Bloody midday

The neutrophil U-1146 hadn't been sleeping well at all, lately. He was plagued by strange nightmares, after which he often awoke in a cold sweat, and sometimes with a slight taste of blood in his mouth. A disgusting, metallic, salty taste. But he was never able to remember his dreams, no matter how much he tried to make out at least a vague plot. And every time he thought he was about to remember something, it vanished into thin air. However, there was more: soon, he started seeing illusions of antigens everywhere, literally behind every corner. U-1146 thought he was just overworked, but continued doing his job, despite his growing fatigue and absentmindedness. Perhaps there wasn't anything to worry about, however he was not the only one to go through all that. And also, as it seemed, not the one who had it the worst. His friend, U-4989, for example, who had always been a bit odd by nature, started to behave really weirdly: laughing out of the blue, reciting classical cellular literature with a mysterious expression on his face, and then, jumping on one leg while tapping a spoon against the cooking pot he was wearing on his head. His friends just laughed it off, mocked him, and immediately forgot about it. None of them suspected that this could turn into something serious. Until U-4989 suddenly disappeared one day. Just went to work and never came back. There was no trace, no sound of him for days, and then he was found wandering through the bloodstream in confusion. It was about that time when red blood cell NT4201, AE3803's friend and kohai, disappeared as well. While drinking tea together, AE was complaining to U-1146 that she couldn't find her anywhere and, being aware of how responsible and serious NT was, she was sure that the latter just couldn't have been skipping work or gotten lost... there was no doubt: something must have happened to her. U-1146 tried to cheer her up, saying that everything would be alright, but wasn't able to shake off a certain feeling of anxiety that had been eating at him since the disappearance of his own friend and was returning now with even more force. And that feeling didn't deceive him: soon, they found bloody remnants of NT's clothes and also her daily oxygen delivery schedule. And to top it off, some cells revealed having witnessed her being attacked and eaten by a weird guy with a cooking pot on his head. The latter was quickly identified as U-4989 who didn't remember anything, and thus, the real nightmare began. And despite his obvious mental incompetence, there was only one kind of punishment for the unauthorized killing of another cell: the death penalty. U-1146 and his friends were beyond shocked. They tried to convince the judges to take his condition into account, and even AE and her senpai defended U-4989, saying that he loved NT4201 way too much to do something like that. But it was all for naught. And while the trial was going on, U-1146 started feeling worse, beginning to hallucinate. The antigens he was seeing in front of his eyes, were looking even more realistic, and the fits of anxiety became more acute and frequent. The most realistic ones were the bacteria: they shamelessly peeked from behind the corner, shaking their fists and moving their flagella. Over and over again, U-1146 felt that he was losing his mind for real. And during one of these moments, he attacked a dangerous enemy. Yes, an enemy without a doubt, who was marked with antibodies and, thus, had to be phagocytized. U-1146 attacked them without any mercy and was ready to start devouring, without hearing the screeches of the uninvited quest: "Leukocyte-kun, don't eat me!" But luckily, he was quickly brought to his senses by his friends, who punched him in the face and poured cold water over him... having come to, U-1146 was shocked: as it turned out, he had almost killed AE. The battered red blood cell was looking at him with fear and also compassion. The unlucky neutrophil was so struck by it, he completely lost his mind. Fearing that he would hurt his beloved AE or someone else, he headed on his own accord to the mental hospital, in other words: the house for crazy cells. And the victim AE was soon summoned for interrogation concerning the incident, and despite everything that had happened, tried to defend Leukocyte-kun as best as she could, being well-aware of the punishment awaiting him for a murder attempt without any motive. Perhaps, her efforts were what had helped him to avoid the same fate as his friend: U-4989 was declared guilty of NT4201's murder and sentenced to death, however, no one dared to inform U-1146 about that, thinking of his current condition. U-4989's execution was held the next morning. While having been locked up, he cried bitterly for NT4201 every day, saying, before his death, that he couldn't continue living after what he had done anyway. Without NT, his life didn't have any meaning at all.  That same day, U-1146 was visited by AE and her senpai. AE was so happy to see him that she forgot about the circumstances, started talking to him, and accidentally told him about U-4989's punishment. U-1146 let out a long moan, filled with bitterness of loss and despair. Then, he slumped to the ground without any force left to even cry and fell into a stupor. The senpai scolded AE, since the doctor had told them not to upset the neutrophil. AE left U-1146, who was taken care of by several doctors, in frustrated feelings, so her senpai took what she thought to be the best decision: she dragged her into the bar in the liver to commemorate their kohai and also U-4989. They drank a few glasses without clinking them, and then the senpai, sensed that she had enough and said that she wanted to continue working, otherwise she would go crazy.  Having left AE behind together with their two familiar neutrophils U-2048 and U-2626, who were also suffering a lot after what had happened to their friends and had joined the red blood cells at the bar table, she went to deliver a few packages. After the last delivery, she was walking home. Nothing foreshadowed trouble. But then, literally a few steps away from her door, she was suddenly attacked by three neutrophils, their eyes burning with madness. Grinning disgustingly and licking their lips, they decided to share the sweet erythrocyte together. They had gotten very close already, stretching out their hands into their victim's direction and making the poor senpai writhe in hysterics. She was sure that no one and nothing would save her anymore. But they were thrown to the side at the last moment, because U-2048 and U-2626, who had already left the bar and brought AE home, had come to the rescue. The attackers didn't want to fight them in the beginning and even suggested sharing the prey, but U-2048 announced that he still hadn't lost his mind, and U-2626 nodded in agreement. Then, they beat the hell out of the three psychopaths, even despite their numerical disadvantage. The red blood cell wanted to thank them profusely, but lost consciousness and fell right into her saviors' arms. *** This incident, however, was by no means the only one. The attacks continued, and the number of injured and killed erythrocytes kept growing. It wasn't bad enough for the body to suffer from anemia yet, but every cell in the organism was deeply alarmed. Not only erythrocytes, but also other cells were living in fear, and neutrophils gained a bad reputation, a lot of them starting to doubt themselves. The causes for the insanity were still unclear. Even though the brains cells promised to sort things out very soon, a lot of cells didn't quite believe they would be successful. U-1146 felt better and was let out, despite him being sure that this was just a remission and that the insanity was likely to return. But perhaps, the causes and a cure would be found one day. He and AE believed in that and hoped for the best. *** P.S. The B Lymphocyte was sad. He tried to convince himself in vain that he didn't do anything wrong. That he was just doing his job and opsonizing the blood cells that couldn't work anymore with antibodies. Just following his superiors' orders and helping the colleagues in the spleen. He had no clue why things had turned out like that. Maybe that was some terrible coincidence with a disorder unknown to him, maybe complications of a recently overcome infection or rather, which was more probable, an inflammatory process that arose during it. He really wanted to figure it out, but didn't know how.  Struggling with these thoughts, he kept going through the antibody domains again and again, convincing himself each time that everything was sorted right, and then also checked his immunoglobulin cannon which was alright as well. Making him wonder about what was happening even more. Memory Cell tried to calm him down, but the B Lymphocyte just brushed him off, and then even sat down to write a letter of resignation, as absurd as that sounded. But before that, he still had to talk to someone...