It's worst when I'm just waking up...

Doctor Roding tells me that what I see, hear, and feel isn't real - the fragmentary images, the disembodied voices, the writhing swarm of people and things that relentlessly pursues me...  He says that it's caused by a chemical imbalance within my brain, a medical condition that can be treated with medicines and therapy.  The pills he gives me help, sometimes...  they keep the demons at bay.  Yet I can't help but feel that they are merely a blindfold.  What if what I see is real and the others just don't know it?

I've decided not to take them anymore...  That is, unless what I experience grows unbearable.  There are times when the swarm engulfs me - they're everywhere, all over me.  I try to escape them, but I can't - they know my every move, and no matter what I do, they block my path.  It's like living in a nightmare from which I can't awaken.  If I could just get away, maybe the swarm wouldn't find me.  The doctors and nurses won't let me - they say I'm sick, that I would die on the streets...  yet, wouldn't a breath of freedom be better than a lifetime of imprisonment?

I can't stay here any longer.  I fear that with every passing moment I am losing my mind.  Tonight, when it's dark, I'm going to do it, and nobody can stop me - not the guards, not Doctor Roding, not even the swarm.  I'm going to escape them all, and finally be free...



-- Change 0x402DB to 0x6E.