It’s the foggiest night of the year in Scotland. In a dark forest, fast paced steps are followed by the sound of dry leaves crunching on the ground; someone is running as if he/she is running for his/her life. A gasping breath is broken by a scream.

Cazzy opens her eyes but her body doesn’t move, she tries to scream but it’s in vain. Her body doesn’t belong to her anymore. Her eyes are the only things responding, staring at the ceiling.

She feels a breeze in her ear followed by a whisper, a demoniac whisper. “You’re mine!” it says and continues, “God can’t help you now.” Cazzy closes her eyes and starts praying, she keeps repeatedly saying she’s from God and no demon has power over her.

After a few seconds, Cazzy is finally able to move her body. “One more night dealing with this stupid paralysis”, she thinks. She goes to her bathroom, opens the cabinet and looks at an array of prescription bottles. She sighs and takes one of them back to her bedroom. She sit’s on her bed, grabs the bottle of water on the side table and takes two pills. Sleeping two hours a night wasn’t making her any good.

The next day was filled with a calm snow pouring in cold Edinburgh. Cazzy was spending her day off in bed drinking a nice cup of hot chocolate while reading a book entitled: “Me, Myself, and Them: A Firsthand Account of One Young Person's Experience with Schizophrenia.”

Since she was a kid, Cazzy always had a special relationship with books. She always had the feeling that only books could entirely understand her and they were always her escape form the real world. In her mind, no matter how hard things were in her life, there would always be a book able to give her the answers she needed. Now, in her early twenties, it wasn’t different.

Cazzy puts the cup on the side table and without noticing. Her fingers start taping the side of her forehead while she reads. All the sudden, she feels someone is looking at her. Cazzy looks down the hall, the bathroom door is open and it’s all black inside. Trying to distract herself, she gets the chocolate again and takes another sip, she gets distracted for a moment when her hair starts flowing in a cold breeze, that runs across her neck. She freezes in fear while chills cover her body; she starts hyperventilating.

In a brisk movement, her arms hit the bed pouring the hot chocolate all over it. She tries moving her arms but a force doesn’t let her. A demoniac voice screams her name, which follows by an evil laugh. Cazzy close her eyes tight and the demoniac voice starts singing her name along with “You are mine, you are mine, you are mine.” She starts praying and asking God for help, the demoniac voice starts to get angry and yelled her name. Cazzy then feels a tightening grip on her wrists as she screams in agony.

Everything turns black.

Cazzy rubs her eyes and then opens them slightly. She sits in bed and looks around, exhaling. She was in her room, but most important, she was safe.

She gets up and walks to the bathroom. She picks up her tooth brush but then drops it. She couldn’t believe in what she was seeing, her wrists had long fingers marks. Was she still dreaming?

Cazzy puts both hands on the sink and her head down. She takes a deep breath. “This is not real, you’re having an episode. Don’t panic.” she says to herself. Cazzy washes her face. “It was just an episode!” She looks to her wrists again and they were still marked. How was that possible? She opens her medicine cabinet and takes 4 pills this time; after all, she wouldn’t let a little illness mess up her life.

Later that night, Cazzy was going to receive the visit of Sotiri, her boyfriend. They’ve been dating for a year already, and even with all the difficulties, he was still by her side.

They met at a party. Sotiri couldn’t stop looking at her. He didn’t understand why, but he just couldn’t. Cazzy noticed him, and gave him a small-embarrassed smile and that was enough to make him go talk to her. Since that day he was hers. Since that day she was his.

Cazzy was lying on Sotiri’s arms while he was playing with her hair. They were watching TV and Sotiri kept playing with her hair.

“So, it’s tomorrow your day off?” Cazzy asked while giving him a very childish pouting mouth.

“Oh my God, isn’t she a baby?” Sotiri kisses her forehead and continues, “No baby, today is my day off. But if you want I can come here after work and sleep with you. What do you think about that?”

“I think it is a wonderful idea... But there is a price you must pay. I mean, if you’re going to stay you need to pay a rent, you know?” She gives him a smile.

“Oh, of course. And what would that price be?” He raises one eyebrow.

“Hmm... How about a kiss? No, no... How about a few kisses?” She smiles like a kid.

“Fair enough.”

He pulls her and gives her a kiss on her right cheek and then left, he follows to her chin and then to her forehead. He slides to her nose and ends up on her lips. They start kissing and after a while start watching TV again.

Sotiri begins to play with her hair again and soon enough she falls asleep. Fifteen minutes later she wakes up.

“What happened?” He asked.

“I’m shaking! Can’t you feel? I’m shaking! Is the bed shaking? No! I’m shaking! Baby, I’m shaking!”

Sotiri could hear the fright in her voice; he pulls her closer and kisses her forehead. “Everything is alright, I’m here with you, baby,” he whispers. A few minutes later Cazzy falls asleep again, now secure in Sotiri’s arms.
Sotiri leaves the next morning while Cazzy sleeps. Around two in the afternoon, she wakes up happy for the late shift at work. That way she could have a good night of sleep. At that moment, a good night of sleep to Cazzy would be any night she could rest for more than four hours without an episode.

She takes her shower and gets dressed for work. Then she makes herself a scramble egg with sausage, and sits at the counter to delight herself with her breakfast. For Cazzy, getting ready to work and eating was almost like a ritual and she liked to enjoy each moment of it. After eating, she grabs her keys and heads to work.

Cazzy was driving in the high way; the signs of her lack of sleep were starting to show up. No matter how hard she tried to stay awake, her eyes were just too heavy. They insisted on shutting. Everything turned black.

In a dark forest, fast paced steps are followed by the sound of dry leaves crunching on the ground; someone is running. Cazzy is. Subconsciously, she speeds more as she runs in her dream. Her gasping breath is broken when she hits something and falls on the ground. She tried to get up but she can’t, she feels something breathing in her ear, she sighs. A demonic voice says: “There is no turning around. You’re mine, little girl, you are mine.”

A honk noise “wakes” Cazzy up. She fell asleep while driving and was almost turning her car into another when the loud noise woke her up. Thanks to that, she woke up before something worse happened. She shakes her head and continues to drive to work.

That night, Cazzy decided to go to bed early. She takes two sleeping pills and goes to bed leaving Sotiri a note: “Took some pills to sleep. Please, don’t wake me up. I love you, xoxo.”

Thirty minutes later, she wakes up. One more time, she can’t move her body or yell for help. In an abrupt movement Cazzy feels her blanket dropping on the floor. Her body starts floating in the air, while her wrist and ankles are being aggressively grasped by something. A demonic scream echoes in the room, her body flips and falls to the floor.

Following the instructions from yesterday, Sotiri goes directly to Cazzy’s place after stopping at a florist. He buys her a bouquet of beautiful white roses mixed with yellow roses. He thought bright colors would maybe help her feel better after the episode from last night.

When he gets in the apartment, he stops at the kitchen and grabs a bottle of water. Sotiri knew her well, but also her habits. He knew she was about to take her medicine and didn’t want her to have to get out of bed. He continuous to the living room and finds Cazzy’s note lying on the table. He proceeds to walk to her bedroom. When he gets there, he finds her lying on the floor, with deep scratches all over her arms, and blood all over the bed and the floor. The bouquet slowly falls from his hand and hits the floor.

She was dead.