Chapter 2 - Suicide Watch

Coughing so loud it could be heard from the hallway, wet retching erupted from a raw throat, a blonde haired woman had her head forcefully held over the toilet bowl. Having Ipecac poured in her resisting mouth to induce a flood of vomit, half digested, dark green bile, and mucus. Dry heaves followed for over a minute, satisfied that they saved Sarah the rough hands of her friends dragged her from the bathroom and threw her on the couch in her living room. Inheriting her parent's home after their death Sarah lived in a luxury manor alone, spending her time working on her paintings, with the dream of being a famous painter.

Joe, Larry, and Marcy were her best friends, they were also the only ones keeping her from killing herself, ever since she started living in her parent's manor alone she's been getting more depressed. Marcy was the first to notice that Sarah didn't seem to be sleeping, her eyes were wide open, bloodshot, and it only got more noticeable as the days went by, her eyes were swollen black from lack of sleep. Perpetual insomnia and her growing depression had caused her to lose weight by the day since she had stopped eating. A week ago that night was when she started with the suicide attempts, hanging herself from the ceiling, cutting her wrist with razors, and recently swallowing perscription sleeping pills by the bottle full.

"You can't keep this up," Joe said to Sarah "you need to snap out of it!"

Deep agonizing groans escaped her cracked lips, her eyes were nearly shut but they didn't close, it seems she was struggling to close them shut.

"We need to call an ambulance" Larry said as he started to go for the phone, but Marcy blocked his way.

"No." she cried "they'll find out she is suicidal and lock her in a nut ward where they'll drug her up constantly or worse fry her brains with electroshock."

Having been suicidal in her teens Marcy knew the struggle of living with that weight, with love from friends and time she managed to overcome those feelings. She experienced what it was like being on suicide watch in a mental asylum, and it scarred emotionally every since.

"She is going to die if we don't," Larry stated "if she doesn't kill herself she'll starve to death, look at her she is losing hair, teeth, and she is barely fifty pounds."

Glaring at Larry so menacingly Marcy forced him to drop it, but he gave an ultimatum that if she didn't get better that night he'll call the hospital. To that Sarah gave a cold chuckle, it wasn't wicked or cruel, instead it seem self defeated as if she was savoring the irony.

"I'll be dead this night." Sarah stated.

Cold air filled the house, and everyone's breath showed in the air, all except Sarah who seemed to have stopped breathing. Darkness outside the night air became shrouded in a haze of gray mist, rolling up over the house blocking out the streetlights, leaving only the glow of the moon outside. Before anyone could say a word the house lights went out, Larry hurried to the phone to call for help for Sarah having been driven by what she said to get her help, but the line was dead. Pulling out his cellphone he tried to turn it on, but it was dead, and so were Marcy's and Joe's.

"What is happening?" Marcy said as she backed away to the far end of the wall.

There was silence as the darkness in the house seemed to be getting denser, and the cold started to cause them all to shiver, except however for Sarah who laid still, undisturbed by the below zero cold. Frost covered the windows and glassware in the house. The sudden change in temperature caused cracks to show in the glass, slow creaking of splintering glass filled the ears of everyone in the house. Holding their breath Joe, Larry, and Marcy waited with frightened anticipation for what was going to happen. Ear splitting screeches of glass shattering all at once made the three of them nearly jump out of their skin.

Cascading glass fell to the hardwood floors like raindrops, stunned they couldn't move as their hearts beat loudly in their chests, and all they could see was pure white. Fog outside had entered the house covering the floor, and allowing the pale moonlight to come into the house. Marcy was the first to recover, and when she did she saw Sarah got disappeared from the couch. Desperately she looked around and saw outside through the broken window, in the pale light of the moon Sarah standing out in the fog.

"Sarah" she called out but Sarah didn't acknowledge her.

Joe and Larry were petrified, as if something hypnotized them into a deep trance. Terrified for her friend Marcy ran out the front door and chased after Sarah, with each step she took on the dew soaked lawn Sarah seemed to mystically become further away. Stopping still Marcy realized something was keeping her from Sarah who was standing out in the fog, her skeletal arms held out as if to embrace someone.

"Please come back." Marcy pleaded.

Turning her head around to look at Marcy, Sarah gave her a soft smile, her eyes seemed to be closing then, and a sigh of contemptment on her face. Before she could call out again Marcy froze stiff in place as she saw a robed figure rise from the fog. Dressed in dark grey robes was something that looked neither man or woman, it had short curly silver hair, white eyes, and out from its back was a pair of skeletal wings barely covered in white feathers. Frightened Marcy forced herself to call out for Sarah, repeating her name over and over again, running towards her trying to save her from whatever angel of death had come to spirited her away.

Arms stretched out still Sarah fell into the arms of the winged spectre, who then sank back into the fog. Arriving to where they were just as they disappeared into the fog, desperately she kicked around, but Sarah was gone. Before she could panic a blinding white light beamed through the clouds and she was taken into a white light. Time passed by in an instant within the pure light abyss, when Marcy saw the light fade she found herself standing in the living room of the house.

Daylight streamed through the window and Joe and Larry were there but snapped out of their daze. Remembering the night before they saw the windows were still intact, unbroken compared to what happened last night, they almost thought it was a hallucination if not for the frostbite on their hands. Then Joe, Larry, and Marcy remembered Sarah and saw she was lying still on the couch, her eyes were closed with a bottle of empty sleeping bills in her hand. Sarah was dead.