Death slouches over the edge of her bed, licking his lips as he caresses her thighs. He sings the noise of wind and rain crashing all around and her head throbs with the sound. Her head is hot. Her forehead is on fire and her cheeks catch alight with it. She burns silently and sees red, red, black.

Tiny insects have crawled beneath her fingernails and they dig with tiny claws and teeth until they are swarming beneath her skin, biting outward at her flesh. Each vertebrae carries bruises and as she tosses her body about the bed they ache loudly and sharply.

All the heat has rushed to her face, her body shakes like a leaf in wind and goosebumps make known on every limb. I am dying, she tells herself- she can hardly hear this amongst the sound of hornets and the pressure in her head, but death smiles.

Her voice is lost. She calls aloud for someone and only death can make out the words. She cannot swallow, she can no longer move. Her hands desperately comfort her skin and she feels it like she never has. Her empty stomach growls beneath her fingers. Find me sleep, she begs, but sleep ignores her cries. The sickness holds ever tighter to her fragile body and she cannot find the strength to cry.

Just take me then, she whispers to the blackness leaning against her bed. And he begins to, takes hold of her legs, pulling himself up until he is lying atop her, taking the air from her lungs and lying heavy. Then the valium kicks in.

She dreams things she cannot explain and the night stretches on for months.