Michaela's Monster

Chapter 6: Found You

Despite her somewhat restful sleep, Michaela woke up feeling absolutely horrible. As much as she hated to admit it, she couldn't help but think maybe her Mom was right to be concerned about her fever last night.

Dragging herself out of bed, Michaela immediately felt her head starting to throb with the early stages of a pounding headache.

Slumping her shoulders she made her way to the bathroom where she popped two Tylenols, barely getting them down, and then rested her open palms on the countertop as she looked at her weary reflection in the mirror.

Her eyes had dark bags under them while the rest of her face looked washed out. Her lips were dry as a bone, and she was so, so thirsty, but even swallowing those pills with just a mouthful of water made her almost hurl on the spot.

Then, of course, there was the awful taste in her mouth. Whatever it was, Michaela could only process the flavor as 'how garbage juice smelled'.

As the taste seemed to intensify, the simple act of swallowing her own saliva soon required a conscious effort, not only the physical feat, but the mental preparation willingly consume the horrid flavor, as well.

Michaela couldn't help but wonder if this was what a hangover felt like. Having heard her parents occasionally reference similar symptoms, it seemed like everything lined up, only Michaela had never had a sip of alcohol in her life.

Wanting desperately to free herself of both this horrid taste in her mouth and the feeling of filth that seemed to cover every inch of her body, Michaela turned on the shower and set it to a medium-high heat, then tried to brush away the flavor in her mouth vigorously as she waited for the first few plumes of steam to rise above the plastic curtain.

Climbing into the shower, Michaela embraced the borderline scalding hot water as it hit her body. For a moment, she felt relief, not only from her physical symptoms, but also in the confidence that she might be able to get through a day at school after all.

Any other day, Michaela would have happily campaigned to stay home for the day, even with symptoms that were dwarfed by the ones she felt now. But there was something about the idea of staying home today specifically that made her more nauseous than the persistent, rotten taste in her mouth.

Perhaps she had spent too much time alone in the past few days, or perhaps the knowledge that her parents would turn her sickness into their newest target upon which to deflect their own coping methods was driving this compulsion. Whatever the reasoning, Michaela just knew she needed to get out of this house.

Without even noticing how much time had passed, Michaela heard a knock at the bathroom door, followed by her Mother's concerned voice, "Michaela? You've been in there for half an hour now. I'm not sure your Father can hold it much longer!"

Michaela absent-mindedly called out, "Thirty seconds!" before placing her hands on the wall beneath the showerhead to let the piping hot water fall over the back of her head and neck.

The brief moment of euphoria was abruptly cut short when Michaela suddenly felt something rising in her throat, something phlegmy, yet far more sudden than one would expect from even the worst kinds of colds.

Coughing at the presence of the gelatinous obstruction, Michaela gagged as the taste in her mouth suddenly amplified to an unbearable level before she spat out a black, tar-like blob, the size of a silver dollar, and watched it swirl around the drain twice before plummeting into oblivion.

Despite the heat of the shower and the humidity of the bathroom that now resembled a steam room, Michaela could feel goose bumps all over her body at the mere sight of the thick fluid that she had dreamt about, now coming out of her body in the waking world.