Henry. 

The whispers began to trickle in as the breeze carried through the trees. On the backs of birds the wind wiggled with the worms. Henry was startled by the strange voice at first. He was being called from somewhere out of reach, somewhere in the in-between. Soon that strange hum became a loud, hypnotizing call. He needed to find this gracious being. His eyes began to bulge as his lips tugged upward. Madness soon crept in, eating at his features. Henry’s pupils began to dilate, taking on a new strange shape as his reality was becoming hazy. He wished for the world to return to normal but it only got worse. Each seam holding together the sky and the ground, began to tear. Everything that was once beautiful and vivid began to turn ugly and decrepit. The body Henry inhabited did not exist anymore, he was now a gas floating in the air. He always said he felt like he was flying. Time did not exist when he suddenly became solid. His conscious fears dissipated when he heard a light voice sigh his name one last time. The impact was the worst part. First it was the gravel embedding its way in his back. His white, now red, shirt clawed at like it had been put through the shredder. Then, the sirens came. Loud, blaring, and all together sorrowful.  

The Man who was waiting at the crosswalk next to Henry had reported that there was something unsettling and surreal brimming behind his eyes. “It was like he wasn’t himself. He did not fear the beast, he was one!” The Man wagged his long wrinkly hand around in distress. He looked like he had seen a ghost or worse, a demon. Henry walked onto the street that day. The oncoming traffic did not stop for him, nor did it see him. Like a phantom he glided above them all and was gone just as fast as he entered that world.

***

February 2nd, 2009

The doctors had been trying to piece her brain back together. It felt like a long and agonizing puzzle to Doctor Wren. She had never seen something so mangled before. Lannie was never going to recover. It was like her brain had been hacked and all the usual codes to shut the intruder out had failed. They would never piece her or her brain back together but she was the only doctor trying.

Growing up Wren always wanted to succeed. She thrived on achieving the impossible. In 2nd grade she had mastered the law of gravity and even constructed her own egg drop to demonstrate for her teacher. She was top of all her classes and never failed to fidget around. Wren had seen this damage before. Hell! She lived through it but it never tore her brain apart like it did to poor Lannie. 

When Doctor Wren had heard about Lannie she instantly felt fear. It was cold and liquid as it ran through Wrens veins. The air began to thin and crust over into something icy. All that warmth and hope turned into despair. Lannie was supposed to get out and make something of herself. Her personality was too big for her heart. Wren was suddenly grateful she was no longer there in that mindset. She was no longer trapped in the prison of her mind because if she was she would have ended up like Lannie.

When Lannie’s parents asked Doctor Wren why she was still fighting for their daughter she brushed it off and began to fidget with her nail beds. She did not want to express her past with these strangers. She could not express she had been where Lannie was right now. That is not reassuring to the parents especially when they are talking to the doctor trying to save their daughters life. 

The sounds of the hospital started up again and Doctor Wren was just a random face blending in amongst the much more respected doctors. Lannie swam through Wren's mind making it hard to focus throughout the day. The only thing helping her stay intact was the sound of the wheelchair scrapping on the old linoleum or Irene’s heavy breathing. 

“Yo! Nina, are you doing okay?” a voice in the crowd said. “ You’re looking a little out of it and sorta pale.” The voice belonged to Micah who sat across the table from Wren. “Hello? Nina?”

Wren still sat listening to the hum of her surroundings, well everything except for Micah. It was not until Micah got up from his spot and clapped his hands shouting, “Doctor Wren, earth to Doctor Wren.” that she began to snap completely into reality. The Hospital sounds faded and she could hear Micah's voice again. 

“I’m sorry. I’ve just been swamped with Lannie. I can’t stop thinking about her.”

“Nina, I’m sorry too but she is a lost cause. There is no helping her at this  point.” Wren sat there and pondered this for a moment. She needed answers and she knew exactly where to look. This was not the case everyone thought it was. When Wren still went by Nina she had made a deal with that being too. Nothing, not even Micah was going to stop her from finding the answers she should have found years ago. 

***

November 6th, 2001

Nina had ventured deep into the woods that night. It was 11:07 PM as she fled deep into the thicket of the compacted snow. Her footprints trailed behind her. She begged for this and she thought she needed this. That heavenly voice called for her and only her. She had done nothing wrong, yet it always made you pay for the regrets that are not your own. Time ticked by until it was 11:43 PM and all that stood around Nina was the dying trees twisted in agony. The dark sky filled the negative space, latching on to the trees and slithering its way into her mind. Nina called for her and tried to summon her until the cold turned her nose purple. Please hear my call. I need to pass my finals. I need to get out of here and do better. I swear I will stop taking those pills. I don’t like them. Please hear me, I'll do anything. I’ll give you anything you can take it all. Just please help me. Nina cried into the snow until the voice that was once quiet  began to claw at the forefront of her mind. She wanted it to stop, she needed it to stop. She came to Nina that night and tortured her mind, warping her mind into something no one could have imagined. Nina knew the risks and costs that came with seeking Her. She almost didn’t mind waking up cold and frozen over in snot and tears while the snow made its way into her sneakers. 

***

January 21, 2009

Lannie woke up that morning feeling fine. The cold that had seeped in through her scarf never made it past her shirt. The snow stuck to her hair and glistened off her blue cheeks. She did not feel the snow that was building up in her jacket or the slight pain in her right ankle from where she twisted it. She felt at peace with the natural compacted blanket. She felt surreal and warm laying below the birds chirping in the trees. How could it have gotten better than this? Feeling warm and content in the harsh cold. God how she loved coming here. It was like her own personal heaven. Nothing mattered except for the present and the intricate details that made up the ground she walked on, the sky, and even herself. She loved how everything was broken down to its true form. How the atoms swam around her and were her. 

Lannie knew she could not stay there all day. Her pupils were now over exaggerated and her movements became jittery. The mind that was once whole began to shatter. There was a snake in her leg slithering below the first layer of her skin. She could see its gold tint as it showed through the thin layer of her skin and pant leg. It itched and burned and Lannie only knew one way to get it to stop. She had torn a hole in her legging and began to claw at her skin until her right leg was scratched raw. Beads of blood trickled down her leg and filled her fingertips. The harsh claw marks had made it look like she had been attacked by dogs. 

The cold began to hit her as she sat in the snow. I need to make it home. I have to get up. She started up and began to walk home following the snow trail she left behind earlier that night. After what felt like half an hour the clearing finally appeared. The tall plants and the tree branches were weighed down by the snow, a threatening static lit up the air around Lannie. 

Then she saw it. It was no longer a caterpillar, its wings were orange and warm. The butterfly began to follow her home and there while Lannie slept it would crawl its way into her ear, nesting there. 

***

January 22nd, 2009

2:44 AM

“Mom please make it stop! Tell them to stop! I can feel their tiny wings on there” Lannie cried to Gwen. “Mom please, they are eating me! I can feel my brain being chipped away. It hurts, please-” Gwen held back tears as she cradled her daughter back and forth, praying to God that Jeff would walk in any minute to call an ambulance for their daughter. Or hopefully Lannie would have fallen asleep soon so Gwen could call for help herself. It was heartbreaking for Gwen to have to swaddle her daughter while she was defenseless to help the shattering of her mind. 

It was not until Lannie had finally drifted off to sleep that Gwen had called 911. She then dialed her husband who was working the late shift at the convenience store to fill him in. After Jeff had gotten laid off at his office job he needed a job fast. The Sunoco down the road was the first to get back to him. 

***

February 6th, 2009

11:25 PM

Doctor Wren sat in the library researching all the different plants she could find. What she did learn was that Lannie was not the only one who knew about the drug another high school kid named Henry did too. She was looking for anything similar to what they had all taken. The other doctors did not know about this plant. From what Wren had learned over her highschool years it only grew in the winter and the only people who knew about it could feel the energy that connected them there. Well that and the diary that was hidden in their highschool library that was written by some science nerd in 1986. The journal detailed that the nameless plant was best taken directly by eating the small leaves. It would start out as a rush and eventually trickle out. Collin, the author of the journal, stopped writing a year later and hid the journal in the school's archive for any willing victim to come across it. Collin became a legend in later years once the journal was discovered but his fame only reached the small circle of the smartest and most trusted kids in the school. Paging through the old diary rekindled the old feelings Wren used to feel.  It started a craving for her. Maybe one last time so I can help Lannie. I need to remember and I need to know what she is feeling. If I can see the side effects again I can determine how to study the plant and start a treatment plan for her. 

So Wren did something she promised herself she would never do and decided to head out into the woods again. She did not do this without taking precautions. Wren was smart or at least she thought she was. She knew there was a chance she could end up like Lannie, especially because she has not taken the drug since she was 17 and was now 25. She left a detailed note and left the journal for Micah. If there was a problem Micah would know where to find her.

***

February 7th, 2009

9:10 AM

Micah did not like Nina being unresponsive to all of his messages. He had found the note and the journal approximately 63 minutes ago and still no reply from Nina. Oh how he was going to kill her when he saw her. If I saw her again. He thought about turning the journal into the police but if Nina turned out to be okay and just sleeping in late she would lose her job and probably her doctors licensing. He could not do that to her, but he could not sit there and wait like an idiot. He grabbed his jacket, his keys, and packed the journal with the note in his bag. Heading towards the door Micah was whispering a small prayer underneath his breath hoping that everything would be okay. 

***

February 7th, 2009

5:45 AM

Wren was freezing while she laid there. It felt like her heart had stopped and time did not exist. That calming voice got louder as her limbs went limp sprawled out in the snow. There was this euphoric feeling surrounding her being. It felt like lightning purple or static. Her breath hitched, getting caught in her throat. She tried to stifle a cough so she did not attract any deer or other wildlife creatures but she ended up choking. She heard crunching in the snow causing her to freak. With each loud crunch into the compacted earth a part of her mind would shatter. She prayed for Micah and just wanted it to stop. Micah never showed and he would not. As far as Wren knew it was nighttime. 

***

February 7th, 2009

10:27 AM

After trekking through the woods he found her. Nina laid limp with the light behind her eyes slowly dimming. Panic ripped through his chest as he let out a guttural scream. He rushed to her and scooped her up into his arms, trying to assess the damage. He needed a hospital. He needed to get her in a warm bed and hook her up to all those machines but he could not, at least not in time. He needed to do something though. Micah fumbled for his phone and had called 911, just like Gwen had done for Lannie a few nights ago. 

***

February 12th, 2009

Micah sat back watching his old friend struggle with the words she was given. He knew she was a lost cause but he wanted to save her. Micah looked at her one last time and disappeared behind the door. Micah had always known when to stop trying, that is what made him such a good doctor. He did not give false hope to the unfixable. Micah was logical and strategic and he knew how could not save his beloved friend. He walked out of the building and into the parking garage, looking for his car. Once he found it he unlocked the doors, sat in the car, and broke down. Tears welled up in his eyes and all he could do was blame himself for being so oblivious. He should have sent her help the minute he read that note instead of worrying about her job. He could have helped Nina. Now her brilliant mind was shattered and all Micah could do was blame himself.