The Parasite
My best friend has been acting weird for the past couple of days. Sometimes, she zones out in the middle of a conversation. Yes, it is normal to zone out from time to time. But she does it almost everytime and I have to shake her back to reality. She seems present but in actuality, she's absent.
Last class, the teacher called her name and she didn't answer. She was staring blankly at the teacher, not really hearing anything. It wasn't until I nudged her before she stood up. And when the teacher asked her why she hadn't answered him, she gave the strangest response. She said she had forgotten her name. People murmured and whispered amongst themselves, pointing fingers and calling her weirdo.
After the class, I pulled her aside. “What's wrong with you?”
“Nothing. Why do you ask?” She replied.
“How is nothing wrong? You forgot your name, Lise.”
“It just happened for a second. I can remember it now.” She said as she started playing with the straps of her bag.
“Hmmm, are you sure nothing's wrong?” I placed my hand on her shoulder.
“Yes, Debra. Drop it.” She burst out angrily, brushing my hand off her shoulder and stomping off. Just then, I knew something was actually wrong. Do not get me wrong, but Lise rarely ever lost her temper. She was always the cool headed one and she had never shrugged my hand off her shoulder. The Lise I knew would have pulled me closer, wrapping her hands around my waist.
“Lise, wait up.” I called out while running after her.
The next few days were episodes of outbursts and forgetfulness. She started dressing oddly, wearing mini skirts and crop tops. My Lise loved baggy clothes. She had always felt insecure about her weight and body image, feeling she was too slim. So, she always covered up thoroughly. She tinted her hair to awful shades of green and pink. She also pierced her ears and nose. She restricted me from coming to her house. I watched her change to a whole different person and just then, I knew I had to get to the bottom of whatever was going on with her.
Today, she agreed for me to come to her house. I wondered why she finally allowed me to visit her in her house. We were supposed to get some assignments done. She was already lagging behind in schoolwork. I was waiting for her to get changed and during that time, I was outlining what we needed to get done. Thirty minutes passed and she was not yet back.
“Lise!” I called her name. The silence I got in response was eerie. “Lise??” I called again. No response. I wondered what was taking her so long. I placed the books I was holding on the chair and headed up the stairs to her bedroom. The door was slightly ajar and there were no sounds coming from the room. I pushed the door open and entered inside. I met a strange sight. Lise is obsessively neat. Her room is always arranged to the tiniest bit. Her bed, her clothes, her bookshelf, her shoe racks, her dressing table, everything is always in order. In the years I have known her, I have never met her things in disarray and she has never had to search for any of her belongings. She always knew exactly where they were. It was very strange to see her things askew. Clothes strewn on the floor and bed. Tangled bedsheets, shoes thrown about, wardrobe doors hanging open. It seemed like someone had blown through her stuff. And she was nowhere in sight. This just served my suspicion that something was wrong.
“Lise?” I could hear running water in the bathroom. Maybe she had decided to take a quick shower. I decided to help her clean up a little. I picked my way through the things thrown about, walking to her open wardrobe doors, shutting them close. I picked her shoes and placed them on the rack. Then I started picking her clothes from the floor. Folding and placing them on the bed. I knelt to pick a gray top from her bedside and I saw a weird glinting object under her bed. I stretched my hand and drew it towards me. It was a knife. A sort of small table knife. Holding it up to the light, I was shocked to see a dark liquid on it. It could be nothing but blood. Why was a bloody knife under my best friend’s bed? Why? I wasn't going to entertain the different thoughts that were flooding my mind. So, I made up my mind to ask her. As I turned towards the bathroom, I saw her standing there. She was soaking wet, dripping water on the carpet. Black mascara was staining her cheeks and her hair was lanky and cut short. She had cut her hair.
“Lise?” I whispered her name. “Lise, what's going on? What's wrong with you? Why are you soaked? Why did you cut your hair? Why is there a bloody knife under your bed?” The torrent of questions poured out of my lips.
She started moving slowly towards me, her eyes devoid of light and life. My hands trembled a little. She was behaving so strangely.
“Lise, please talk to me. Please.” I moved towards her too. “Tell me why.”
But it didn't seem like Lise was listening to me. Instead, she was shuffling towards me in a zombie-like manner. I saw that she was zoned out and so I used my hand to shake her. But it seemed this time, she had zoned out too far. She wrapped her hands around my neck viselike and started squeezing. The knife fell from my hands as I tried to pry her hands off me. She pushed me towards the wall, still squeezing. I couldn't get her hands off me. She was so strong. I started scratching her hands, trying, trying so hard. Black dots showed at the edges of my vision. Tears were running down my cheeks and my vision was going fuzzy and I couldn't take in any air. In my last effort to regain control, I looked into her eyes and whispered her name one last time, and just then, I saw light crawl back into her eyes. She released me and let out a shocked gasp as I slid to the floor.
She looked from her hands to me and back to her hands before rushing to my side. “Debra, I'm so sorry. Debra, I'm sorry.” Tears started dropping from her eyes. “I didn't mean to. I don't know what went wrong. It wasn't supposed to be you. I was supposed to pass it on to another person. Not you.”
I tried to sit up but I was still weak and gasping for breath. “What do you mean? What were you supposed to pass?” I said weakly.
“Something happened to me some weeks back. I almost got killed on my way back from school. The red traffic light was on and cars were supposed to stop while we crossed. I was the only one crossing and this car was coming at me at high speed. At the last minute, it swerved to a stop, reversed and sped away. Since then, some sort of thing has possessed me for the last two weeks. It calls itself The Parasite. It tells me to do this and that. It tells me what to wear, what to do. It says if I don't do what it asks, it will end me. It tells me to injure myself,” She showed me knife cuts on her forearm. I guess that's where the blood came from.
“It told me that the only way I could get rid of it was to almost kill somebody. During that process, it would go on to that person. I didn't want it to be you. It was why I stopped you from coming to see me. I tried so hard to push you away so I wouldn't have to pass it on to you. But today, it threatened me. It told me to invite you to my house. I guess it picked you. That was why I tried to drown myself. Maybe if I died, it would die with me. But I guess it wasn't so. I'm sorry, Debra. I'm sorry.” She held me close to her chest and sobbed. I held on tight.
The realization that The Parasite was in me dawned on me. It meant I had to almost kill somebody for it to leave. We didn't know where this thing came from or how to stop it. But I had to stop it somehow. I had to. it was going to end with me. It was a vow I made to myself.
But, before I slipped into darkness, I heard a cold, sinister voice in my head.
“Hello, Debra. It's me and you now.”
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