I stand still.

I can sense Kathy come to a stop beside me.

I can feel her eyes burning into the side of my head.

I turn to face her. She gives me a questioning look.

I know that if I look up, my eyes will give me away.

I look up.

It's as if I triggered a bomb.

Kathy freezes in place. Her whole body starts shaking uncontrollably.

My instincts tell me to run and get her parents.

My stupid legs tell me to stay still and wait to see what happens next.

Honestly, the whole process is kind of mesmerizing.

Wait. What am I saying!?

Snap out of it, Nina! MOVE!!

I force my legs to move and push my body towards Brad and Amanda Churchill.

I am yelling at them in a panicked voice. Telling them that Kathy is having a hallucination.

It all comes out kind of garbled, but they somehow understand it all.

The effect on her parents is instantaneous.

They spring into action, following me back to Kathy.

My mom quickly gets the memo as I shoot her a pleading look over my shoulder.

She quickly catches up to us.

I reach Kathy first, quickly followed by her parents and a half-limping, half-gasping Emma Montez.

Kathy has her wide-set eyes trained on the circling (yes, circling) birds.

Then she sucks in a huge gasp and starts shrieking something garbled about the bird's catching fire, and exploding.

Then she starts running in circles and trips on a stray rock, crashing onto the fluffy grass. She gets right back up and continues her ravenous circle marathon.

Her parents and my mom look too stunned to do anything.

Right as Kathy comes into view again, I tackle her to the ground. Pinning her arms behind her.

I could be a real good football player by the way I slammed into her writhing body. Maybe I should be placed in an Offensive Tackle position.

Stop.

I need to; "Get my head in the game"!

Her eyes look like the eyes of a mad-man, or, a mad-woman.

She may be having a hallucination that gives her slightly more strength than me, but I am currently in the real world, with the strength of an actual human being.

She starts screaming; "Flaming birds! Birds go POOF! They go POOF! POOF!"

Such an extensive vocabulary.

"Holy Mother of God!" I scream at her, "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

Clearly, the hospital staff are keeping a close watch on the surveillance cameras because two white female nurses are running towards me and Kathleen. (Why would they have a span of this distance though)?

One of them is holding a syringe containing a sort of clear, almost milky liquid.

I am still screaming at Kathy; "Kathy! There are no birds on fire!"

"THE BIRDS! THE BIRDS!" she shrieks.

"THE BIRDS DID NOTHING!" I yell. 

One nurse helps me hold down Kathy and the other explains to me that the liquid inside of the syringe is not the anesthesia liquid, because they still want the two of us to enjoy our time outside.

Instead; it contains a special liquid similar to laughing gas called Midazolam.

It will not knock her out, it will only calm her down enough for the hallucinations to cease themselves.

Excuse me?

What. The. Actual. FUCK!?

How come you have been full-on knocking us out, and all along, you guys have had these Midazolam injection liquids?

I actually ask her this question as she inserts the liquid into Kathy's jerking arm.

She explains to me that they will only use the Midazolam liquid from now on.

Unless one or both of us are having a hallucination that could cause us or others any harm.

They started off with the anesthesia because those were our very first few hallucinations.

They wanted us to get used to the horrid experiences before transitioning us to Midazolam.

I can see the medicine taking effect on Kathy now.

The recent tension in her facial muscles is now receding. Her fair skinned face is now relaxed, but her breathing is still slightly above normal.

Her gaze focuses on me and she smiles slightly.

"I was having a hallucination, wasn't I?" she asks me.

"Indeed, you were," I say.

I hold out my hand for her to take. She does, and I help to pull her to her feet.

Luckily, we both are still left without any injuries. Just a little grass stains and spots of dirt on our clothes and arms.

I see that the front left side of Kathleen's tie-dye T-shirt is torn slightly.

But other than that, nothing too major to get worked up about.

As long as there are no visits to the dentist today, I will be fine.

Now, let's go to the diner across the marble bridge that covers the rest of the grassy surroundings.

We are told that the two nurses will be accompanying us for the rest of the "field trip" today.

Fine.

The more, the merrier.

But, as I look back at Kathy (because I have somehow become the leader of this pack), I see an upset look cross over her face. Just for a moment. Then it was gone, as if it were never there. Leaving her looking happier than ever.

I shrug to myself and continue walking towards the diner across the marble bridge.