Unspeakable Fate

Things were starting to get strange. There were moments when Sean didn't know what was real. Moments when the fear nearly paralyzed him. Is this what his father went through? He thought back to his childhood. His mother raising him and his sister almost as a single parent because his father was always "sick". He had some fond memories of playing in the yard with his father, but for months at a time his father would be hospitalized, and any memories of visiting were of a heavily medicated shell of a man.
Is this how it had started for him? With confusion about reality, persistent destructive voices, and seeing horrible delusions like waking nightmares? Sean had grown up knowing that there was a 70% chance that he would inherit schizophrenia from his father. He had grown up with the dread hanging over him but with each birthday closer to 30 his hope of beating the odds increased. He knew that the disease usually presented itself in the late teens or twenties. He was 34 and had dared to hope. Could this really be happening now? The sweet taste of hope turned bitter in his mouth as it mixed with the unspeakable dispair.
It had been almost three months since he started to notice the symptoms. Three months of suspicion turning to fear then to denial and back to fear.