02-29-2016, 09:07 PM
A blast ricocheted off of someone’s armor and bore straight into my stomach. At the immense distraction, I was knocked from my feet. Never had I felt such pain in my entire life. Immediately I tasted blood, I couldn’t tell if it was actually on my tongue, or had just filled my nostrils with the smell of it.
Agony drenched itself inside of me, and wove into everything that was my entire being. My muscles convulsed pathetically, and despite that I was caught in a firefight between a legion of storm troopers and one crazed unknown, I heard my own voice as though it was not coming from my body, and I was yelling at the very top of my lungs.
I’m sorry that this story’s not in color, but I think you’ll understand, that the color of pain overrules anything else, even the last bit of sanity I had to hold onto - the image of my mother’s face, no, the feeling of my mother’s love. God, I wish I could’ve held onto that feeling, that loving benevolence while the hole in my stomach gushed an immense flood of warmth that simply slipped away in my fingertips.
Blood stained my hand in much more rich ways, as my entire arms were covered in its sticky substance. But it was the pain that would not be overruled. Mercilessly it tore through every vein, as my body detected danger and I gritted my teeth, wishing for a bullet to bite. But no, my body, after having lost its sight, had made every other feeling so much stronger. I laid there in wreathing agony as the unimaginable, indescribable pain weaved itself into my consciousness. Everything was black. And in that moment where the burn of the blast melted through the cartilage of my body, there was nothing that existed. Nothing to be felt.
In that moment, I knew nothing but pain.
For some reason, my body had inspired a wave of emotion along with it. A sorrowful, mourning longing, if you will, associated with the brief devastation that I assumed would be my demise.
I no longer had that feeling of love in my heart. It no longer existed. And for a flash, a brief flash in this timeless moment of torture, fear, and suffering, I felt a surge of grief and heartache overrule the pain.
Then, I felt the corners of my body chill. And I held the last bit of heat in my arms. The world went numb around me, and I no longer felt my body. I was suspended in time once more, and gone was my ability to fight. Gone was my ability to believe in anything but the pain or the inevitability of death.
Gone, because that’s what I was.
I no longer existed in the realms of man. No longer existed in the reality that had threatened to tear my soul from my body. No longer was I willing to feel that eternal torture from a wound I could not see. I remember only a part of my time holding onto my wound, it was measured by the screams that were hot on my throat, and the sounds of blasts and cannon fire, or rather, grenades.
But you see, I didn’t register any of that. Sound had no effect, for my brain was trying to preserve the little life I had left in me. During that situation, I was broken, and I was stuck in a state of perpetual misery.
I could feel it now, the ache in the pit of my stomach. I hoped this pain had not been what my mother felt when she gave birth, they say that that is the worst kind of pain, after all. I wished in this moment to reassure my mom that I loved her too, with all my heart. But she was no longer here. She had gone away, and gone too, was that hot blaze in my stomach. Gone too, was the lucidness of this dream I was living in.
I wished it to be gone. I wished it all to be washed away. At that moment, I accepted death. Perhaps he had been an old friend, before I was granted life. We would surely reunite, on good terms. I would tell him I accepted the terms of my fate, an hope to be born anew in the next realm.
But it was not so. Just as I heard the angel of death sing to me so sweetly, my ears perked to the sound of a purely incessant beeping and my breath revived.
My lungs swelled with air, and my voice croaked, though it was not filled with words. A groan left my body, from where, I could not tell, and I could only feel the pain of pricking needles in my arm, as my fingertips moved with my hands, wishing to find something to grab, in order to see.
In my flailing moments on the stretcher, I managed to grasp someone’s shirt, I heard my own voice muffle in an out of the erosion of pain, “Mom?”
While the man’s voice growled, “No! You musn’t move. You’re stitches, they’ll come un-”
“MOM!? MOMM! MOMMM! I NEED TO- UGH, FRRRRRR,” I was interrupted by a liquid coating my throat, as though I had broken a pipe, and my voice was flooding while my lungs drowning. All this while swathed in darkness. The pain had lessened though, but my mother was no where in sight. No, she was no where at all. And suddenly, as if willed by the man who had scolded me for wanted to find my mother, my body became dormant, and my sensations all fell away to the blackness that I felt weighing in my mind.
I no longer fought it, and soon, I was motionless too. Sleep looked like anything and everything else to me now. I felt the tugging weight of the lids of my eyes as they descended, like a velvet curtain during the last act of the play. With the inherent nothingness delivering me from this moment of anguish, I was still, inevitably, engulfed in black.
It could have been hours, it could have been days, it could have been weeks for all I know. But finally, my body was stirred awake by the distinct smell of peanut butter. It filled my nostrils and the emptiness of hunger poured from my stomach.
“Ghhh-ahhh,” came from my parted mouth as I attempted to move forward, but was met with a striking and flinching pain.
“Oh look, she’s awake.” A nurse - I assumed - spoke, and then I heard the rustle of her robes as she grew near, “Hello dear, you’ve been through a rough time, but I’m here for you now. Do you remember your name?”
Her voice sounded almost animatronic. Like a robot from space, but of course, I had just encountered what I perceived as storm troopers, so why was this any different? Though, I will admit looking back on this moment, that I wished she had used a more human sounding setting, because I really could’ve done with some motherly compassion.
I felt a chill go down my arm as she touched my shoulder, and I flinched at the sharp coldness of her metallic skin. “Who the hell...”
“You’re in a hospital dear. We’ve done a few tests on you while you were asleep. It appears you are blind, but we were unable to tell whether you were born with it, or it developed over time from natural or outside effects.”
Blind?! I guess this was really no surprise to me, but hearing her say it with her chafing voice and the so very precise acuteness of her words, the truth was finally something I could not deny. Still, I had to try, “But wait, we’re in a hospital right?” In space, even! “Doesn’t that mean you can find a way to cure me?”
I was grasping at straws, I was desperate, but of course, who doesn’t want to see color again? Instead, my ears did most of the “seeing” and well, my stomach was longing for a bite of the peanut butter that still lingered in the room. And my ears did not like hearing what came next.
“I’m so sorry my dear, it looks like there’s nothing we can do for you. The MRI shows that there’s an essential part missing, necessary for vision. I doubt even the mages at Dalaran could do you any help.”
“Dalaran?” I parroted.
“Yes, haven’t you heard of it? Wait my dear... Do you know where you are?”
Silence. Her terrible, terrible question could be met with only unrivaled silence.
“You’ve been summoned to the Omniverse, dear, and you’re in for a long stay.”
Agony drenched itself inside of me, and wove into everything that was my entire being. My muscles convulsed pathetically, and despite that I was caught in a firefight between a legion of storm troopers and one crazed unknown, I heard my own voice as though it was not coming from my body, and I was yelling at the very top of my lungs.
I’m sorry that this story’s not in color, but I think you’ll understand, that the color of pain overrules anything else, even the last bit of sanity I had to hold onto - the image of my mother’s face, no, the feeling of my mother’s love. God, I wish I could’ve held onto that feeling, that loving benevolence while the hole in my stomach gushed an immense flood of warmth that simply slipped away in my fingertips.
Blood stained my hand in much more rich ways, as my entire arms were covered in its sticky substance. But it was the pain that would not be overruled. Mercilessly it tore through every vein, as my body detected danger and I gritted my teeth, wishing for a bullet to bite. But no, my body, after having lost its sight, had made every other feeling so much stronger. I laid there in wreathing agony as the unimaginable, indescribable pain weaved itself into my consciousness. Everything was black. And in that moment where the burn of the blast melted through the cartilage of my body, there was nothing that existed. Nothing to be felt.
In that moment, I knew nothing but pain.
For some reason, my body had inspired a wave of emotion along with it. A sorrowful, mourning longing, if you will, associated with the brief devastation that I assumed would be my demise.
I no longer had that feeling of love in my heart. It no longer existed. And for a flash, a brief flash in this timeless moment of torture, fear, and suffering, I felt a surge of grief and heartache overrule the pain.
Then, I felt the corners of my body chill. And I held the last bit of heat in my arms. The world went numb around me, and I no longer felt my body. I was suspended in time once more, and gone was my ability to fight. Gone was my ability to believe in anything but the pain or the inevitability of death.
Gone, because that’s what I was.
I no longer existed in the realms of man. No longer existed in the reality that had threatened to tear my soul from my body. No longer was I willing to feel that eternal torture from a wound I could not see. I remember only a part of my time holding onto my wound, it was measured by the screams that were hot on my throat, and the sounds of blasts and cannon fire, or rather, grenades.
But you see, I didn’t register any of that. Sound had no effect, for my brain was trying to preserve the little life I had left in me. During that situation, I was broken, and I was stuck in a state of perpetual misery.
I could feel it now, the ache in the pit of my stomach. I hoped this pain had not been what my mother felt when she gave birth, they say that that is the worst kind of pain, after all. I wished in this moment to reassure my mom that I loved her too, with all my heart. But she was no longer here. She had gone away, and gone too, was that hot blaze in my stomach. Gone too, was the lucidness of this dream I was living in.
I wished it to be gone. I wished it all to be washed away. At that moment, I accepted death. Perhaps he had been an old friend, before I was granted life. We would surely reunite, on good terms. I would tell him I accepted the terms of my fate, an hope to be born anew in the next realm.
But it was not so. Just as I heard the angel of death sing to me so sweetly, my ears perked to the sound of a purely incessant beeping and my breath revived.
My lungs swelled with air, and my voice croaked, though it was not filled with words. A groan left my body, from where, I could not tell, and I could only feel the pain of pricking needles in my arm, as my fingertips moved with my hands, wishing to find something to grab, in order to see.
In my flailing moments on the stretcher, I managed to grasp someone’s shirt, I heard my own voice muffle in an out of the erosion of pain, “Mom?”
While the man’s voice growled, “No! You musn’t move. You’re stitches, they’ll come un-”
“MOM!? MOMM! MOMMM! I NEED TO- UGH, FRRRRRR,” I was interrupted by a liquid coating my throat, as though I had broken a pipe, and my voice was flooding while my lungs drowning. All this while swathed in darkness. The pain had lessened though, but my mother was no where in sight. No, she was no where at all. And suddenly, as if willed by the man who had scolded me for wanted to find my mother, my body became dormant, and my sensations all fell away to the blackness that I felt weighing in my mind.
I no longer fought it, and soon, I was motionless too. Sleep looked like anything and everything else to me now. I felt the tugging weight of the lids of my eyes as they descended, like a velvet curtain during the last act of the play. With the inherent nothingness delivering me from this moment of anguish, I was still, inevitably, engulfed in black.
It could have been hours, it could have been days, it could have been weeks for all I know. But finally, my body was stirred awake by the distinct smell of peanut butter. It filled my nostrils and the emptiness of hunger poured from my stomach.
“Ghhh-ahhh,” came from my parted mouth as I attempted to move forward, but was met with a striking and flinching pain.
“Oh look, she’s awake.” A nurse - I assumed - spoke, and then I heard the rustle of her robes as she grew near, “Hello dear, you’ve been through a rough time, but I’m here for you now. Do you remember your name?”
Her voice sounded almost animatronic. Like a robot from space, but of course, I had just encountered what I perceived as storm troopers, so why was this any different? Though, I will admit looking back on this moment, that I wished she had used a more human sounding setting, because I really could’ve done with some motherly compassion.
I felt a chill go down my arm as she touched my shoulder, and I flinched at the sharp coldness of her metallic skin. “Who the hell...”
“You’re in a hospital dear. We’ve done a few tests on you while you were asleep. It appears you are blind, but we were unable to tell whether you were born with it, or it developed over time from natural or outside effects.”
Blind?! I guess this was really no surprise to me, but hearing her say it with her chafing voice and the so very precise acuteness of her words, the truth was finally something I could not deny. Still, I had to try, “But wait, we’re in a hospital right?” In space, even! “Doesn’t that mean you can find a way to cure me?”
I was grasping at straws, I was desperate, but of course, who doesn’t want to see color again? Instead, my ears did most of the “seeing” and well, my stomach was longing for a bite of the peanut butter that still lingered in the room. And my ears did not like hearing what came next.
“I’m so sorry my dear, it looks like there’s nothing we can do for you. The MRI shows that there’s an essential part missing, necessary for vision. I doubt even the mages at Dalaran could do you any help.”
“Dalaran?” I parroted.
“Yes, haven’t you heard of it? Wait my dear... Do you know where you are?”
Silence. Her terrible, terrible question could be met with only unrivaled silence.
“You’ve been summoned to the Omniverse, dear, and you’re in for a long stay.”