Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
The sound came first.
Distant and muffled, like it was travelling through water. His brain registered it before anything else, that steady mechanical rhythm pulling him up from somewhere deep and dark.
Then the smell hit him.
Antiseptic. Clean linen. Something sterile sitting at the back of his throat.
His eyelids were heavy. When he tried to open them the light hit him wrong and he squeezed them shut again. Everything was too bright, too white, too sharp.
He tried again. Slower.
Blurry shapes first. White ceiling tiles. The outline of a machine to his right. A window letting in pale morning light that hurt.
He blinked.
Things sharpened gradually, like a camera finding its focus. The monitor became clear, its green line tracing steady peaks across the screen.
*Hospital.*
His body came next. A dull ache that started around his ribs and spread outward. His back felt like concrete. His left side throbbed. His knuckles were swollen and stiff.
