Diminished

WEEK 3

1

Are… are you with us? Yes… just like that. Come back.

There was an incessant, clockwork ‘beeping’ that filled the room. It was suffocating. I breathed deeply and felt my lungs burn. My mind was muddled and discordant. I opened my eyes.

A bright fluorescent light bar hung atop a sterile beige ceiling. I raised my hand to rub the blur from my eyes and found a white bracelet on my wrist and a plastic tube sprouting from my arm. Along the tube was a bright read button that read ‘CALL NURSE.’

“Welcome back,” a gruff, masculine voice said. “I understand you’re in a lot of pain, so I’ll come back in a bit. But when I do I’m going to ask you some questions. I’ll just be right outside if you need anything.”

I heard a chair creak, then a set of heavy footsteps walk away from me. I heard a door open and shut.

I’m in pain? I wondered. I tried to raise my other hand and my shoulder was lit ablaze.

I saw red and the blurriness increased. I opened my mouth to cry out, and all I could manage was a shadow of a sickly screech. Darkness fluttered on the edge of my vision. I succumbed to it.