He stares into her bloodshot eyes, her glaring furious and terrified back.

She has not slept in over 24 hours and it is by sheer will-power that she manages to remain erect and alert. He must not win.

It must be over soon, she dreams, hallucinates, cries to heaven and God and all her nightmarish waking hells.

Freshman Biology.

First it was the night sweats. Then the spontaneous attacks of anxiety. Her boyfriend left after the sleep talking began, screaming about failing and nonsense and the like.

A test? No, more than a test. This was it.

Her delusions extended into imaginations of what would happen afterward, possible scenarios spinning in countless directions. If she did not get an 'A,' she knew what it meant. There is no facing her parents or peers after that, nor the horrified face of the professor.

No. She would have to disappear. PErmanently