The Headache

This was absurd, she thought. She’d taken as many painkillers as she could without worrying about accidental suicide, and her head still throbbed. If her head had been a watch, there would have been several jewels loose, the errant pieces smacking into the functional components as they hung at a disturbing angle.

It couldn’t be blood sugar levels, although it had been a full four hours since she’d last eaten, and it was just a slice of pizza at that. Quick sugar high, and this could have been the low. She decided to test it, and nodded her head quickly. No increase in pain—but what nausea. Could it be allergies? Nah, she’d taken too much Zyrtec to be safe with that answer.  Finally, she tested herself for an inner ear infection. Standing in the middle of the room, she spread her hands wide and began to slowly turn, increasing the speed as she spun.

When she came to it was morning, and there was a pool of blood next to her right ear. Her phone was ringing, and the burst eardrum made the chirpy little ringtone sound like a deranged tiny oboe, warbling and twisting as her brain tried to cope with the massive information feed.