it starts with me arriving at N's house. her house is enormous and open, and it looks out over a lake. it is her birthday; she and J have been together for a while now. there is something (it looks like a small flying machine?) that is broken. I know I can fix it, so I take it down the hallway into a room. the room is filled with all sorts of things, small animals in jars, wheels and gears and strange contraptions, fancy pillows and old tapestries... I set about fixing the machine, and then I suddenly realize that I cannot remember what it looks like. so strange, because I think I was the one who made it in the first place. I have been here before, many times. there is a jar with a toad in it sitting on the windowsill. I look out at the lake, wondering how it could live there. J comes in. the room seems brighter while he is here. we talk for a while, about something I can't remember. someone makes a joke about him being alone with someone who he isn't with. we ignore them. neither of us would want to hurt N. he leaves, unable to help me reconstruct the machine. a girl is sent in. she is about my age, with dark hair and a pretty face. I ask if she can help me, and she is sulllen and unwilling. soon enough, we get into an argument. both of us are so angry and I don't understand why. she throws one of the jars at me, and I dodge it, hurling one back. it cracks open by her feet, the yellowish liquid pooling on the wooden floor. I hope desperately that neither of us is hit with one, but I reach for the jar with the toad in it and she begins to cry. she tells me it was her pet toad, and I set it down, explaining that I didn't kill it, it was whoever owns this room. I hug her and she cries on my shoulder for a while. I understand how it is to lose a pet. I like toads too, and I tell her the stories of my mom's pet toad. she smiles and wipes her eyes and we get back to work. we walk down to the other side of the room (it's more like an enormous study) in search of some pieces we need. the items in this side of the room are more sinister in nature: bones, skeletons, preserved body parts, a partially- dissected human head. there is a mound on the floor by the door. I look at it and realize that somehow I know it was boy from my school. the horrifically deformed skull hardly looks human anymore, except for the blank eyes staring from its sockets. the rest of the body looks as if the bones stretched and twisted, and the flesh melted off of them, blackened. it acted quickly on him. the girl puts the spine and the skull onto a tray, to dispose of them. "no wait!" I cry. I have seen the back of his head on the floor: he had two faces. we both shudder and she picks up the other half. "we have to take all of it" I say, thinking that the rest of the bones might be contagious as well. there seems to be far more matter than there should be for a person of his size. I help her load it up and carry it out to the hallway. I walk back down the hallway and see a painter in the process of putting a mural on the wall. he is painting a small seal. I look closer at the border and realize that it is made of bones which have grown up through the wall. I point to them wordlessly and he says "I know. they thought I wouldn't notice." I help him to pick the bones away from the wall, hoping I can dispose of them before someone else is infected. too late. I was not paying enough attention, having become overconfident in my abilities to deal with the disease and it's components. I feel a pinch and a tug as one of the spiked vertebrae cuts into my hand. I have an inch long cut on my index finger. it is deep, and as I stare at it, it is almost as if I can feel the poison beginning it's route through my veins. I am going to die. the painter looks at me, horrified, but I don't care. I stand up and run out into the room where all the people are, hoping to find them and speak with them before I collapse. the first person I find is F. he is talking to K and another boy. by this point, I feel as though my limbs are turning to jelly; I feel woozy and dizzy and I can't quite think straight. I take his face in my hands and say "F, may I kiss you?" he just stares at me. I smile and say "F, I am dying". I go to kiss him and he doesn't respond; he has a very confused look on his face. I laugh and simply hug him, pressing my face into his chest. he laughs too, and hugs me back, still confused. I say something about how I love him even in spite of his crazy religiousness, then run off to find some of the others. I see a girl. I know she is infected as well, although she is holding up far better than I. she stumbles only a little. she looks familiar, and in hindsight I realize that she might have been the girl that was helping me. she is one of the origins, that's why she's been able to preserve herself for so long. she got it directly from the lake. she is talking to J and Kc and some of my other friends; I see the black spikes on her fingers and I think I run to her. she attacks me and we stumble outside, struggling weakly, both of our bodies wracked with disease. she is angry that I deprived her of some of her prey. I can't let her continue to infect them, my friends and classmates, all oblivious to the threat. I push her out into the road and she falls there. a car is coming. the driver knows what she is, they will try to hit her. at the last moment, I pull her out of the way. the car comes back, and for some reason, I cannot bear to let this happen to her so I drag her back inside. her body is deteriorating rapidly now, and she simply lays there, face down on the rug, her hair spread out around her. she moans, and grasps at my ankles, but I am quicker, and I stumble out of reach. I go looking for J again, hoping to find him before I turn into one of them. I see him there, standing with all of my dearest friends. J turns and smiles at me, but before I reach them, I wake.