“Owww!” The student yelped, whirling around in his seat.
Reese sauntered over to him, waving his hand in front of the innocent bystander without any reaction. The hipster just shot me a dirty look.
“You wish for me to further demonstrate?” the magician taunted, picking up the guy’s chemistry textbook next.
“What? No!” I blurted.
Everyone now turned their attention to me.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that!” Reese declared, his voice booming across the entire room.
Still, not one person paid this psycho any mind.
Holy crap…
I had gone bat-shit! I was hallucinating invisible people!
“Is there a problem?”
I jumped at the voice behind me, only to face one of the library aides as I turned around. Without another word, I grabbed my remaining materials off the desk and slung my bag over my shoulder before bolting out the side exit.
That bottomless pit feeling resurfaced in my stomach, and I was hit again with a sudden dizzy spell. Bracing myself against the row of lockers beside me, I pinched my eyes shut and blindly stumbled down the empty hallway until I knew I’d reached the stairwell. I yanked the heavy metal door open and staggered inside, letting my body slide down the wall once I moved to the side of the landing.
“‘There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is,’” remarked the voice that suddenly registered beside me.
I snapped back upright. “Jesus Christ!”
“No, that was Søren Kierkegaard, actually,” confirmed the magician, laxly leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. “And in your case, truer words haven’t been spoken.”
I lurched forward in an attempt to reach the stairs when my equilibrium gave way, throwing me off balance.
A pair of strapping arms secured me from behind, helping me back upright. “Easy there, Princess.”
“Get off of me,” I demanded, batting my hands against his hold.
“That’s an odd request to give the person stopping you from taking an involuntary swan dive down a flight of stairs.” It didn’t seem to take him much effort as he swept me off my feet and started heading down to the ground floor, setting me back down on the bottom step like I weighed next to nothing. “Be back in a sec.”
And just like that, Reese ducked out, leaving me all alone again. A moment later, I felt a little steadier, so I rose to my feet. There was no way I was hanging around here waiting for my psychotic hallucination to return. I poked my head out into the main hall, still seeing no one else around.
I started making my way towards the front offices, praying that the nurse would be in. I still wasn’t sure what she could do to help me, since all anyone ever seemed to get was a thermometer in the mouth and purple spots burned in their vision from her flashlight, but what else could I do?
“God, you’re stubborn.”
It took everything in me to not scream out at the top of my lungs as footsteps galloped up from behind me.
“Which do you prefer? Granola bar or M&M’s?” the magician queried as he fell into step with me, holding up the two options.
I eyed the snacks, acknowledging the pit in my stomach only growing deeper, and I admittedly grabbed them both.
My mother would have been appalled at my poor etiquette as I tore the M&M pouch open with my teeth. I guzzled them down in a frenzy before treating the protein bar to the same fate. A moan escaped my lips as I closed my eyes, feeling the food already taking effect in only a matter of a minute.
“Better?” he queried.
I nodded.
Realization suddenly hit, and my eyes flew back open.
“Wait, how did you know…?”
The magician’s brow piqued. “That you were hungry?”
I never said I was, and there were countless reasons for feeling dizzy. So how could he possibly have guessed? Better yet, why did he keep staring at me expectantly?
“The cravings will lessen with time. Your body’s just adjusting to the changes,” he followed up, so matter-of-factly.
Fear rippled through me at the remark, and without warning, I throttled my hands into his chest, shoving him back.
I wanted to scream at him, tell him just how psychotic he was, but everything felt off. I couldn’t ignore that something was wrong with me. I couldn’t ignore what he had said that night at the gas station.
Panic sent blood pumping into my ears to the point that I could hear my pulse thumping inside my head. All I could do was run. I took off down the hall, but I didn’t get more than ten feet before he snatched my arm, whirling me back around to face him.
That strange feeling in my core returned, and instinct suddenly took over. I drove my opposing arm down on his hand, breaking the hold. I threw my elbow up at his face, and he barely managed to dodge it. Just when I thought I’d gained an edge on him, he swiftly snaked away from me. I spun around, losing sight of him, when hands ensnared me from behind, pinning my arms down in the process.