The Foreseer

The next time Anei awoke, the alarm clock on the bedside table read 12:21 in the afternoon. She felt feverish again, her whole body sticky with sweat. Her bones felt heavy, like they’ve been filled with lead. Her throat was raw and her mouth felt like there were sores all over her tongue and the inside of her cheeks. She reached her hand up to her mouth and screamed out in pain.

  Blisters covered the inside of her mouth. Hot, stinging, pus-filled blisters. They were making her tongue and throat swell up and her breathing was getting more and more difficult.

  She tried to sit up, but the pain was excruciating. She screamed out and felt a blister in her mouth pop. She gagged on the liquid, causing a few more to pop and ooze to the back of her throat. Her vision started to go black at the edges. Her brain was foggy from the pain and confusion of what was happening. She felt like she was dying. Anei reached over for her cell phone, but it slipped from her sweaty hand and slid across the floor, out of reach. She tried to stand to go get it, but fell down immediately, too heavy in her 98-pound frame.

  She spit out the saliva, pus, and blood and tried desperately to suck air into her lungs. She laid her head down on the carpet and suddenly felt a very odd sensation; a lightheaded feeling, but not like she was going to pass out. Her eyes focused on a dark spot on the carpet, and in a matter of moments, her body went limp.

  Anei could feel herself lifting off the ground and moving at an incredible speed through space. The world around her was blackened, but familiar. She could still smell the unique scents of the complex she lived in, the soil from the gardens around the buildings. Brief glimpses of houses and colors flashed before her eyes and she knew exactly where she was going.

  The world around her came into focus and she was standing in the yard of the old woman with the cataract eyes, who was standing stalk still on her porch staring right at Anei wearing a look of excitement, wonder, and understanding. She nodded once and turned to go back into her house.

  Anei smiled and was pulled backwards through darkness by an unseen force. Several minutes later, she blinked and was back in her room on the floor. Someone was banging on the front door.

  “Help, please!” but it only came out as a hoarse whisper through the swelling and liquid. Just before the room disappeared around her, Anei heard the front door bang open and saw the old lady hurrying toward her.