Part 66 - Orange

Mathew’s eyelids felt heavy, and he worked to open them. He was on his back.

“Matty? Mathew, you’ll be ok. No more tumor, isn’t that amazing?” Beverly’s face came into view, then Dr. Madison’s. Mathew jolted upright, but Ruth was nowhere to be seen.

Beverly began again. “I know it’s a lot, honey, but this is great news,” she smiled at him. Always loving. Always present.

“Where’s Ruth?” Mathew asked. His mind felt so fuzzy, so jumbled.

Clean the filth of the world.

Dr. Madison exchanged a look with Beverly. “Who?”

Mathew stood and glanced out the window. Green. It was always green.

Eternal war.

“The nurse. Where did she go?” He stalked to the window, running into a sidetable in the process. The table shook, and a bottle of pills fell off. Orange capsules scattered onto the floor.

Time, Mathew.

Dr. Madison said from behind him, “We don’t have any nurses named Ruth.” The man sounded concerned.

He should be, reasoned Mathew. He was still hallucinating. After all, the sky shouldn’t ever look like... this.

It was swirling. Not just green, like he had thought. Bright green, mixing with neon orange, dissolving into blood red.

We own light and time.

The sky shifted again: orange.

Turning, Mathew realized what the sky wanted to tell him. Beverly was picking up the pills off the floor, her hands shaking. She was about to—

“Mum!” Mathew felt a darkness wash over him. Aggression. Survival. Need.

He knocked the pills back onto the ground and grabbed Beverly’s wrist. “Don’t eat that!” His voice was angry, but he felt afraid.

https://theprose.com/post/259869/your-turn-collaborative-challenge