Alone, in the darkness, an elderly man awoke from his slumber. Disoriented, gazing around left and right to ensure his own bearings. Stiffness in his throat causes it to spasm in a coughing fit in order to clear it.

His heart sprinted, pacing quickly as his eyes welled with tears. Thundering in his chest, his heart burst as bits of moisture swelled from the corners of his eyes, falling into his sodden pillow. Filled with the fluids of an uneasy night, it sat in solidarity with the linen supporting his frail body. Soaked around him, he sniffed to gauge where the fluid originated. Nothing met his summons; the ammonia he expected did not waft into his inhalation.

Turning his head to the side, on the pillow, he felt the cool, damp sensations causing him to shoot his head upright, away from the sodden bed. Unnerved, he passed a hand against the back of his thinning hair, observing the level of damp, while grounding him to the uneasy sensation, troubling him. Although his muscles remained relaxed despite the firmness of the hospital bed, the heart inside his chest pounded as the cold sweat built up.

Uncharacteristic sadness washed over him. Tears welled up in his eyes, once more, as he suspiciously observed these emotions. Feeling detached from a limb, he struggled to understand what transpired. Despite living in this hospital, spending his last days on Earth under the care of these individuals, Henry Daniels, for the first time in his life felt truly alone.

Henry, a man plagued with visions of creatures, so alien, so ghastly, with their sharp teeth and dark, cold eyes, felt the only kinship in his life with of these creatures. Only shown to him in his visions, he felt a silent communion with one of them. One with a smaller form from the others, one whose gaze, with its dark eyes, gloomier than the purest black, met him with a knowing look in his visions. Seeing him through the veil of their worlds, watching him as it was watched in kind, this being held knowledge Henry could not understand, nor would have time to comprehend, an emissary in his visions, this one communicated the best it knew how.

However, Henry discovered that sharing these visions with others, ostracized him while placing him into secured building. Hospitals, which forced drugs upon him, claiming him legally unfit to take care of his own needs as well as mentally unfit to function in society. Causing a stupor to envelope his mind, a fog to encapsulate his comprehension, his ability to think, Henry remained in this state for many years, disconnected from his lizard people, taken to a land of nothing, his mind enslaved, unable to think, unable to feel until the medical professionals allowed his release. Along with the freedom, they presented Henry with a hefty bill of medical expenses, one he would not be able to pay back with his lack of means.

Now bereft of any means to support himself, forced to acquire support from the state of South Carolina, Henry continued to drive deeper in depression. Forced to sleep on the street for many weeks, scavenging for food, panhandling, until ultimately his claim for social security disability was approved, providing a modicum of stability afterward. Here and there, the images would pop into his mind, the lizard person, always watching, always connected.

Once off his medication, Henry experienced a wash of energy flush over him, transporting him to a frightening circle of light beings, which provided a calming effect to electrify him, before explaining secrets to him. Ones, he refused to believe. Feeling they were a product of his psychosis as the medical professionals stated previously, Henry continued to deny the truth of these visions, all the while, she watched him, his other half, his multiversal counterpart. Yes, she. Always a female, Henry believed. Never knowing how or why he knew this, merely feeling it in his gut, Henry knew the sex of this being just as much as knowing her a part of him as well.

Back in his bed, soaked with cold sweat, Henry spoke aloud, silently, nearly breathlessly, "She's gone." Before a deluge erupted from his eyes. Sobbing now uncontrollably, Henry let the truth of his past, the truth of his predicament swell in him. Detached from his other, Henry felt the darkness swell in him, an emptiness so pervasive it nauseated him, loneliness that taunted him, never feeling complete prior to this but now he truly knew what seclusion felt like.

---

Arriving to work that morning, Isabella's heart quickened as she thought about her encounter with the beings of light as well as the creature known as Pligal. The counterpart to her, according to the beings wreathed in light, the one lingering in her thoughts, in her dreams, forever linked to her.

Feeling alone in her recent trials, questioning reality, unsure what to place value in, Isabella kept the truth of her experiences quiet, buried deep with a guise of contentment. However, meeting a patient who resided on the floor she was assigned placing her world in a tailspin. Culminating with her experience with the creatures, Isabella hungered for truth.

Clocking in, she carefully locked up her things in an employee locker before proceeding to her floor assignment. Reaching the floor, Isabella saw Hank; once again, chatting with Lucy as her cheeks blushed. Giggling softly, Lucy said something inaudible to cause Hank to raise his hands in surrender before walking backward, unaware Isabella approached, nearly topping her over as she heard the soft sound of weeping emanating from one of the rooms.

"Wait!" Lucy called out to Hank before he realized where he stood, his back mere inches away from Isabella's small frame.

Isabella quickly sidestepped as she heard the cry from the nurse's station. Turning her head back to the hallway, Isabella picked up the sobs, once more.

Tracing her gaze back to the sound, Hank interjected, "He has been like that for a while now, according to the shift change report."

"Who is it?" Isabella inquired, not looking back at Hank.

"Mr. Daniels. I tried going in there and talking to him, he didn't acknowledge me. Just kept crying." Hank said shrugging his shoulders.

Walking forward, Isabella silently made her way towards Mr. Daniel's room. Drawn to him by her desire to discover the truth, she entered the room like a shroud of sweat lingered in the air. Slightly stinging her nostrils, she proceeded further into the room. Weeping softly, Mr. Daniels remained fixated upon his grief, not noticing his nurse's aid enter the room and move towards his field of vision.

Quietly, she watched for many moments before softly saying to him, "Mr. Daniels?"

Carefully, Isabella surveyed for any potential opening to discover the reason for his distress. Shielding his eyes, the elderly man lay like a child, his knees brought up to his chest, on his side as his tears flowed heavily.

Moving in closer, Isabella shot her eyes towards the door of his room to inspect if they were alone. Satisfied by her observation, she leaned in closer before whispering, "Is it the lizard people? I've seen them too. What happened? What did you see?"

Keeping his face covered, Mr. Daniels said muffled, "I saw nothing. I feel nothing. She is gone."

"The lizard person attached to you?" Isabella inquired.

"Yes." Mr. Daniels said with a heavy voice, a heavy heart.

With her face pained, Isabella said, "Oh I am so sorry. Mr. Daniels. I couldn't imagine how you feel. If I were to lose my connection to my own, I don't know how I would respond."

"Your own?" Mr. Daniels said with his hands slowly exposing his face.

"Yes." Isabella continued to whisper. "I am connected to one of them as well."

Causing Henry to forget his sorrow for a few moments, exposing his bloodshot eyes to her, he surveyed her silently. Tracing his eyes upon her caring, concerned face, her warmth evident in her eyes, in her eyebrows, the way her forehead wrinkles emoted compassion, Henry's mind floated back to his connection, his lost lizard woman. The only other being who understood him. With eyes misting over, he lost the image of Isabella as it was replaced with a blurry shadow.

"I need some time," Henry said with a croak, an exhausted feel through his worn appearance.

Taking a few quiet moments, Isabella quietly acquiesced. Leaving the room, her eyes shooting to the nurse's station standing adjacent to Henry's room, her gaze lingered upon Cheryl. Sitting at her appointed place of duty before proceeding to the medication room to confirm the dosage of her inventory based on the previous shift's reports. Looking at the woman, Isabella felt a pain lingering in her abdomen, a soft burning nearing a stitch radiating from her. Considering this, slight anger seeped in, a rage of intense proportions soon followed.

"Where is this coming from? Is it her?" Isabella thought before feeling her pain pulse like fire into her core.

Now circulating her complete abdomen, the former stitch became a blaze. Shaking through her body, feeding the fires of pain, her knees seemed to melt underneath her. Quickly, Isabella grabbed her stomach before leaning upon the doorframe. With teeth clenched, fingers digging into her side, her eyes firmly shut tight as she attempted to support herself. As quickly as the wave of pain swelled, Isabella felt coolness replace her torment. A shifting cool, radiating throughout her abdomen before quelling the fires of agony piercing her, moved across Isabella's body, easing pain, numbing discomfort. Feeling the wave subside the anguish, which grew feverishly within her, she breathed deeply a sigh of relief before her mind turned to the frequency of such pain.

"Second time in a week. Hmm." She thought to herself. "What is happening to me?"

Turning back to Henry, her thoughts moved toward his connection with his other. Living so long with this connection, he held the potential for answering so many of her questions.

Cradling her side, which hurt no longer, Isabella thought to herself, "I must remember to ask him about this pain."

Her shift rather unremarkably transpired without major disturbance nor many interactions with Cheryl. Isabella's mind remained upon her questions for Mr. Daniels. Never lingering around Doug but briefly passing over her pain, which held the potential for paralyzing her.

Attributing it to her experience in the tub, thinking to herself, "Yeah, to be expected when you wake up in your own piss and shit."

Previously taking a cranberry capsule as she awaited her medication to arrive at her pharmacy for a definite urinary tract infection, Isabella performed every action she could to allow the flush of toxins to transpire. Drinking copious amounts of water and cranberry juice, she spent many moments of her hospital shift, in the bathroom.

Sleeping hard after hours of tears flowing from his eyes, mourning his loss, immensely feeling his pain, Henry, soon, found no more energy to keep his eyes open. Each summons for medications, he kept his eyes closed, each routine measurement of his vitals, he lazily held his arm out, while his body sunk into the hospital bed.

The day passed uneventfully, Isabella arrived home and after spending a few moments reading her book, proceeded to initiate her routine before going to bed. Her answering machine light blinking two messages caught during the day's activities awaited her summons, which never came. Allowing herself to rest early this evening, Isabella quickly slumbered. 

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