Do Not Disturb

And she soared high up in the sky. So high she was sure she had reached the limits of imagination. Surely nothing could go beyond these heights. Anything past this was the land of madness, where the mind completely obliterated into a vastness no one creature could ever hope to grasp. She pushed the tips of her fingers into this limitlessness and watched as they began to elongate, stretching so that they no longer appeared to be merely fingers, but long ribbons of flesh, bone, and blood. You would expect it to hurt, but oh no, that was the dangerous allure of it all. The lack of pain. The lack of thought. The need to never need, but simply exist, beyond oneself. She could simply press herself into this land of madness and just like that - blip - she would be herself no more. She would be a part of that place and she would watch eagerly for others like her, others she could bring into her madness with her. It took everything she had to pull back. She watched reluctantly as her fingers took on their simple finger shapes. What a great letdown it was to see them become nothing but themselves again. Simple human fingers. She sighed and sat awhile longer, simply looking at her hand, sad for all that could have been.

They watched her closely these days. It wasn’t really necessary to watch her, but what they saw was alarming enough that they couldn’t help but look, again and again, hoping for a change. There was no change. Not from today or yesterday or last year even. She simply sat there, staring at her hands, a look of such sadness and devastation on her face that they dared not touch her. She looked fragile, made of something weaker than glass. A simple word and she’d fall apart. But how long could they simply leave her this way? It had already been three years of this and her sister, Bianca, was starting to grow very, very scared. Another year more and she’d have done it. She’d be fully in that other land and there would be no watching her then. How did one help someone when you couldn’t touch them, couldn’t even whisper their name? How did you help someone when waiting patiently meant allowing them to drift further and further away? Bianca stifled a sob and walked away.

She could practically hear her fingers stifling a sob, sad that their limitless potential had been ripped from them. She had the power to make herself happy, to make her whole self happy. All she need do was press herself into the potential and give herself wholly over. She could do it and so easily. It was practically easier than falling. She lifted her hand, ready.

Bianca hurried back to the room. She’d decided that enough was enough and today she’d dare to break her sister by uttering a word. Anything. Anything was better than watching her sister slide into madness. It had come to her suddenly, the knowledge that if she didn’t act now, her chance at saving her sister would forever be lost. As she rounded the corner into the doorway, Bianca froze. She moved. Her sister moved her hand up to her face, as if to get a better look at it. She turned, saw Bianca and smiled. That was when Bianca knew that she was too late. That smile, oh that smile sent shivers down her spine. It was a lunatic’s smile. It promised a sticky sweetness thicker than molasses. The blood vessels in her sister’s eyes burst, turning her once beautiful brown gaze into a gory, disturbing sludge that threatened to ooze out of her sockets. Her hair fell, strand by strand to the bed, so brittle they created a fine patina of dust. Her skin loosened so that it could simply slide off the bone and onto the floor. The smell was the worst of it. It was a smell Bianca would never forget. Could never forget. It would be all she would be able to smell for the rest of her life. The smell of her sister slipping from this world into another. In the end, despite the gore and nightmarish way her sister came literally to pieces, there was very little to clean up. Her body had made its way after her mind, if in a horrific way. Bianca stood there for what seemed an eternity, simply watching the place where her sister had been.

They watched her closely these days.  It wasn’t really necessary to watch her, but what they saw was alarming enough that they couldn’t help but look, again and again, hoping for a change. There was no change. Not from today or yesterday or last year even. She simply stood there, looking at the bed as if it had grown eyes and a mouth and was in the middle of telling her one long, terrible horror story. She seemed so enraptured, so enthralled, so completely horrified that they dared not disturb her.