�I have to. I need to.
�Don�t do it�
The screaming enveloped her entire body. All was dark; all was hopeless. She clawed against the arms that pulled her away, away from what she knew she had to do. Her task was ripped away from her, mocked and meaningless. She sobbed and tore and screamed and scratched.
Her assailant shouted at her to stop. He pulled her to the ground with such a force that the wind was knocked out of her. He pinned her down while she screamed and struggled. He shouted, screamed, begged for her to stop. She wouldn�t listen. She screamed and screamed and screamed, searching for her weapon, her task.
�Ana! Ana! It�s okay; it�s all right! It�s alright!� cried her assailant.
�No, I have to�I need to do it!� Ana sobbed. �Let me do it!�
The assailant reached for Ana�s hands. He held the back of her palms to the floor and leaned all his weight into her. She struggled against his weight for long minutes, crying and begging. He was relentless.
Ana finally gave up and lay back onto the floor, heaving for breath between harsh sobs. He got off her and helped her sit up, holding onto her torso to keep her from doubling over.
�Ana, what happened?� he asked, the concern and emotion ringing clearly in his voice.
Ana opened her eyes and saw her best friend, James, looking down at her. His deep blue eyes were filled with fear and confusion. His hair and clothes were in disarray. Ana noticed the red smears on his white dress shirt and realized in a moment that it was blood. She looked from his shirt to his eyes and gave him a confused look. James closed his eyes and raised his eyebrows. He opened his eyes again, looking at her hands. She followed his gaze and saw the blood on her own hands and clothes. There were no cuts on her hands; there were no cuts on James anywhere.
�I� I don�t know,� Ana said. She looked to James, disturbed. James reached out and gently touched her face. Ana winced with unexpected pain and looked down at James�s hand. A single drop of blood fell from his hand to the floor.
Ana gasped and her hand flew up to her face. She put her palm to her cheek and flinched. As she brought her hand down to look at it, she gave out a startled cry. It was wet with dark blood. Her hand shifted out of focus and into darkness.
James caught Ana before she fell to the ground and shook her gently. She didn�t respond. James picked her up and carried her from the kitchen to the bathroom, setting her down as carefully as he could in the bathtub. He searched through her bathroom closet for washcloths and something to clean the cut. He turned on the hot water and soaked the washcloth, almost burning his hand. He shook his arm to cool off his hand as he knelt down next to the tub. James gently wiped the blood from Ana�s hands, neck, and face. He treated the gash on her face and gently put gauze on it.
James pulled a blanket from the closet and laid it on the floor. Carefully picking her up and placing her in the blanket, he carried her to her room. He put her in bed and pulled her covers over her.
Afraid of what she might do if he left her alone, James pulled a chair next to her bed and sat down. As he watched Ana carefully, he reflected upon the entire incident.
Ana had just gotten a new movie that the two had been dying to see forever. James had promised to come over right after work to watch it with her, but he got stuck behind a multiple-car crash and was stuck in traffic for hours. He called her on his cell phone multiple times, but she didn�t pick up at all. Ana always answered his calls, and he knew she hadn�t gone anywhere because she was expecting him. He decided to head over to her house after he stopped home, just to make sure she was okay.
When James knocked, all he heard inside was a few thumps. He tried the doorbell and listened for the usual �Come in!� that followed. Ana was very laid-back. He didn�t hear anything. He looked at his watch; it read 10:15. It was too early for her to have gone to bed already.
Suddenly, James heard the sound of a drawer opening and closing inside the house. He grabbed a baseball bat that had been left outside and cautiously entered. At first, he saw nothing, then, as his eyes became accustomed to the darkness, he saw Ana stumbling through the kitchen, eyes closed, a long knife in her hand.
James�s heart leapt. He dropped the baseball bat and ran forward to stop the sleepwalking Ana from harming herself. She began to scream and struggle, waving the knife around dangerously. James dodged the knife a number of times before Ana struck her own face with it. Panicking, James took the knife from Ana and threw it to the ground, out of her reach.