Alarm.

It doesn't sneak up on you, it builds underneath your skin, daring you to keep it under control. Daring you to try and hide it from those around you, because it knows you can't win.

It knows how weak you are, because it is always right there with you, lying in wake for the perfect time to let itself loose and consume you and every ounce of sanity in your heart, soul, and mind.

Your heart is pounding, and it becomes harder to remember why. What triggered this? What set the alarm bells off in your head? It's slowly getting harder to think and breathe, as your chest is tightening, your breaths are becoming shallower and more desperate all at once.

You wish the world would stop for you, would wait for you, but does anybody care? Is anybody even there?

Resistance.

Your mind is trying to fight this parasite, but at this point, it has taken control of your bodily functions. Your body is tensed, your jaw has clenched, do you remember how to breathe? In through the nose, out through the mouth, but now there are tears making their way down your cheeks. Your face is flushed, your fists are clenching and unclenching, nails digging into the palms of your hands, hard enough to where you know you'll be bleeding soon, if you aren't already.

The harder you try to fight, the harder it becomes. You feel as if you're losing control, you're spiraling into insanity, could this be death? Will it ever end? The world around you seems to be ending, but somehow it is still spinning, for the world and it's people do not care if you live or die. Everyone you know and love is only here for a short lifetime.

Does anyone truly love you? Would anyone even care if you collapsed to the floor, only to never wake up again? Are your friends superficial, or would they care about you until your untimely end?

Exhaustion.

But like the times before, this disease seems have its end. Your head is spinning, are you sure you're not dead?

Like a fever, it happens once, and then disappears for a while. Unlike a fever, this is every month. Every week.

Every day?

Are you sure it's not better for you to take your life instead? Maybe end the pain, try the afterlife instead?

Heaven, purgatory, or hell, or is hell what you just went through?

There's not one parasite inside of you, there's two, three, who knows how many more.

And they won't stop, until they've won.

They don't lose.