204 — Rude Awakening

Alan had a parasomnia condition called "Exploding Head Syndrome." Every night, transitioning from his REM sleep to awakening, countless synapses from sensory portions of his brain would spontaneously fire in a disorganized, yet voluminous, discharge of visual flashes and deafening sound. He also had the sensation of a shock wave of pressure that would, in his hypnogogic state, decimate him.

He'd awake awash in sweat, with a bounding pulse, a throbbing headache, and the wind knocked out of him. His doctors had prescribed antidepressants and antiseizure medication, but EHS has no good treatement.

The human mind constructs the universe perceived. Given the right combinations of synpses, what happens in a dream may feel no different from reality. Last night when Alan's head exploded again, no one was hurt but him.

Then again, he slept alone.

He felt no one should sleep with him, over worry that he might be dangerous.

Alan knew people were thinking about him when his head exploded. His EHS had to be an intrusion. He just knew people conspired with thoughts that targeted him. He wondered how many had to conspire together to focus on his head. To explode it. Many? Just a few?

Even one?

Alan's days were uneventful. He carried on with his usual sales job and engaged with his usual customers. The boss had just raised his quota 20% and, being squarely in the 5-year employee-turnover zone, he knew he couldn't do it this time. How many quarters can someone increase their productivity 20%? This quarter, he felt, was a fuse sizzling toward unemployment.

Alan reported to work on the last day of the fiscal quarter. Who keeps exploding my head? he wondered after last night's explosion. They all must know how volatile are the contents of my head.

Indeed, the explosions were more violent. Every morning's panic ended with his feeling lucky to survive the blast. He wondered how long they'd be constrained to just nighttime.

Today Alan felt especially volatile, knowing not much would set it off. He knew his head would one day begin exploding in the daytime--for no reason at all; tripped by his own accidental, incendiary, ballistic thoughts.

Expanding the perimeter of collateral damage.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

From a poem repurposed for this challenge, "Rude Awakenings," at https://vocal.media/poets/rude-awakenings.

Exploding head syndrome is a real thing.

For Monday, July 22, Day 204 of the 2024 Story-a-Day Challenge

366 WORDS (without A/N)

Title-accompaniment photo was AI-generated but the terror threat was not.

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THE CHALLENGE GRINDS ON, 366 WORDS AT A TIME:

There are currently three surviving Vocal writers still participating in the insane 2024 Story-a-Day Challenge:

• L.C. Schäfer, challenge originator

• Rachel Deeming

• Gerard DiLeo (some other guy)

Read them. Support them. And sleep well.