It was originally just a headache.
The pain had started in the back of Veekay’s head at about five in the morning. He got up, looked out of the window and that was when the pain struck. A dull ache. He had work to do though. He’d taken some pain killers, particularly weak ones, then set off for work.
Everyone had been fine. The Vice General’s schedule was rather quiet. Because Macromera fell on a weekend, there hadn’t been much to do and most vok had wanted to close up on the 22nd. Veekay’s headache though had persisted. Though the painkillers.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t get stronger ones. Not without a note from a Medic. Veekay had been cursing his Ksa self all day for not getting a note. He had work to do though. A duty to fulfill.
Lunchtime had been particularly bad. The pain in his head had traveled across the back of his head and down his neck. At times it felt like something was pressing against Veekay’s skull. The pain only got worse from there, but Veekay did his best to ignore it. He’d been in pain before. Worse pain than this.
At three in the afternoon, the screaming began. The headache changed from a long, constant throb into what felt like daggers being stuck in his eyes, while a weird crashing sound played in his head, almost like hail bashing against a window. Still, Veekay tried to push through it. They needed him to be around to deal with security. He’d tried to cover himself by going to the bathroom a few times, only because the darkness in there seemed to help.
The third time Veekay returned to his desk, someone asked him how he was feeling. He lied and just said he had a little headache. It was probably just a migraine anyway. Migraines were always horrible for Threan-types, their telepathy always went out of whack. Veekay did notice though that he wasn’t getting the normal crackling sounds of a migraine though.
After spending ten minutes standing in a dark hallway, someone else asked him what was wrong. And then they’d backed away in shock because they hadn’t expected Veekay to have a bloody nose. They told him to clean himself up and take some painkillers, maybe take the rest of the day off if he needed to.
That was what Veekay did. He cleaned up the blood (he hadn’t even noticed) and went back to work.
Somehow though, the headache got worse. The sound of hail had faded and was replaced by what sounded like screaming. Demonic screaming. Wails of sorrow and agony.
At first, Veekay tried to ignore it. He found some headphones and tried to play some soothing music to drown out the cries. Didn’t work.
The pain itself was dying down, just a little. But the screams were relentless.
And just to make matters worse, Veekay’s eyes started to weep blood. That was when one of the other captains offered to take him to the hospital. He didn’t want to go at first. A trip to see the local medic would have sufficed. But as he argued with the captain, the screams in his head got louder.
They were telling him to maim, to injure, to kill.
That was when Veekay decided to go.
He was no longer a health concern. He was a threat to others. One of the other captains drove him to the hospital and waited with him until medics saw him. Veekay wasn’t sure which captain it was, everything kinda rushed by in a blur.
The second he explained to the medics what was going on, they took Veekay away and put him in a private room.
Rather than giving him painkillers, they gave him sedatives. They worked extremely quickly. Perhaps a little too quickly.
Veekay never really got a chance to ask why.