My Hero's Journey: A Short Story

I hate my life! Why the heck did my family ever agree to take this terrible voyage. It has been months and every day gets worse than the last. I am sitting in this dark, damp corner of our ship and my arms are itching like crazy! They have become so raw that they are starting to bleed. The blood is dripping down my left arm and onto my leg and won’t stop. I thought it was just eczema because of the little dots starting to sprout on my arms, but they have been getting bigger. They turn a reddish and won’t stop itching! I feel a relief when I scratch them, but it becomes addicting. Once I start I can’t stop, it’s like a drug. Doc diagnosed me today, he said it’s something called “scabies”. He explained to me what it was, but not in terms I could understand, all doctor jargon.
Doc said he’s had it before. When I told Simon what had happened his jaw dropped. He gasped and screamed “no!” I asked him what was wrong and he slowly backed away. When I stepped forward to go after him he yelled at me to not touch him. I was wondering what in the world had gotten into him and why he had become so rude. If he had had this disease wouldn’t he know how bad it was? I asked him why I couldn’t go by him and he explained to me that scabies was highly contagious. I yelled at him to just tell me what was going on. He then explained in terms I could understand, but I am pretty sure I liked it better when Doc said it. Apparently these little bugs mate in my skin, burrow, lay eggs, hatch and repeat. I had to recite what he had just told me to make sure I had it right. I was speechless. How could this have happened to me? I am just a normal person. It was like winning the lottery, you never in a million years would think like something this unbelieveable would ever happen to you. Oh no. Dang it! I knew I shouldn’t have scratched that one! I’m such an idiot! What