Chapter 9 : Delusions

"Hey, honey. How are you?" Lilith's mother asked as she heard the door shut. Lilith came home from school.

"fine" Lilith replied, blandly.

"Want to have a dinner?" Her mom asked as Lilith went straight head to her room.

"Not hungry"

Lilith throw her bag as she entered her room. Tugged her hair out of frustration and punched the wall, thinking it would help her to release all the frustrations. Hurt by her own punches, she grabbed the pillows and throw it on the wall.

Her mind is preoccupied of the things that happened. First, nightmares. Second, Suicide cases. Third, she lost her best friend. Now, what next? Maybe Ivy was right that she is just seeing things and seeing Felicia was just a factor of being a fan of unsolved cases. Probably the environment also is the factor of her stress. A tear dropped in her shirt, she didn't realize the tears were falling down from her cheeks. She let her tears fall, not minding how wet already her shirt is. She stood up and looked in the mirror.

"You are so fucked up, you know that Lilith Barkley?" Lilith said, pointing herself in the mirror. "I think you are just crazy, Lilith!" Looking at the mirror, she noticed a shadow near her window. She looked at the window, but it was gone. She looked again to the mirror. Her body tensed again, Felicia was standing by her side.

Scared, she lost her balance causing her to lay flat on the floor.

"Honey? You okay there?" Lilith heard her mother asking from downstairs, "Yeah, I'm fine. Books in my hand just fell"

"Okayy"

Lilith let out a sigh and stood up, she looked at mirror again but Felicia was gone. Lilith slapped her both cheeks, snapping her.

"You need a shower, fuck face" and went to grabbed a towel from her cabinet.

Stepped in the shower, toes winced as they touched the floor. Lilith turned the shower on and let her thoughts washed out as the lukewarm drops fell in her head down to her body. Lilith run her hands through her hair, eyes closed.

First, nightmare. Second, suicides. Now? Lilith sighed. Since she got here, after seeing the two girls from the abandoned house and earlier saw Felicia in her mirror. She shook her head and looked down, she felt a sticky liquid. She noticed a blood drop on the floor. She touched her head and her eyes widen, swallowed and touch her hair again with the other hand. She blinked and couldn't believe of what she saw. It's sticky, thick blood was on her hand. Her hands were trembling, her hands made it look like she killed someone. The water droplets became blood.

"Mom!" She shouted and grabbed her towel, went out. Her mother came running towards her, "hey, what's wrong honey? Hey, calm down" she said while looking at her daughter in panic.

"M-Mom" Lilith's voice in fear, trembling. Her Mother hugged her for a second to calm Lilith. Lilith tries to calm herself to tell her Mom what she saw on the shower. "Mom, the water.. became blood.."

Lilith's mother looked at her confused, all she knew that her daughter runs in panic towards her with no trace of blood. All she sees is her daughter in panic.

"Look at this, Mom" she said as she opened her palm. Her eyes widen, there is no blood in her hands. She touched her head and there was no blood. Her eyes couldn't betray her, she grabbed her Mom and walk to the shower room.

"Mom, I swear there is blood all over the place." She said and was shocked of what she saw, mouth-opened. The shower was clean and the water continuously runs. Only the sounds of the water was heard. There was no blood.

"Mom, there is blood on the shower like here" she said, walks inside and motion her hands where she saw the blood. Her Mom looked at her, sighing. She knew that her daughter likes to prank sometimes. She wouldn't believe what her daughter meant.

"Honey, I don't have time for your pranks, okay? You are just seeing things" her Mom said as she walks towards Lilith and hold her hand. "You are seeing things because you haven't eaten your dinner yet."

Am I really seeing things? she asked herself.

Her Mom left her in the shower, leaving Lilith behind thinking of what she just saw. Lilith sit herself in bed and rubs her face out of frustration. She grabbed her phone and take up an online questionnaire to evaluate whether she is just hallucinating.

"Maybe I'm just really seeing things" Lilith said after reading the result of the evaluation.

Intense negative emotions such as stress can cause hallucination.