Pain twisted in the darkness. My body hurt. I had a body.
Wasn't the advantage of dying that the pain stopped? And if this was surviving, I wasn't sure it was worth it.
More pain, more weakness, and I couldn't turn away from it. And I couldn't see, not in this impenetrable dark.
Had I been dreaming? I couldn't open my eyes.
Motion. Screams, and heavy thuds, cacophonous noise. More jolting motion, more pain, silence, heavy breaths and heavier footsteps. Rattling and a roar.
And through all of it, one searing brightness in the dark, pressing into me, like a hot poker cauterizing a wound. I wanted to scream as it burrowed into me, wrapped around me, jolted me into awareness every time I tried to slip away.
And then the brightness dimmed, pulled away, and the pain rushed in to fill the space it'd occupied, and I still wanted to scream, but I couldn't find my mouth.
That lasted a long time.
Warmth, at last, and I hadn't realized I'd been bathed in icy chill until it surrounded me.
