Despite the night terrors and maddening boredom, there was one part of my day that I enjoyed.

I had made breakfast somewhat of a ritual, something positive I could look forward to in the beginning of my day after hours of staring into darkness. But it wasn’t long before it was added to the growing list of things I couldn’t do without experiencing anything short of a waking nightmare.

The day after I’d met Michael at the coffee shop, I woke up as I always did: mummified by my sheets and nauseous from the near-poisonous volume of body odor that had filled the unventilated air of my bedroom. I slowly unraveled myself from my bedding and took to the kitchen to begin making breakfast. I opened up a carton of eggs and selected one from the dozen. I cracked it open, and out popped a lizard.

A very large, jet-black lizard.

My scream was audible throughout my entire building. The creature slid around on the counter and then scurried behind my refrigerator with such quickness that it was gone before I could act. I got on my hands and knees and searched for the damn thing. I even moved my refrigerator, but of course, I found nothing but dust and cobwebs. I could feel the familiar feeling of dread creep up into my spine as the hairs on the back of my neck stood at full attention. I proceeded to get a hammer from my tool kit and smash every one of the dozen, only to find that I’d wasted 11 perfectly edible eggs.

Since I’d lost my appetite, I decided to check on Michael.

“Good thing you called early,” Michael answered on the first ring. “I wouldn’t have been able to tell you my good news until after work,” he said, yelling to me over the hands-free call service in his car.

“You’re making that commute aren’t you?” I said, referring to his volume and the general espresso-intensity of his voice.

“What? Oh yeah, I’m in the car. Listen, I did some really thorough research and found you a place that’ll be perfect.”

“Really?” I was surprised to hear how quickly this was all moving.

“Yep. Wright Treatment Clinic. It’s in Brooklyn. I checked to see if they deal with your symptoms, and it turns out that it’s their specialty,” Michael replied. “Oh, and that’s Wright with a ‘W’”.

I jotted the name down on the back of a coupon that was lying on my counter. “Alright, man, you said Brooklyn?”

“I’ll text you the address and everything. Tell them to contact me for the payments”.

“Okay, thanks. It sounds good.” My positivity was actually just desperation, but he didn’t know that. A few moments after I hung up, my phone rang again. It seemed like Michael was calling me back.

“Hello?” I answered. There was a moment of static and then I heard what sounded like our conversation being played back to me. I listened closely, slightly afraid of what I might hear. It ended the same way, and the call disconnected. I stared at my phone, thoroughly confused. Just as I put my phone down, I saw the black lizard crawl around my floor and quickly slip into a air vent.

I kept my hammer on me for the rest of the day.