David couldn't see, couldn't hear. He only felt one thing.
Cold.
It wasn't the kind of cold that made you shiver or tense up. It was deeper than that. Empty. Like everything that made him… him had been stripped away, leaving only a hollow awareness behind.
There was no sense of direction. No up, no down. No sense of his body.
Just cold.
Time didn't move properly.
There were no seconds, no minutes. Just a stretched moment that didn't seem to end.
At some point, even that awareness began to slip.
His understanding of where his body was, what his body even was, started to fade. Proprioception disappeared entirely. If he had arms, he couldn't feel them. If he had legs, they might as well not have existed.
The idea of movement became distant.
Abstract.
Something was wrong.
He knew that much.
But even that thought struggled to stay together, breaking apart before it could fully form.
Then he felt it.
Warmth.
It came suddenly, replacing the cold entirely.
It surrounded him, pressed in from all sides, dense and comforting. It wasn't just heat. It was presence. It filled the emptiness, giving him something to hold onto again.
For a moment, he couldn't react.
The shift was too sudden.
The warmth reminded him of something.
A memory.
Faint, distant.
A hot tub.
After a long day, sinking into water that wrapped around him, muscles relaxing whether he wanted them to or not. That heavy, soothing pressure that made everything feel lighter.
But this was different.
There were no bubbles, no sharp edges, no outside world.
Just warmth.
And something else.
It felt… safe.
That feeling hit him strangely.
He hadn't felt something like that in a long time. Not since things were easier. Not since he was younger, before everything became about work, money, survival.
Before everything became heavy.
For a brief moment, the panic was gone.
There was only warmth.
Then something shifted.
At first, it was subtle.
A slight movement beneath him, or around him. It was hard to tell. The space he was in didn't feel stable anymore.
The warmth was still there, but it was changing.
It was getting tighter. Pressure began to build.
Slowly at first, then all at once.
The space around him started to close in, squeezing from every direction. The comfort twisted into something else. Something constricting.
Something wrong.
David's awareness sharpened slightly.
Confusion turned into panic. He tried to move, he didn't know how, but the instinct was there.
Nothing responded the way it should have.
The pressure increased.
Relentless.
"Push!"
The sound cut through everything.
Loud. Sharp. Completely out of place.
"He's almost out!"
Out?
The word didn't make sense.
Nothing made sense.
"AAAAHHHH!"
Another voice.
Closer.
Filled with strain.
The pressure surged again.
Harder this time.
Forcing.
David couldn't think.
His mind was too scattered, too overwhelmed. Whatever thoughts tried to form broke apart instantly.
His entire being was pushed forward.
Compressed.
Guided by something he couldn't see, couldn't understand.
Then suddenly.
Space.
The pressure released. He had been spat out, cold air hit him all at once.
Light followed.
Blinding.
His world exploded into sensation.
Sound rushed in.
Too loud. Too much. Voices overlapping, sharp and urgent.
Touch returned.
Hands. Firm, unfamiliar, moving him without asking.
And then it happened.
"Waahh!"
The sound came from him.
It tore out of his chest without permission, high-pitched and weak. His lungs burned as they filled for the first time. The sensation was overwhelming, painful in a way he had never experienced before.
David wailed.
Everything felt wrong.
The warmth was gone.
Replaced by cold air pressing against his skin.
His eyes struggled to open, flooded with light that refused to settle. Shapes moved above him, blurred and shifting, impossible to make sense of.
Voices surrounded him.
Closer now.
Clearer.
"…healthy…"
"…strong cry…"
"…good…"
None of it meant anything.
He tried to move again.
His body responded.
But not the way he expected.
His arms jerked weakly, small and uncoordinated. His legs twitched without control. Everything felt disconnected, like nothing belonged to him.
Panic surged again.
This wasn't right.
Where was he?
What happened to the train?
The headache.
The window.
The thoughts slipped.
He couldn't hold onto them.
Something lifted him.
Hands.
Careful, but firm.
For a moment, the cold intensified as he was moved through the air.
Then.
Warmth.
Different from before.
Not all around him, but still close.
He was placed against something soft.
Something alive.
A heartbeat.
Slow. Steady. Strong.
It echoed against him, grounding him in a way nothing else could.
The warmth returned, wrapping around him from one side. Not the same as before, but enough.
A familiar voice spoke. Close.
Weak, but filled with emotion.
"…my baby…"
The words didn't make sense.
But the feeling did.
Relief.
David's cries softened slightly, though they didn't stop. His body still trembled, still struggled to adjust to everything happening at once.
But the panic began to fade.
Replaced by confusion.
And something deeper.
A realization.
Faint. Fragile.
This wasn't a dream.
Something had ended.
And something else had restarted.
His vision flickered again, failing to hold onto clarity. The shapes above him blurred, the voices softened.
Everything was too much.
The warmth.
The sound.
The light.
His mind couldn't keep up.
Slowly, his thoughts began to fade again.
Not into cold this time.
Not into emptiness.
Just quiet.
As his consciousness slipped away, one final thought surfaced, broken and incomplete.
He had been here before.
Or maybe not here.
But somewhere.
Then even that disappeared.
And he slept.