"I’m ready"

“I’m ready.” You say, steadying yourself as best you can.

“Come here, my champion.” She nods at you and beckons you to lay down on her lap. You do and then she begins to hum that same melody from before. You are asleep but a moment later.

You wake up in your darkened dorm room, alone and cold.

“Another dream.” You huff aloud. You look over at your alarm clock. It reads 4:00 AM. You roll off your bed and fall on the floor. Your body is sore all over and you just made the poor choice to trust it to catch you. You groan. You crawl over to the bathroom and do your business. You wash your hands on your knees rather than putting any trust in your legs again. You crawl to your wardrobe and swap out for some sleep wear. Then you crawl back into your bed. You sigh a relieved sigh. Then there’s this hot sensation on the bottom of your foot. That’s strange you think. It doesn’t feel like Athlete's Foot or anything you have felt before. Maybe this is the discomfort that Vernius was talking about?

“That’s not too bad.” You say to yourself, scratching the bottom of your foot with your toes. Now isn’t that strange, you think, now your toes feel hot too. You throw off your blanket. In the moonlight nothing looks different about them. You pull your blanket back over you, lay down, and try not to think too hard about it. But you feel the heat growing up your feet through your calves to your legs. You try to ignore it harder. The sensation of heat climbs up to your thighs, then shoots up your back. You are sweating now. You feel your chest start heaving as the heat spreads over your torso, then down your arms and up your neck. Your shirt is starting to soak with sweat. The heat grows more intense with every passing moment, feeling like you are being roasted. You throw your blanket off and it does nothing. You feel yourself panting at the heat, this unbearable heat. You feel your clothes become soaked with sweat, grossly sticking to your skin. You try to move, to wriggle away from this God damn heat but it does not help. It’s inside you. The heat feels like it's burning your insides, cooking you from the inside out. You moan out at it, swiping your brow of the sweat that has accumulated there. You feel your insides boiling. You feel your lips crack. You feel your skin sweating bullets. You feel your mouth go dry even as it croaks out in pain. Uselessly moaning as you burn alive in your own bed. The pain is too intense. For the second time tonight, your mind goes numb from the pain. You wonder if this is what Hell feels like. No, this is certainly what Hell feels like, roasting alive as if you swallowed a bunch of red hot coals. You are burning. Burning. Burning. Burning. That is all you can think of.

Then it stops, like a switch had been flipped. You suck in a big breath, gasping for cold air, your clothes very much soaked through with sweat. Your bedspread soaked through with sweat. You are laying in a puddle of sweat in your bed. Your head feels light as you suck in deep, preciously cold breath after breath. Sweet relief, you think. Then you roll over, and almost immediately pass out.

The next thing you know, you see Mark’s worried face hanging over you. Not to put down Mark but he is no buxom goddess and you scowl at him. He says something to you.

“What?” You ask exasperatedly.

“I said are you ok, you look pretty sick dude.” Mark says.

“Yeah, I’m trying to sleep it off.” You grumble, rolling over and pulling your blanket back over you.

“Ok dude, Benny and I are leaving this afternoon, so take care of yourself.” He sighs.

“Will do.” You say, shoving your head under the covers again. Sleep greets you quickly.