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For a single night, strange bats descended on Destiny City after construction disturbed their nest! They flew over Destiny City's Fall Festival and a few nearby locations, descending on the local populace and attacking anyone they could. Being bitten by these bats leaves two small marks that will itch for a few hours. Then, anyone bitten will feel exhausted and fatigued. They become extremely sensitive; skin feels like it becomes overheated in sunlight, and bright lights are painful to the eyes. The victim will feel constantly cold and hungry, no matter how much they eat or drink. They may also be prone to agitation and bouts of violence. These afflictions may last only a few hours or a few days and then suddenly disappear. Destiny City can find no explanation for the sickness, and it has been unofficially dubbed 'The Vampire Sickness'. If you were bitten, how are you handling this? Is someone you know suffering the affliction? Are you convinced it's a conspiracy or joke, and just media frenzy?
The Fall Festival had started nice enough, but ended up being one of the strangest experiences of Sean’s life. How were giant, violent bats even a real thing? It seemed like something out of a cheap horror movie, and even after living through it he found it hard to believe.
He hadn’t been seriously injured in the attack, but he had gotten several deep bites. Paramedics that arrived at the scene soon after the bats left, and they’d treated him with antiseptics, bound all the wounds, and told him to take it easy for a while, since it looked like he’d lost some blood. He was happy to pack up his stuff and get home, since he was feeling rather exhausted after the incident. And the bites were kind of itchy, though he tried very hard not to scratch at them.
Once he was home, his mom fussed over him, pestering him to make sure he was OK and all his wounds were treated. He didn’t mind though; she had good reason to worry over him, when he was barely recovered from the incident that’d left him in the hospital. So he just assured her he was fine, just a little tired. In fact, he felt fatigued for the rest of the evening, and when he decided to go to bed early, his mom though it was a good idea. Sleep and fluids were almost always her first prescription for any illness or injury.
But Sean didn’t feel any better in the morning. The exhaustion was gone, but he felt constantly cold. His mom’s second-favorite suggestion of hot tea didn’t help, and neither did bundling up. Actually, no matter how much tea and chicken soup he had, he found he always felt hungry. He decided not to mention that to his mom, though, because she was already worrying about his temperature. He didn’t feel feverish to her, but she was worried he was getting chills.
When she suggested he sit in the sun in the living room, he obediently complied. But as soon as he stepped into the sunlight, his skin felt painfully over-warm, as if he had a sun burn. He jumped out of the light and checked his hands, but they looked normal; not a trace of redness. But any part of his skin that touched the sunlight felt the same. He actually couldn’t stand being in the room for long either, because the sunlight was starting to hurt his eyes.
His mother was getting even more worried when she noticed his new sensitivity to sunlight. She sent him to his room, drew the curtains tight, and had him get in bed under a couple extra blankets for warmth (though they did nothing to ease the chill he still felt). She tried calling the doctor and explaining the symptoms, but he had no idea what the cause could be. All he could tell her was that other people bitten by the bats had similar symptoms, that the bats had tested negative for rabies, and they were still trying to determine the cause. He advised her Sean should keep out of sunlight, try to stay warm, and drink lots of fluids, any try to avoid contact with anyone until they learned more.
The rest of the day was very uncomfortable. Sean’s curtains didn’t block the light all the way, so his mom ended up handing a blanket over them, which dimmed his room to a comfortable twilight. But the chill and hunger could not be alleviated, no matter what they tried. Sean grew irritable from the constant discomfort and actually snapped at his mother. He was promptly ashamed of himself and huddled in his blankets silently, but the irritation seemed to linger with the other symptoms. Eventually in mid-afternoon he fell asleep, and his mom decided it was better to try and let him heal then to wake him up for dinner.
When he woke up the following morning, he was sweltering. He threw off the many layers of blankets to find he was still over-warm; the heat in his room had been turned up. As he returned it to normal, he noticed he wasn’t as hungry as he had been. He was kind of hungry, certainly, but no more than normal first thing in the morning. Maybe the weird sickness had passed? He decided to test the last of the symptoms and pulled back a corner of the blanket covering the curtains. It was bright and kind of uncomfortable, but no more than usual when looking at a bright light after being in the dark for a while. So his stuck his hand in the light. Just pleasantly warm. So he smiled and headed downstairs for breakfast.
Later that day they heard about the “Vampire Sickness” that had struck everyone bitten by the bats. Sean’s mom insisted he stay home for the rest of the day to make sure it was gone, but no further symptoms appeared. It seemed the sickness came and went as mysteriously as the bats.
