If you've been on this website before, you are probably aware of my Nosleep story, "My Brother Hasn't Left His Room For Two Months, Now I Know Why."
If you do not, it is the story of a young man named Ryan Lassen, who has been suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder since he was 13.
At that age, his younger brother Alex was diagnosed with Leukemia. At the time, all and any attention that he was given by his parents suddenly disappeared in favor of his sick brother. To make things worse, after Alex thankfully recovered, both of their parents ended up having to work much more often, leaving them seeing less of their parents.
Due to the fact that Ryan was going through puberty, a huge change in his life, as well as the added trauma of abandonment and neglect, he ultimately developed BPD.
5 years later, during one summer when he was 18, and dealing with an intense and heavy period of stress. Ryan ultimately had a mental breakdown, locking himself in his room and infesting his body with various insects.
In his mind, this irrational plan could possibly result in his parents paying attention to him and caring for him when he was sick, much like his own brother.
However, once the infestation started to have serious physical signs, such as large and gaping maggot-filled wounds, he realized that if his parents saw him at this point, they would be horrified and likely completely abandon him.
So for two months, Ryan sat alone in his room, suffering in painful and horrible silence.
Eventually, Alex breaks his way into Ryan’s bedroom and finds his brother, infested and on the verge of the death.
In the Nosleep version of the story, Ryan is rushed to the hospital and dies.
However, not long after writing the original story, I began to experiment with an alternate universe where Ryan manages to survive.
This alternate universe eventually developed into the story I’m about to introduce, “Dragonfly”.
“Dragonfly” is the story of Ryan, his brother Alex, as well as Jimmy, a friend of Ryan and an important character that I will describe more about later. The title was named after the dragonfly, a symbol of change and new beginnings, which is a major theme in the story. Not only is it named for its symbolism, but for its insect-related theme, another prevalent plot point in the story.
The story takes place during a period of time before, during, and after the events of Ryan’s infestation.
After being hospitalized for a period of months, Ryan, alive, but covered with both physical and mental scars, finds himself in a mental health center called “Summer Hill”
It is there where he meets Jimmy Kessler, a young man his age that has been here a little longer than he has.
The two of them quickly bond, and eventually manage to learn about each other’s stories.
While Ryan hesitates to share his story for a long time due to a fear of horrifying his friend or being abandoned, Jimmy doesn’t take long to share his own story.
A very friendly and outgoing person, Jimmy was always well liked by everyone around him. However, one of his biggest faults was that he was a people-pleaser, and easily influenced by the people around him.
It was at a senior year graduation party where Jimmy found himself being offered some addictive hallucinogenic drugs. Not wanting to say no, and being unaware of their addictive properties, Jimmy takes them, and has a very euphoric drug trip.
Not long after the party, Jimmy finds himself intensely craving these drugs again. While he tries to fight it, he eventually caves in and contacts the kids at the party who offered him the drugs.
For a few months, Jimmy commonly uses these drugs, managing to hide it from his family by often avoiding them or doing the drugs somewhere private. As time went on, Jimmy’s drug trips became less euphoric and more terrifying, the boy often finding himself being stalked by monsters that only existed in his mind.
It was during a week where his parents went on a trip, and left him home with his 10 year old sister Molly, when a tragic accident occurred.
Jimmy was in his room, his drug trip close to wearing off, desperately hiding from the monsters that he swore were after him.
He began hearing knocking on his door. Jimmy realized that he had to protect himself somehow.
Eventually, the monster managed to open the door, and shambled its way towards Jimmy. As the monster approached him, he made a desperate decision.
Jimmy grabbed ahold of the monster, and repeatedly bashed its head against the wall. Once the monster stopped moving and fell limp to the floor, Jimmy finally relaxed.
Not long after, the effects of his trip started to fade away, leaving Jimmy to find something that will haunt him for the rest of his life.
There was no monster. The only thing that was bloody and unmoving on the floor of his bedroom was his little sister.
Jimmy desperately called his parents, who were horrified. After his sister was brought to the hospital, Jimmy was quickly admitted to a drug rehab center. Miraculously, his sister managed to completely recover, with no brain injuries besides a concussion.
He was there for a period of time, fighting off the awful symptoms of withdrawal. However, he eventually managed to recover. However, with a new sense of clarity and awareness, Jimmy found himself deeply and horribly traumatized by what he had done to his little sister. He was distraught with the fact that he had almost killed her, or even possibly caused her irreversible brain damage.
It was then where he was sent to Summer Hill Mental Health Center.
The mental health center was incredibly beneficial to Jimmy. While he was there, he managed to discover through patient activity programs that he had a passion for music. He taught himself how to play the guitar. Music brought him a sense of peace and control, something that really benefited him positively.
Not long after, he met Ryan.
Jimmy and Ryan eventually ended up sharing a room in the mental health center. Jimmy showed Ryan his passion for music, and taught him how to the play the guitar as well. The two of them began to make plans of forming a band once they left the place.
Once they both leave the mental health center, Ryan and Jimmy end up forming a band, which they have named “Summer Hill.”
The current timeline of the story begins to take place, around 2 years after Ryan has infested himself. Ryan and Jimmy are now 20, and Alex is 18, finishing his senior year of high school.
The story follows the lives of Ryan, Jimmy, and Alex, focusing on the ups and downs of dealing with their own mental illnesses and traumas.
Alex, who has developed PTSD from the trauma of seeing his infested brother, has grown to have a much closer relationship with his brother.
The story also follows Alex’s life during and after the incident, as well as his healing process with the help of his own friends, as well as his eventually relationship with his girlfriend.
Compared to my other story, “The Devil of Autumn’s Edge”, “Dragonfly” is fairly new and very undeveloped. Much of the story is still simply a concept which I hope to expand more upon.
This story will mainly be a slice of life that deals with aspects of trauma, angst, and healing.
My current plans are to create reference sheets for the characters, as well as create their Toyhouse profiles with their backstories.
This story means a lot to me, and I hope you all can enjoy it as much as I do!