{"id":3527,"date":"2017-09-07T23:13:39","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T23:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/?p=3527"},"modified":"2024-05-06T01:33:02","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T01:33:02","slug":"monday-the-28th-of-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/monday-the-28th-of-august\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday the 28th of August"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h2>\n

Monday the 28th<\/sup> of August<\/h2>\n

By Dean MacAllister<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today is the worst day I have ever experienced. But it\u2019s not over yet. It\u2019s not going to end for thousands of seconds.\u00a0 Thousands of raw, grating seconds.<\/p>\n

I know, I\u2019m the one with the problem. Not you. You have coping mechanisms. Your brain has worked out that to experience every second of every day would quickly lead to insanity. You are capable of distraction. You have work, hobbies, families, TV shows, internet, barbecues, sport, bills, holidays, social media and relationships. If you don\u2019t have enough of your own problems you latch onto the problems of others, suffering vicariously, or if that doesn\u2019t suffice you invent new problems, living in a world you build in your mind rather than the one that you exist in.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not attacking you, don\u2019t get me wrong. I want what you have. Maybe I don\u2019t have the right mix of chemicals. Maybe I am too self-aware. I have a decent IQ, maybe that just adds to the problem. They say that the line between genius and insanity is thin. Although it could be just lucidity that they are talking about. The pain of feeling yourself wearing your skin as a suit. The boredom of counting of your breaths. The monotonous rhythm of your heart. The horror of feeling time itself as it simultaneously exists and does not.<\/p>\n

Your lips aren\u2019t moving, but I can see what you want to say. Drugs and sleep.\u00a0 And I agree. Unconsciousness is probably my only hobby. But it ends. No one pays you to sleep. Doctors are reluctant to place volunteers into comas. I wouldn\u2019t want to ask them anyway. They would probably just lock me up in a self-harm-proof room if they knew what I feel. Then time itself would double. Every second would feel like two. Every minute, hour, day, month and year would stretch out without end.<\/p>\n

I am living through a sort of reverse insomnia, I guess. Where the painful part is not the lack of sleep, but the exhaustion of being awake. I feel no connection with the people around me. They are other entities, other planets in orbit that I can see but cannot understand.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want you to think too much about this. I sometimes worry that even breaching this subject might make my condition contagious. Like a tune that you hate that gets stuck in your head. An ear-worm. A bad idea that can\u2019t be forgotten. A verbally transmitted disease that would snap you out of the fog of comfort that you enjoy and pull you out screaming into the harsh light of reality.<\/p>\n

Even by letting you know all this I have only wasted a couple of hundred seconds and this day has still not ended.\u00a0 But today is only my penultimate fear. Do you want to know the worst part? The thing that scares me the most? The name of my most extreme phobia and inevitable fate?<\/p>\n

Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is the worst day I have ever experienced. But it\u2019s not over yet. It\u2019s not going to end for thousands of seconds.\u00a0 Thousands of raw, grating seconds. I know, I\u2019m the one with the problem. Not you. You have coping mechanisms. Your brain has worked out that to experience every second of every day would quickly lead to <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[425,88,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contemporary","category-horror","category-short-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t