Sweet

I am not crazy.

It started in the morning. Seven o'clock this morning, in fact, with the rain pattering on my window and my alarm clock blaring Selena Gomez. I blinked blearily. Groaning, I reached over and shut off the alarm clock, sitting up and yawning.

My cat, a lovely, orange tabby named Harriet, rubbed against my legs, meowing and purring, insisting that I feed her before I do anything else. Of course, as a cat person I had to oblige. I smiled at Harriet as she ate. She was such a sweet girl.

My roommate wasn't home, so I was all alone in the apartment this morning. Looking out the kitchen window at the cloudy, grey, tearful sky, I sighed. Little did I know that it was an omen for the day to come.

I knew that something was wrong when I tasted the water. You see, every morning I have the same thing for breakfast: toast with butter and a glass of simple, refreshing tap water. I'd know if something was wrong. I'd know. And yes, oh yes.... something was very, very  wrong this morning.

I took a sip of the water.

It tasted sweet.

Not sweet as in, some of the vitamins and minerals might have bypassed the filtering system, and screwed with the taste a little bit. No, I'm talking sweet, like somebody had crumbled day-old cupcakes into little particles of diabetes, and poured them into the water pipes. The water was sweet enough that I puckered my lips, and poured it down the drain.

I had tried to shrug it off, but I just couldn't. As I kissed my cat goodbye on my way out the door, I thought I saw her wink at me. I shivered.

My teeth clattered as I hurried through the rain to the bus stop. I don't have a raincoat, you see, so the water soaked through my cotton sweater. I never go out in the rain, or if I do, it's only for a few minutes, so I never saw a reason to buy a raincoat. The lady waiting at the stop gave me a look out of the corner of her eye, judging me while she remained nice and dry under an ugly, mustard-yellow raincoat and matching rainboots. I thought I saw the corner of her lip twitch into a smile. I think she was laughing at my discomfort.

I finally got onto the bus, and I took a seat in the middle, by the window. The squeaking of the doors as they closed made me flinch. The lady with the ugly raincoat took a seat at the back of the bus. I thought I could feel her eyes staring into the back of my head, but I was too scared to take a look.

At the next stop, a girl a little bit younger than me boarded, and upon taking her seat across the aisle, she opened up her bag and took out a cupcake. I thought about the water. The taste of sugar lingered in my mouth.

The bus drove over a bump and I bit my tongue. Blood pooled in my mouth, and with horror, I realized that it too tasted sweet. I swallowed it, trying not to gag as it ran down my throat. I might not have been a vampire, but I knew that blood wasn't supposed to taste this way.

The water...could it have done something to my blood?

I know I sound crazy. I don't blame you for thinking so negatively of me. After all, I haven't even gotten to the worst part yet. You'll see......I'm not just paranoid. I'm not crazy. There was... something... in that water.

Anyhow, I'm getting ahead of myself. So, I looked over at the boy eating the cupcake. Yes, it was a boy, I realize now that I said it was a girl. My bad! Anyways, moving on. I saw the boy just eating his cupcake across the aisle, and a sudden, painful craving for sugar overcame me. I had to clutch my own bag to my chest to stop myself from vaulting over the seats and stealing it from him. Then I remembered that my blood tasted sweet. I bit my tongue again, and my mouth filled with blood once more. I realized what I was doing and I stopped, guiltily relishing the sweet sanguine that ran down my throat. Only a moment before, I had been disgusted with the blood. Now, I was disgusted with myself for enjoying it.