I woke up in a panic. I thought there was a massive earthquake, but i was just my body. The thunderous awakening of a terrible nightmare. Drenched in sweat I lifted the top half of my body. My arm gave out under the pressure. It was black. Black was all I saw and I wasn’t where I was supposed to be. I don’t remember this place. My head was pounding to the beat of my heart. I could feel the blood flowing through the left side of my head. Pressure so intense that it sent me into convulsion. Violent twitching that scared me. My head could explode at any moment. A flash of light created by my mind brought me back to consciousness. I was supposed to be at a party. That’s all I could think. I couldn’t say anything. I tried to speak, but there were just the thoughts. Silence. My mouth wouldn’t move.
I propped myself back up and looked around the room. My eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness and I realized I was in my clothes. I couldn’t read the clock yet, but there were four digits. How long had I been out? Just as my eyes started to focus on objects in the room, my body fell back against the pillow and I bit my tongue. It didn’t hurt. I couldn’t feel anything. My body was moving so violently, uncontrollably. All the while I could think only about dying. I could hear a dog barking. The noise echoed. With each bark, a fist to my head.
The barking stopped. There was silence. Tears were streaming down my face, or was it sweat from my forehead? My clothes were soaked and the taste of metal was in my mouth. Iron. Blood. I brought my hand to my mouth and spit on it. It was black. The inside of my mouth swirled with blood and saliva, about to overflow. I felt like I was about to choke. ‘What a terrible way to go,’ I thought. ‘What would they think when they found me? How long would it take?’ More barking and then everything went black again. Every muscle in my body contracted. My toes curled and my fingers tucked themselves into the palm of my hand. I could feel my finger nails digging into my skin. I had no control, but was conscious of everything.
All of the sudden my body relaxed. My eyes shot open and my strength returned immediately. I had no idea how long it had all lasted, only that it was over now. The dog was sleeping soundly to my right, pressed against my body. I looked over at the clock and it was 1:11am. I had missed the party.
