"Time for your medicine, Melissa," said the nurse loudly and slowly, as if she were talking to a child, as she bustled into the small live-in-hospital room.

"Shhh..." said the pale figure in four point restraints lying on the bed in an eerily monotone voice. "You must be quiet. Shhh."

"But you need to take your medicine now!" she said, in a scolding tone, not bothering to lower her voice, "You know what happens when you don't take your medicine!"

With that Melissa began to writhe and strain against her bindings as if some invisible force tormented her. "Please!" She begged, her voice now filled with anxiety, "You must be quiet! Shhh! Please..."

The nurse looked at her with a growing concern. She had dealt with demanding and resistant patients before, but Melissa was different. The fear in her bright green eyes created a cloud of foreboding over all of the staff, who subsequently bet the chore of "pilling" Melissa up against cleaning the restrooms and the like in the staff poker games.

The nurse swallowed hard and approached Melissa slowly. "Why..." she said in a lowered voice, "Why are you always telling us... telling everyone to be quiet."

Melissa's head slowly turned towards the nurse. Her intense gaze locked with the nurse's as she whispered eerily, "Because you'll wake them."

The nurse trembled with apprehension. "Who… who are th-they?"

Melissa looked at her incredulously, as if the answer were self-evident.

"The - the things… the creatures in my veins!" she whispered adamantly.

With the obviously insane statement, the nurse's fear ebbed a bit. Her voice returned to normal, and the nurse looked at Melissa with pity as she tried to reason with her. "Honey, there is nothing in…"

"You always say that… All of you!" Melissa replied in a normal volume of voice, which, for her, was like an ear-slitting shriek. "You just can't see them! But they are there!" She began to writhe on the bed, again, the bindings cutting deeply into her tender flesh. "They want to escape! They want out…

But you say I can't go home if I let them out! So I keep them inside. I'm a good girl! I never let them out, but they are always hunting! Always hunting for a way out! They will hurt me. They hurt me inside. If I let them out, they wont hurt me, but I will never let them. I must go home! They always hunt! Always… Unless they are asleep. Yes… asleep." Her voice resumed a whisper and her intense gaze caught the nurse's eyes again. In a soft, ominous voice, she said slowly, "You mustn't wake them…"