"Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams?"
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
***
Human perception was a strange thing to be honest, it helped us understand the world based on the familiar patterns and our preconceived biases. But when anything beyond our current reasoning came to view, our brains just can't even begin to approach the object of our curiosity logically.
This was the reason toddlers had no sense of danger and were always curious about every little thing, and when anything out of what little of their worldview happened, they were either curious or scared.
And as a child grows up watching the different patterns and begins to think rationally, the bizarre and unimaginable things have only one effect on his brain; namely, terror.
Adam was a normally rational and cordial person, but when anything or anyone crossed his bottom line, then all of the rules and regulations that bound him flew straight off a cliff, and the only thing left was to either incapacitate or eliminate the thing or person.
He knew he had this crazy side to him, just like every human had; but his was particularly feral and flippant, his fuse was very…very short, thus when anyone went past that line, they had better be ready to pay for the offence.
This was also one of the reasons he didn't like to mingle with other people that much and why his social skills were so lacking.
These thoughts lazily drifted at the back of his mind as his body continued to float inside the limbo of darkness filled with a strange warmth.
Feeling the comfortable warmth caress his skin, his mind and his soul itself, it seemed he had entered heaven, which was filled with gentleness and a sense of security he had only felt in his parents' laps.
There was a slight curl of his lips that belied the contentment he felt at that moment, but alas, the sensation didn't last for long.
His soul was still feeling the lingering warmth of this place when he abruptly felt the weight of gravity pressing down on him and a sense of falling from a great height.
And as if waking from a dream, he was jolted awake while feeling the world spin in its place around him in circles.
After a second of muddle-headness, he finally felt a sharp pain in his abdomen like someone had pierced his stomach with a knife.
Heaving out pained breaths, his face filled with pain and sweat, he leaned back down on the bed slowly while inhaling faintly.
Even the process of taking a breath was arduous for him right now as the rhythmic inhalation caused him pain, forgetting everything else at that moment, he closed his eyes and inhaled short and faint breaths.
Finally calming down after a minute or so from the agonising pain, he looked around himself and saw an ECG right next to him, with a glucose bottle hanging nearby connected to his left arm; there was a faint smell of disinfected floor and the scent of daisies coming from the flowers arranged on a vase nearby.
'Hospital?'
That was the first word that came to his mind right that instant.
Then came the disbelief at looking at his perfectly intact left arm; he perfectly remembered the horrendous pain that assaulted him after his arm was mangled into a mush.
Then came the nausea from remembering that place and its strange entities; earlier, his mind was focused on the task and thus didn't have any time for all this emotional crap, but now, being in a safe environment, his body shuddered and his face paled as if he had eaten something truly vile.
Feeling the pain in his abdomen reminded him of the present situation, and he finally figured out where he was and for what reasons.
Groaning slightly with a vexed expression, he finally uttered in a feeble voice.
"That…was all that real?"
Still confused and a little scared, he bit his lip in anxiety. Right then, the faint clicking of a door echoed, and a nurse walked in carrying some stuff in her hands while carrying a clipboard under her arms.
As the nurse's eyes met his, she widened her eyes and placed the things on the table hurriedly, then came closer to him to check his condition.
"How are you feeling, sir? Just wait a minute, I'll call the doctor right now."
Not giving Adam a chance to reply, the nurse checked his pulse and his temperature, the ECG and then asked if he was feeling anything weird, to which Adam simply joked that he was only feeling a mild stomachache.
The nurse didn't smile, though, and sped straight out of the room and came in with a doctor a couple of minutes later.
The talk with the doctor went as he had guessed; he was shot in the abdomen, and the bullet was fortunately low-calibre and didn't penetrate all the way through. He was also lucky that the ambulance came in time, and he could get treated before any of the other organs had been affected, except his liver, which the bullet had nicked the edge of.
It would take him months to recover and maybe years to regain his previous physicality, but at least he was alive.
As for the other hooligan, he lost one of his eyes… if it were up to Adam, he would've preferred to make that bastard go blind in both his eyes.
Fortunately, there was a security camera that proved his actions were in self-defence.
Still, police would be coming shortly to ask him some questions, but before that, just as the doctor left him alone, Dan and Tim barged into the room with tired and haggard expressions as if they hadn't slept for days.
Well, it might have been the case, knowing the two of them.
"Finally alive, you bastard?!"
Dan hissed in a tired breath, and Tim gave him a nasty side eye from the corner after he sat himself down on a chair next to the bed.
"Man, we told you to leave that crappy neighbourhood. See what happened, Mr. cheapstake."
Adam could see the frustration on their faces mixed with hints of relief and exasperation.
Listening to these idiots' words, he grinned while wincing in pain.
"Should've seen the other guy…heh."
Both their faces darkened as they heard him, and then they said at the same time.
"The fuc*er is lucky he got off with only one eye."
"I would've torn the other one if you didn't wake up soon."
Seeing their expressions, his heart warmed a little, and he muttered in exasperation.
"Aside from that, how long has it been?"
Dan replied while still reeling in his murderous emotions.
"Three days."
Letting out a faint breath, Adam talked to them for a while in a feeble voice.
Seeing Adam's condition, they finally let him rest after assuring him they'd handle the legal matters till he got better. After that, they reassured him to leave everything else to them and left the room after five minutes or so.
Feeling exhausted, Adam tried to drift back to sleep and then remembered the harrowing nightmare he had just before waking up and frowned slightly.
It was a nightmare for sure, what else could it have been?
A perilous nightmare, but a nightmare nonetheless.
The details of the dream were blurry in his mind, but he didn't pay them any mind and went to sleep.
Adam didn't notice, but after he had woken up, his left eye was tinged with hints of grey, which emanated a feeling of indifference and aloofness.
Maybe he would notice it in future, maybe not. But one thing was for sure: to achieve something, or in this case, to escape something, always came with a price.
And as the saying goes, if you stare at the abyss long enough, it gazes back at you.
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[A/N]
Adam's story ends here.
next I'll write an action one.