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It might have been from the stress of finding out my apartment building had been haunted, but I woke up sick the day after the failed sleepover with Max. I took some cold pills thinking I could push through it to finish my shift. Maybe I could go to the sorting room and do something a bit easier until I felt better. I walked a few blocks to get to the door that led me into work, and in those few blocks I got much worst. I zipped my uniform jacket as far as it would go and buried half my face in the collar. Chills shook my body and my head heavy from illness.
I was met by the normal sight. A single empty room with a small fold out table but with Max and one of his sisters already inside. I opened my mouth to greet them and a cough came out instead. I stopped in front of the desk ready to get the day finished. The receptionist, a sister I yet to meet, stood up and came around to get a better look at my flushed face.
“Are you not feeling well?” Max asked and he also got in close.
“I’ll survive.” I replied in a small rough voice.
“No, you might not depending on what creatures you’ll come across. You’re taking a day off. I’ll call your doctor to come over when he’s available for a home visit. Go back home until you recover.” She told me and started to look through forms on her desk to fill out.
“I get sick days?” I asked, shocked.
She looked at me as if I wasn’t the brightest bulb. The pay for this job was good, but I didn’t know I also had sick days. I should ask if I also got vacation days. While I wasn’t paying attention. Max got right next to me. He pulled down my jacket collar and to my shock, licked the entire side of my face. I let out a disgusted sound from suddenly having a wet cheek and his sister grabbed him before he could do it a second time.
“Ugh, Max why?!” I demanded offended and betrayed.
I rubbed my cheek with the back of my jacket sleeve to get the dog slobber off. I’m sure he had a good reason for the gross lick, but he should have warned me first so I could try to dodge it.
“Whenever my sisters are feeling sick, I lick their faces until they feel better. It’s a sure cure and I find sixty-six licks work the best.” He said very proudly.
“Your licking doesn’t cure anything. We just say it works so you stop licking us.” His sister admitted disgusted.
Max looked distraught having a childhood truth be revealed as a lie. I really didn’t want to have a mental image of a child Max pining down one of his poor sisters to lick their cheek. Creatures sure had a weird mindset when it came to things. I let out a terrible sounding cough and both Max and his sister took a few steps back, holding each other. They looked pretty worried about catching whatever I had even though I was positive a human illness stood no chance trying to infect a creature. I still kept away from them just in case. My face starting to flush from a fever. The sister of the day was nice enough to create a door back to my apartment to get me home and out of their hair faster. Max cheerfully waved before I left saying he would think of something to make me feel better.
Honestly just having him seem worried was good enough. Besides my father, I didn’t have any family. I really didn’t keep any friends either. I was nice enough with my co-workers but rarely, if ever spent that much time with them outside work. I felt nice to have someone who cared. That feeling got over taken by my fever.
I took off my uniform jacket, body starting to shake and aches creeping into my joints. I crawled into bed wanting to sleep the whole ordeal off.
Looking back on it, I should have gotten someone over to keep an eye on me. I assumed I just had the flu and sleeping it off would cure it. I really didn’t know what kind of illness I caught. When I woke up my throat felt so raw, I couldn’t swallow my own spit. I needed a drink of water. When I sat up, my head became so dizzy I collapsed back into bed. My entire body shaking from a fever and body hurting only in the way flu pains could make you feel. I didn’t remember that last time I ever gotten this bad.
I felt so damn warm and yet I shook as if I had chills. I needed to get something to drink no matter how much it hurt. All of these were signs I had a fever so high I needed to get to the hospital. I risked frying my brain if my temperate didn’t break. Being alone for my entire adult life made it so I didn’t even think to call someone to help. With a great deal of effort, I got out of bed, nearly falling over. I needed to use my bed side table for support and then my bed. I moved so slowly, every step a small victory.
I got to the bathroom with a great deal of effort. In my fever haze I considered having a shower to either cool me down, or warm me up. I really didn’t know what I was feeling. My head hot but my body cold and painful from each shake. First, I wanted a drink of water. I bent over drinking right from the tap, my head swimming for a few seconds. The water stayed down just long enough for me to collapse to the bathroom floor and cough it back up. My throat hurt too damn much and my stomach protested having anything inside it. Soon I was puking up bile and the last remains of the cold meds from earlier that day.
I curled up on the bathroom floor, making an effort to clean up my mess but only had the strength to place a towel over top of the wet spot. My face stayed on the cool tiles, body hurting from the flu and from shaking so damn much.
While barely awake and on the floor, I stared through the open door down the short hallway. I squinted when I thought I saw a shape move in the darkness of the other doorway. I made a weak attempt to raise my head and to call out, my throat burning and only ended up making a raspy noise.
That figure noticed me. At first, I hoped it was Max coming by to check in on me. The shape came into view and I weakly got up halfway. My brain frantic with fear along with the fever messing with my thought process. What I looked at wasn’t Max or anyone I knew. I didn’t know if it was even a someone.
They were so tall they needed to bend their neck to stand in the hallway. Head crooked and pale white eyes staring at me through dark tangled hair. The fingers all twisted and disjointed. The figured dressed in layer of torn fabrics stained with dark spots that looked a lot like mold. I couldn’t move in my state. I could only sit on my bathroom floor helplessly watching the creature take long steps at a time down my hallway.
I grabbed onto the sink, pulling myself up. I wondered what I had to protect myself. My foot slipped and I fell backwards, a set of rough hands catching my fall. I made another noise that hurt my irritated throat. The creature made it inside the bathroom and easily caught me. I moved a hand to try and push the monster away only to have the thing wrap its greasy hair around me, binding my arms to my chest. I always assumed I would die at my new job and not in my apartment.
“Oh, look at how tasty you look. So nice and warm. I’ll enjoy this meal very much.” The voice came from under the hair and the eyes scrunched up from a hidden smile.
That voice caused my body to shake for a reason besides the fever. It was like nothing I ever heard before. As if ten people with sore, or torn out throats spoke at once. The face got closer to mine and I made the best attempt at a scream my body could handle. To my sheer horror, the hair was pulled back to reveal a long mouth with black lips. Unable to save myself from what was coming, the creature pressed its lips against my own. I kicked and pushed causing me to use up all my strength, my head getting so dizzy I passed out on the spot.
Being so close to a monster meant I should have died. I woke up, the memory still fresh causing me to scream awake. I screamed again when a second person in my room and beside my bed got startled by my first scream and shrieked as well. Soon we both were screaming at each other. When my brain could process who was standing nearby, I calmed down a little. My heart beating out of my chest and breathing heavy.
“Max?!” I said in a voice hoarse from screaming so much.
After I spoke, I noticed my throat was fine. Besides from all the yelling. My body didn’t hurt and I only felt as if I over slept instead of dying like before. Was that monster just a fever dream? I looked at Max wondering how long he’d been there for and if he knew what happened was just a nightmare or not.
“I came in to check in on you to see if the Kiss Of Death came by.” He said, face bright and recovered from his small shock.
“What.” I said, using such a deadpan voice I’ve never managed before.
“Oh, they’re not as bad as they sound! They eat illness. Their name got mixed up years ago. They don’t kiss people and they die. But they kiss sick or dying people to eat away most, if not all their illness. I asked one to come over to take care of you. They can’t eat away big stuff like cancer but a flu is no problem.” Max sounded so cheerful and happy he helped a friend recover.
I loved Max, I really did. This was the very rare time when I wanted to strangle him. Instead, I reached over to pull him into a hug. He was confused but very happy. I refused to let go when he pulled back and his confusion grew.
“Max… I had a pretty bad fever. I was helpless and then a creepy creature came into my apartment to force me to kiss it. Do you maybe think giving me a heads up might have been a good idea?” I told him, keeping my voice even.
“Oh? You thought The Kiss Of Death was creepy? I think they’re pretty nice. Wait, were you scared?” Max asked, sounding a bit worried and finally cluing into what he did.
When I nodded to admit I was scared to death, he let out an upset cry and hugged me back. He promised to never do such a thing again and how sorry he was that he totally forgot my human standards are different then his. What’s cute and nice to Max is a never-ending nightmare to me. I did forgive him pretty quickly and it was nice I wasn’t sick any more. But I would rather go through a flu than deal with a creature like that again. It was only after I researched my symptoms to see what I had I found out I might have been suffering from a fever so high it could have killed me. Max honestly saved my life at the cost of me having a great deal of new nightmares going forwards.
My job requested I did stay home for one more extra day and then let me in the sorting room before they would let me go back to delivering. I gladly did the easy job of looking through different packages and envelopes with my very strange, and sometimes downright scary co-workers. That day though, they all kinda seemed to stay away from me. I coughed once and reached for my water bottle and noticed everyone else had stopped working. I paused with them trying to figure out the problem. Then I figured out they all either thought I was still able to infect them with some human illness, or some were concerned I was still sick because they actually cared about my well-being.
By the end of the day, they all seemed to be less weary of me. I started to head out ready to go home and rest when I came across Belizas. She heard I’d been sick and apparently knew the same false cure Max did. I didn’t run fast enough to escape her grasp and got put into a headlock, yelling for someone to save me before she licked me. Max came in very soon for a rescue but assumed I got sick again and wanted to call in for another kiss, which I greatly refused.
Working with supernatural creatures can be hard. Sometimes I wondered if things would be easier if one of them just ate me.