Day 2,212

Nobody tells you how attached you can grow to a parasite, how much you rely on its unwanted company, until it's utterly and irrevocably gone and you're left feeling more alone than ever before. You mourn something that only used you for nutrients and transportation to the next host after it had bled you dry but I know it cared.

It cared because it hadn't killed me by the time everyone said it should. I was told by several doctors, a dozen nurses and every bloody website that knew about its existence that I should expect to be dead in about four months. I was still alive and kicking at the two year mark.

Of course by then I'd dropped all contact with the rest of the world, I didn't want their pity or probing questions - I didn't want anything that might harm me or the parasite I was sustaining. It's still weird to think of it as a parasite when it gave back just a much as it took.

Sure there were blackouts and regular nosebleeds and my hair fell out but that all seemed so superficial when I realised that it was speaking to me. I'd always heard people talking about a little voice in the back of their minds but this voice wasn't mind and when it realised I could hear it, the first proper thing it said to me, was don't worry, we'll be fine if you listen to me.

And I did.

I did everything it told me to from eating certain foods to keeping our apartment at a certain temperature to bathing for hours and hours on end and I thought we'd be fine. I thought we could just live like this forever and generally mellow our way through life.

All I wanted was to grab a coffee, it never liked the stuff but I'd been craving a latte for months so I ignored it yelling, ignored the way its body writhed against the back of my kidneys and tried to enjoy my little treat. When it went quiet and still I thought it was sulking.

It never spoke to me again and my lower back began to ache not too long after. Softly at first but then the skin started to feel like it was on fire while the rest of my back felt numb. When I woke up sitting my own blood and vomit I broke my promise to avoid doctors and checked myself into the hospital, hoping it was just the flu or something.

They took one look at my back and rushed me to the operating theatre so fast I could barely process what they were saying. Necrosis, organ failure, nerve decay - and worst of all, they removed it. Said it was more developed than any other creature they'd seen and something had thrown it into cardiac arrest.

I thought I killed the closest friend I ever had until I heard a dozen quiet voices and realised it had laid eggs.