Earth

One

Day Negative: March 25th, 2020; 3:50 pm

"Maximus Threadson?"

Max's hazel eyes glanced up from behind his fanned-out cards.

"Medicine time," The female nurse stated.

Max stood from the table, setting down his cards. "If any of you look at my cards, I'll have your head on a stick. Got it?" He eyed his unstable friends around the table. One was rocking back and forth with his hands clasped tightly on his lap, another was giggling at something no one else could see or hear, and the last was scratching his partially restrained arms, getting eager to claw at his own eyes.

Max swatted at his friend's hands to keep him from scratching at himself. "Want the jacket?" Max cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. The guy shook his head quickly. "Then stop."

Most of the patients in the hospital couldn't remember their names, but they knew the one universally bad word in the hospital: "jacket." No matter who you were or how badly you were messed up, you understood that word.

Max strolled his way over to the female nurse. "Hola, Maria. Como estas?" Max asked, trying to impress the Hispanic female nurse.

Maria smirked, politely. "Here's your medicine."

"You're no fun, mi amor." Max pouted.

Maria thrust a little paper cup at Max.

"Trying to drug me already? At least take me to dinner first," he joked and put the pills in his mouth with the water she offered him. He swallowed. "I always swallow, by the way." He winked at her.

"Open," Maria ordered. Max opened his mouth, obediently. "Okay. Good. Now go."

Max gave a smile and winked at her before leaving. His smile melted off his face once his back was turned to her. He moved the pill to the other side of his cheek. Max sat back into his chair to see - through the glass door leading out to the hall - Maria kissing a guard.

Max growled to himself and threw the cards onto the table. "I'm done."

That night, Max climbed into his bed and so did his roommate, who whispered to himself constantly.

"How was your visit with your sister today?" Max asked his roommate.

"Sick. She got me sick," he whispered.

Max spat the pill out of his mouth and placed it into the pillow case with the other ones. "Oh man, I hope you feel better."

The guy started rocking back in forth on his bed, bringing his knees under his chin. "She bit me."

"Oh shit. Are you okay? What happened to her?" Max asked.

"Arrested," he just muttered.

"Damn." Max laid on his back.

The guy rocked, muttering under his breath. "It's all going to end... She said she could smell blood. She could smell it moving as it beats in and out of my heart. I can smell your blood..."

Max sat up, opening his mouth but closed it. A wave of fear washed over his whole body.

"And I can hear your heartbeat, beat, beat... Beating so fast and the blood that pumps from it. Beat, beat, beat." His roommate sniffed the air as if he could smell Max's blood.

Max froze as the light turned off.

"I can almost taste it."

Max's spine shivered at the core. His roommate's breathing grew heavier. Max imagined the guy being behind him and just breathing against his neck. "Turn the fucking lights on! There's something wrong!" A moment later the lights flickered on in the hall and the rooms. Max jumped off his bed and darted to the door. He started banging on the door. "Help! Someone help!"

The other patients in the other rooms mocked and shouted at him.

Max froze in place again. The hair on Max's arms and the hair on the nape of his neck stood up as if there was a cold draft in the room. Max could sense the guy was on his feet now. He tried to resist the urge to look behind him but gave in.

Max slowly spun his body around.

Max was suddenly staring in the face of his roommate. His roommate's eyes were pure white instead of the crystal color they were before. The guy lunged for Max, pinning him between death and a door. The doorknob digging into Max's back broke away from him. Max fell out with the guy on top of him.

The roommate was pulled off by the guard. "Told you guys not to touch each other." The man twisted and turned, sinking his teeth into the guard's shoulder. Blood sprayed around as the guard cried out in pain.

"I'll get help!" Quickly, Max scrambled to his feet and ran down the hall. The blood on Max and his shoes made the halls feel like a slip-n-slide of death.

But Max kept running.

Running and shouting for help, he turned the corner, only to get a forearm into the neck.

The ground below Max's feet left him. Max hit his back and head hard on the ground. The lights shut off. Not the lights. It was dark behind Max's eyelids. He slipped in and out of a conscious state. His vision blurred, but he could make out Maria and her guard boyfriend.

"Maximus? What happened to you?" Maria gasped, kneeling next to Max. Max opened his mouth to say something but struggled even to breathe. His breath was coming out shaky.

"What have you done?"

What have I done? Max thought, confused.

You murdered them. The guard. Your roommate. He'll never see his sister again, a voice said in his head.

"What have I done?" Maria's boyfriend asked. He ran his hand through his hair, worried. "I'm going to lose my job. Why is he so bloody? What do we do, Maria?"

"We?" Maria stood, frowning.

"Yeah, we. Do you forget that you are my girlfriend? You're mine, so it's we."

Maria hugged herself. After a silent second, she whispered, "What do we do?"

The guard thought for a second, the light bulb floating over his head growing bright. Max saw the light bulb and smirked. "He murdered someone then came to us, and we acted in self-defense."

"But we don't know if he harmed someone. He's been on his meds, so he wouldn't even do that," Maria explained.

"Oh, so you know him so well, huh?" The guard almost laughed. He stared at his girlfriend for a while. "My trunk?"

Maria narrowed her eyes, "Are you asking me or telling me?"

"I'm telling you."

"In your trunk?"

"In my trunk."

"Will he fit?"

"Yeah, he should." The guard bent down and picked Max's limp body up off the ground. Then Max was thrown over his shoulder.

"What happens when he wakes up?"

The guard rubbed his chin. "I'll handle it. Just get your stuff and meet me out there. I'll handle the rest."

"Okay..."

And the guard walked past his fellow guards like nothing ever happened.