[WP] A year has passed since the incident. Your doctors and psychiatrists agree that you've shown significant improvement. Then, without warning, the visions return.

` I woke up with a start, immediately coming to a sitting position on my bed. It was still dark within my bedroom with the light of a full moon just coming through my window. I looked down at myself to find my hair, my t-shirt and my sheets all soaked with sweat. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I glanced over at my alarm clock. It was 3:58 AM and I was all alone in my room.

Slowly, I got up out of my bed and made my way over to a cheap desk that was within my room and found my smart watch, strapping it on I had it check my pulse. 110 bpm. I took a long, deep breath, trying to slow down the blood rushing through my system and to find the inner calm that my psychiatrist spent months trying to help me find. I ran the test again after a few minutes, 90 bpm. I performed my breathing exercise once more and it settled back down to 72 bpm. 

Giving a sigh of relief, I went out of my room and over to my laundry room where I kept my extra linens. Trying to go back to bed in soaked sheets would be very uncomfortable. This, unfortunately, had been a ritual over the past year. Quickly, unwanted memories came back to me. I found myself back there, at the bonfire at the Old McPhearson farm. I was partying with my friends, celebrating the last day of the semester. Finals were a pain and an opportunity to blow some steam, listen to some music and party with my friends was a welcome change of pace. 

After a few more drinks than I normally have, I went out into the woods to relieve myself. That’s when it happened, a loud bang could be heard from overhead. A bolt of blue light streaked across the sky, descending into the planet. Descending, unfortunately, right into me. At that point, my memory goes blank and what happened next was told to me from the secondhand sources. 

My doctors told me that I came out from the woods, blood coming from my chest. My mouth was uttering words that could easily be described as alien. The strangest thing, however was the color of my eyes. They radiated with the same light as the object that flew overhead. My closest friends saw me and rushed over to me rather quickly. 

    Julie got to me first, she had been my lab partner in Biology and someone who I was starting to grow closer to. She was followed by Nick, my roommate at the college dormitories and his girlfriend Kaitlyn. Finally, Bradley came. He was a friend of mine in the school band and was the host of the party. 

They tried to get my attention by speaking to me, yet I didn’t respond until Julie reached out and touched my arm. Abruptly, my speech changed and I looked at each of them in turn with my glowing eyes. 

“Julie…” my voice croaked, as if I had not had a glass of water in hours, “Pay no heed to my feelings for you, a man will come on a white stallion and will carry you away to happiness.” I then turned to Nick and Kait, “The flame that you share is precious and short. Enjoy it, for it will soon be snuffed out.” Finally, I turned to Bradley, “Take chances, and a great fortune shall come to you. Beware of the sins of lust and greed for they will be your downfall.” 

Finally, a few more alien words came from my mouth until finally, I cried in a loud voice, “The fires of man shall consume those that choose to wield it!” As I fainted, the bonfire turned into a huge pillar of blue flame, casting otherworldly shadows on the ground. The heat from the fire was so intense that those who were close to the flame suffered from burns on their skin, or from clothes that were set alight. 

Eventually, I regained consciousness. As I stirred, I heard voices calling for a doctor and soon the head physician, a Dr. Monroe came to my bedside.  What really got my attention was his attire. It resembled a hazmat suit, complete with rubber gloves, a mask that filtered air and he was carrying a portfolio at his side. I was so weak that I could barely move my head to face him but I asked him a simple question, “Where am I?” 

He laid his hand on the bed frame that was beside me and gave me a level look, “Son, I don’t know how to tell you this but you are currently at St. Matthew’s Hospital and have been staying here for the past two months.” He then proceeded to pull out a picture of an x-ray and showed it to me as he continued, “When you got here, we found a spike that was imbedded in your chest, its tip would have just barely touched your heart. We were able to extract it with some difficulty but it left a contaminant within your bloodstream.” 

He offered more paperwork to me but I shook my head, so he continued to explain, “We have continued to monitor your progress and it appears your blood has returned to normal, only trace remnants of the substance remain.” Dr. Monroe got up and moved over to the computer terminal that was near my bed, I was assuming that he was checking on the latest vitals that the nurses took. Turning back to me he continued, “We would like to keep you here for further observation due to your…. ‘unique’ condition but you should be able to receive visitors now, if you would like. Also, we would like you to start talking with a psychologist, Dr. Andrews. It might help the police understand what happened at the farm that your group was staying at.” 

As he left, I started to get a better grasp of my surroundings, it was a small hospital room but I was the only occupant. However, the surprising things were the fact that there was no couch or chair for any visitors. There was also a plastic “wall” that surrounded me and kept the outside world from getting in. From the discussions that I heard with the nurses, I also found out that there were armed guards always flanking my doors. This particularly caused me a great deal of panic, as my mind raced with wonder as to what happened at the farm. 

I drifted off to sleep, however it wasn’t long before a knock at the door brought me back to reality. A nurse poked her head in, “Your parents are here to see you.” My mother and father quickly came through the open door. My mom’s graying blonde hair and glasses could be made out, but the rest of her face was covered in a mask, there were gloves on her hands and something resembling a plastic bodysuit covering her from her head to her toes.  Dad’s salt and pepper hair were distinguishable, as well as his large nose and glasses could be seen as well, otherwise he was dressed very similarly to my mother. 

“Mom, Dad, glad that you guys are here but… where is Julie? Or Nick? Did any of my friends reach out to you guys?” I looked at them, while glad that they were there with me, I was hoping that I wasn’t forgotten by everyone.

My parents then began to tell me what had happened while I was unconscious. At first, Julie came to the hospital and was practically by my side daily. However, while she was staying at the hospital she had met a young doctor and they began to hit it off. They had recently eloped and mother showed me a picture of the two of them standing in front of a white Ford Mustang, catching the sunset over the California coast.

  My head began to ache when she told me this, but she continued unabated. My friends Nick and Kaitlyn were scared by the sights that they had seen at the farm. They both went to Nick’s car and they went home. However, Nick was driving faster than he should have and took a curve too fast. His car ran off the road and hit a tree at high speeds. Both were dead on the scene. At this, the heart monitor started beeping quicker as my heart rate began to escalate, 88 bpm, 95 bpm…. 

     Finally, mom began to tell me of Bradley. He had wanted to get the McPhearson farm incident out of his head as well. However, he turned to the vice of gambling and played many hands of high stakes Texas Hold ‘Em Turns out, he had a hot streak and soon won millions in some championship poker tournament. While this was happening, he had met up with a girl in Vegas and she helped him spend the money quicker than he could make It from gambling. Soon, even his luck turned cold and he was destitute. 
/r/WritingPrompts Thread