There was something strange in the air. The year old scars on my wrists ached as though they had just been slashed with a razor-sharp blade. I wondered if the pain was a harbinger of what was yet to come. Despite it being a warm summer night, my heart felt like a cold stone sinking in my chest. I walked the empty streets to my friend Jessicka’s house. She had called me the night before, and invited me over. There had been a tinge of despair in her voice; a mourning for something lost.

As I walked past the ocean, I couldn’t help but notice that the sea was unusually calm. Silence replaced the sound of the waves colliding with the shore. I felt as if I were the only thing existing that night. The rest of the world appeared to be a cheaply painted backdrop. I approached Jessicka’s home, and my heavy heart sank further. The three story building looked the same as it always had, but something dark and ancient emanated from it. Everything sour and bitter in the world seemed to ooze out of the cracks in the sideboards, and a dank scent of decay filled my nostrils. A wooden staircase on the side of the house led straight to Jessicka’s top floor room. She had told me earlier that I could let myself in, so I did just that. Upon entering Jessicka’s room, I spotted her sitting on the edge of her bed. Her dark eyes greeted me with a hollow stare, sunken into a pale emaciated face framed by black matted hair. I took a seat beside her and attempted to make conversation, but she gave me no response. When I gave Jessicka a hug, she accepted my embrace, but I could feel her bones under a thin layer of skin. There was no life in her.

I had brought some marijuana with me, having known that she was depressed. I packed my glass bowl and offered smoke with her, again receiving no response besides that stare that was not unlike that of the living dead. However, she took the pipe when I handed it to her, and a spark of relief flickered in my heart. The fact that she was exhibiting human behavior slightly calmed some of the fears racing through my mind. For the first time since I had arrived, I took a good look around the room. I had been so focused on Jessicka that I had not even noticed its state of disarray. The room looked like no one had lived in it for years. The floorboards were warped and everything was coated in a layer of dust and grime. Spider webs decorated the sparse furniture, while roaches and other insects scuttled across the walls. I nervously took a hit off the pipe, but the smoke I inhaled tasted rancid and burned my throat. My head began to pound, and a blinding pain shot through my skull. It was as if just being in this room had tainted the weed and drained it of anything joyous or right and filled it with rot and misery.

I didn’t want to remain in this place any longer. I stood up to leave, and hurriedly said my goodbyes to Jessicka. To my surprise, she said “I’ll walk you out.” I could have sworn I saw a black shiny beetle escape from her lips as she spoke. She led me down the steps of the wooden staircase, and as I walked away, she stood there, eyes following me with their blank stare. I wanted to run away, and never look back. I felt compelled to turn around, maybe to see if she was still standing there, still as the ocean was earlier, or to convince my doubting mind that these events just occurred. As I gazed back, I couldn’t believe or even comprehend what I saw. Jessicka’s eyes sunk even further into her head, and insects swarmed from her eyes, nose and mouth. Her body seemed to shrivel more and more as the ants, beetles and spiders crawled out of her. As her body decayed, the house corroded as well. I was left there as the sun rose, staring at the empty lot questioning my sanity and not noticing the blood dripping down from the fresh cuts on my wrists.