Tumour

It had been living with me for almost as long as I could remember.

It followed me around everywhere I went, shaking and buzzing, always keeping me on edge, always bothering me and making me feel watched; I highly disliked whenever I needed some peace or focus, it was constantly behind me, distracting, irritating me without a moment to spare.

One of the worst activities for me was sleeping. As it would be expected the incessant buzzing would ring into the night, into my eardrums, leaving me as nothing more than a tired, lifeless puppet on the bed, begging so sleep would finally come. It didn’t matter if I was so exhausted I could pass out or if I took sleeping pills, it would keep me wide awake, pushing the pillows against my ears as I prayed for rest and closing my eyes hoping to doze off before dawn arrived.

I woke up again in the morning, and as on any other day, it was still there.

Sitting on the bed, trying to bring my body to life, yet everything felt so heavy. I looked to the darkest corner of the room, deprived of sunlight, it buzzed away against the wall.

Sometimes its movements made me think it could try to climb it, but I had discovered long ago that it didn’t touch surfaces, it seemed to just move about without any propulsion or point of start.

Sighing I rubbed my eyes, it truly had been years since I had a decent night of sleep.

I looked at it again, staring at its undefined shape for a moment.

From the last few months I had had a strong feeling, an apprehension that I had no way to prove.

I lifted myself from the mattress and went to the bathroom so I could wash my face and, maybe, look vigilant. Stumbling across the hallway I wondered if I was being paranoid or if my fears were something more real than what I was giving them credit for.

Putting the unsettling feeling into words would make it a real thing, it gave me chills, but I couldn’t deny that in these last few months, I thought it had grown significantly in size.

I had absolutely no way to prove it; it didn’t appear on photographs and every time I tried to reach it would avoid my touch as if it really disliked what I was attempting. After all this time I was well aware of the fact that no one else could see it too.

I had my doubts because from the beginning this thing seemed to have the ability to expand, whether it was in attempts to get more comfortable, to get awfully close to me or to do something that seemed to imitate breathing, it would shake and expanded every once in a while.

Lately, it seemed like it could stretch just a tiny bit farther like it could widen just a tad more than before, but could I really know for sure? Maybe it had always been able to do it.

With my face now dripping over the sink, I looked in the mirror. I was not aware of anyone else having a “companion” like mine, so I wasn’t sure about what to do, what was normal for something like it.

I dried my face and went over to the bedroom, where I picked the clothes I would wear to work. As I displayed them in the bed I heard what sounded like a notification pop up in my phone, but the device was nowhere to be seen.

I tried to gather my memories, lately I had been misplacing so many things… I took a guess and headed to the living room, maybe I left it charging overnight.

Before I could reach the living room, I slowed my pace until I froze in place in the hallway, I sensed something was clearly off, I wasn’t sure of what it could be but I could feel it in my bones, my whole body was reacting before I could even process.

My breathing became erratic as my brain became frantic; with my vision blurred, I tried to keep my sense of direction, looking all over the room to find the thing that was so very wrong yet I felt like my knees would give in at any second. Soon everything went dark and I lost all sense of direction, all power to hold me on my feet.

Right before I fell into the ground I noticed.

Deafening silence.

I found myself on the floor with the daylight coming to an end. My last memories were messy and all I could remember was worry and uncertainty. I tried to lift myself from the ground but as soon as my I tried to support my weight on my hands I felt a burning pain.

I put them closer to my face only to notice my hands, especially my palms, looked injured. They felt so cold I could barely move them, irregular areas of my skin were bruised and swollen.

Suddenly all the emotions I had a hard time to recollect came back to me.

Remembering my phone and dragged myself into the living room, where the phone had been sitting on the couch for who knows how many hours.

I had forgotten to charge it, yet with the little battery I had left I decided to check. With some difficulty and always followed by sharp pain, I unlocked it only to see a few missed calls; some from my boss, many from my coworkers.

I didn’t know what concerned me the most.

With my breathing agitated I tried to think, I didn’t feel like I could just call them and try to ask for help, or even try to explain myself, what had happened to me?

As I attempted to put my train of thought in line, I felt it.

It was cold and moist, like ice, it seemed to melt and cover the surface with burning freeze liquid and with its worm-like texture, it would penetrate the surface of my skin like needles.

I shouted as I watched.

The buzzing apparently had returned but now it was different. Before it looked like it had no purpose, now it resembled a form of communication, I felt as if it tried to respond to my scream by matching the intensity.

I immediately noticed that the sound had changed, what used to sound like a bug buzzing now sounded like full-on static.

As I looked down with the amount of light left in the room, I could see how it no longer hid from the sunshine and how it was indeed big, a lot bigger than it had even been. With its skin finally in contact, I could feel its weight, its touch, and it frightened me to no end.

I attempted to go to the bedroom but I fell, tripping over its soft and cold body.

I tried to drag myself again but as I moved the thing got heavier, I let out a cry as the sound got louder and louder, like a screech, like this was it.

My vision started to fade again into what would be the sound of the static in a physical form, desperate and with my eyes blinded I tried to focus and think of a way out as it climbed over my legs, over my torso, approaching my head.