceiling, in utter silence. Then with a gesture of beckoning Lucy led them off, to choose their next victim.