The beginning of the end.

I'll never forget how it all began, what I was doing at the time, and the first patient effected.

It was a normal day, just like any other at the clinic when a woman being accompanied by a man walked through the boring white doors. The woman, whose head was hung forward, was in the arms of the man, and he held a worried expression on his face. The whole scene of the two seemed to move in slow motion, until he called out for help in an exasperated plea. His breathing was panicked, shaky, and his eyes were dark, clear sleep deprivation wrapped in a full circle around his lids. He had a few days stubble on his face.

My nurses rushed the unconscious woman off in a fit of hysteria, and I approached the man calmly. In a gentle tone, I asked, "What's happened?" to which his reply was quick paced;

" I don't know! " he breathed. "One minute she was completely fine, and the next she had a mild fever that formed into a worse fever. I didn't know what to do so I came here, and she was so hot that she just fainted."

"What time did you notice the fever?" I asked him.

He thought deeply about the question before he replied. "At around 10 p.m. two days ago."

" And the fever never died down in the 48 hours? "

"No," he said with a shaky breath.  "Yesterday she started coughing viciously so I figured that maybe she had caught a cold, but this is unlike anything I've ever seen before." As he explained I was sure to jot down every word. This sounded out of the ordinary to me, but I had no ill feelings about it at first, unaware of the truth of how serious the matter was yet.

"Doctor!" A nurse of mine, Mrs. Roster, shouted to me as her heels clicked off the floor as she ran. Turning my eyes toward her, she spoke, " You're needed in there. " with a nod I followed her into the room where the woman lied moaning and groaning, and mumbling unheard words.

"She woke up, but she won't talk to us. She just keeps mumbling about the sky," another nurse said.

I opened a drawer and grabbed the thermometer, which was used by ear, and began to check her temperature. She flinched as the object went into her ear, and I eased her discomfort in a hushed tone, "It's okay, I'm only checking your temperature." the subtle beep said that it was finished, and my mind faced when I read the results.

"Her temperature is high, 104. I need to take some blood, then we can continue further protocol." When I went to take her blood, her bloodshot red eyes snapped open and a look a sheer horror glazed over her pupils. She pushed herself against the bed in an attempt to move further away, but she failed. Her face was covered in sweat and she panted hard for air.

"It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you," I reassured her in a gentle tone, one of which sounded like I was talking to a fragile thing of glass. 

She ignored my gentle words and began to let out ear-piercing screams, her arms flailing around as though she had been swinging at something attacking her. In swift motions, she was held down by a male nurse, and sedated by me. As her eyes slipped closed, she murmured the words, "Don't let them hurt me."

After all of that, I ran a few tests before sending them off to the labs to be looked at so I could come up with a proper diagnoses.

I remember telling her husband that we would be monitoring her health for the night. We did get her fever to slowly wither away, but she started looking pale, her skin flaky and wet. She didn't look good. However, I gave her husband the reassurance that he needed and told him I would do all that I could to treat her strange symptoms and figure out the rooting cause.

I got a call later that night while I was at my house asleep, and I was told that she had died. When asked about how this happened, I was given little answers; nobody knew what happened. It was like one second she was okay, and the next she was gone.

Her husband was in complete shambles, and I couldn't wait to get the results of the tests back. Her body was taken to be looked at by the morgue. Her husband went on ahead and agreed that an autopsy would come into play. Another thing to look forward to.

The next few days really got under my skin. It was killing me to find out the results. She had passed away so fast. Her symptoms seemed to get worse but without noticeable sign. I had hoped the root cause would be hidden in the results of either one of my tests, or the autopsy report.

But to no prevail. When the test results came in they all came back as positive. There was nothing wrong, apparently. She was fine; No diseases, underlying conditions. There was absolutely nothing. So now I was faced with wonder. What exactly happened to her?

I still had to wait for the autopsy report before I could 100 percent rule out everything possible, but I decided in that moment in time to send the blood test to my sister who worked as a scientist in her own lab. Telling her I wanted her to research every inch, nook and cranny, I felt the best results would come out of this.

It was only two days later that I received the autopsy report. Her autopsy showed that she died of cardiac arrest. But that didn't make any sense. Nothing happened that would even seem close to her having a heart attack.

But with little information, that fact didn't change when my sister called and said she found nothing.

Two weeks after the first patient, we got our second patient with the same illness. After that patient passed away, we got our third, then fourth, then fifth... Then they never stopped showing up.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello and welcome to the mysterious illness that is slowly taking over Graphite Heights. Let me introduce you to our protagonist, Dr. Klaus Reede.

"My name is Klaus and I'm a doctor for my small clinic in Graphite Heights; a small city inside the state of Massachusetts. I'm going to take my story to the Watty's in hopes of letting others know of this cruel illness. If you would like to help me defeat the cause of this weird illness, please hit the like button and leave a comment on your thoughts. Share this to get the word out and save the world!
Again, I am Klaus and I need your help."

This is a rough draft that I have not edited yet, so if there's any errors please point them out. Aside from that, happy reading and like and share <3

Have a great day/night! Love you all!