The buzz of its wings was becoming intolerable, but I was frozen and no one would help me. I tried to focus on the persistent humming monitor that beeps with every puff of sterile oxygen forcing itself inside me. My eyes locked on the slim red hand that jerked toward the right as I continued to distract myself from the cold rigid tube consuming my throat. My pulse started to intensify and so did the constant throbbing. Each and every one of my muscles down to my eyelids were coated with a dull ache. The squeak of the rusty door hinges amplified in my head – a high ringing pitch that I felt beneath my temples.

My eyes filled with water as the bloodsucker came in to take her feed. I’ve always had a fear of needles. The way that they pierce your flesh like a dirty mosquito that wants a taste of dark thick blood. It’s all I have to offer. These nurses can’t seem to get enough of it. She walked to the side of the bed, and I braced myself for the excruciating pinch. I waited but felt nothing. Instead, her polished gray sneakers squeaked across the tile floor sounding like a player on a basketball court trying to score the winning point.

I couldn’t figure out what she had done to me until the flood of toxic chemicals began to sear my muscles as it coursed through my veins. Numbness trickled up my legs then shot into my fingers. My eyes darted back and forth as the room faded into nothingness. Every limb in my body gave up on me, but the aching had finally stopped.

If only they could kill the damn fly.