4. Darkness & Pain
4. Darkness & Pain
I fought against the darkness and the pain that accompanied it. My eyelids fluttered as the impending night cast shadows over the remaining light in the clearing, but they wouldn’t open no matter how hard I tried. I gave up trying to regain complete consciousness and tried to make sense of all that had happened. My mind struggled against the murky fog that covered it. As it seemed to lift, a blast of burning air pierced my skin, fiery spears. It felt as if my blood was boiling and slowly seeping out of all my pores. I tried to roll over so I could stifle the feeling. My brain refused to work with my body or at all for that matter.
Suddenly, the agony shot straight to my heart. My muscles clinched with the force of the oncoming scream, but nothing came from my mouth. My lungs, frozen like ice from pain, had suddenly stopped working. I could feel the deathly stillness of them. But I didn’t start breathing again. That horrible paralysis kept me still even though I desperately wanted to bang the life back into my body.
Since my lungs had stopped pumping, my heart was beating faster than I thought was possible. I realized that my gnarled brain couldn’t even figure out how to breathe; there was no way I could figure out what was happening to me.
I tried to scream out in pain-pain for me, for Dad, for the world-but my lungs were still frozen. Warm and slightly burning tears dripped down the sides of my face. When would this misery end? Couldn’t I just die and be with Dad? God was playing mind games with me, making me suffer for all the bad things I had done. What if I’m supposed to live through this? I attempted to scream again; that would be a worse fate then death in my eyes.
Two voices penetrated the silence of my clearing. It was my clearing now, the home of my father’s death, the place of my “experience.” Yes, no one could ever hold more claim over it than me. When-or if-I ever woke up, I would defend it with my life.
But I needed help now; either friend or enemy would have to do. Come this way. Please, anybody? I pleaded, hoping that they, if anyone, could help me.
“Uh, we should go this a way,” said a delicate voice.
“No. I smell blood. We do not want to disturb anyone. Stay with me. If you want to be safe, that is,” a gruff, almost patronizing voice told her.
“You’s ain’t gonna tell me what tuh do just ‘cause uh I’m yur charge. I’m goin’ ova there, an if ya value yur safety ya best not get in meh way.” She stomped past the tree line; I felt the vibrations from her steps become louder as she neared me. “Oh. She but a mite of a thang, Nicholas. What should we do?” Even though her voice was heavy with tears, there was no denying that her accent wasn’t from Luna. Her tongue was thick with a slurring and obnoxious accent. She had to be from Sela.
“Didn’t I tell you not to come in this clearing?” Smugness colored his voice.
“Yeah,” she whispered.
“She will be fine in the morning.” His breath choked off in a sort of strangled gasp. “We need to leave. Now.”
“Uh cain’t we stay ‘til she gets up?”
“This girl is one of the Guardians,” he snapped. “If Jordin finds out that we interacted with her, we will fall to the lowest rank. She specifically told us to stay away from the both of them. The girl will rise soon, and we shouldn’t be here when she does. Let’s go.”
I felt their presence leave as quickly as it came. From their conversation, it seemed like they were in on this too. Was I the only one still in the dark? It sure did feel like it.
I decided that I should stop struggling against whatever was happening to me. I was resigned to my fate, whatever it may be. The fog that I’d been persistently pushing away crept back over my mind, feeding on what was left of my sanity and memory. I quickly took all my precious memories and stored them in a corner of my mind that seemed to be immune to whatever that stuff was. I left everything else to the hazy monstrosity.
It seemed like my body was feeding off the pain. Every time a wave of anguish submerged me, I felt it soak into my bones and diminish completely. I didn’t want that feeling to go away. It was the only thing I could focus on to stay sane; I was becoming dependant.
Instead of the intense burning I was used to, a rivulet of torturing ecstasy billowed through my body, making my back arch in pain and pleasure. A yearning to be awake filled me. It was almost like something was pulling me away from my spot on the forest floor. My back thudded against the ground and pushed air back into me. My lungs struggled with breathing like I had never taken a breath before. Chest trembling from overexertion, I finally rose.
wowza!
A couple of Grammar mistakes. I don't know if you intended it or what, but I thought I might as well pick up on them.
