𝐃𝐎𝐋𝐋 ᴰʳᵃᵍᵒⁿ ᴿᵃʲᵃ

𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠

ĐⱤ₳₲Ø₦ Ɽ₳J₳ 0.4

Then the pain, the all-consuming pain, came down in a flash.

MC's bones felt frozen, the sheer coldness of them burning against her own flesh. She was being burned by their iciness.

Her very veins seemed glacial, static in their thins spaces.

Maybe they always were, but she only realized it now.

Suddenly, she became aware of each and every change in her body. Her heart beating, her blood rushing, her hairs rising, her cells multiplying. Everything became too much.

And the sounds, they were so loud. The voices over her, she wished they shut up. Didn't they realize that they were yelling? Didn't they realize that the sound was driving her deaf?

Instinctually, she tried to open her eyes, but her eyelids felt too heavy. They chose to rest on her eyeballs, determined to stay there. Still, she wanted to know where she was, and who was it above her. And why they were making so much noise.

When she finally managed, she had to shut her eyes tight instantly. The light, that cruel shining light, was way too vivid, blinding her momentarily.

Instead, she tried to move her body up in a sitting position. That endeavor was as difficult and laborious as she had expected it to be. Her breathing, which had already been erratic and shallow, became even agitated and disordered than before.

She put a shaky hand up to her head, aiming to rub away the sightlessness from her eyes. A shy quiver of pain escaped from her lips as she tried to gulp down her saliva, to no success and leaving with an even drier throat.

The temperature of her body shifted unpredictably, making her head pound awfully. Her muscles seemed to contract and loosen themselves each instant, making her feel even sicker than before.

The aching felt so harsh that she, for a moment, stopped feeling altogether. That unpleasantness left her body only to come back strongly.

MC mustered the little strength still left in her and opened her eyes slowly.

She found herself in a hospital bed, surrounded by nurses. She could tell not only by sight but also by smell, the one of powder and rubbing alcohol making so specific to hospitals.

The nurses stared at her hard, intrigued faces hidden by their determination to cure their patient. They were asking MC questions, but she found it quite hard to answer them. She still didn't understand what they were saying.

She focused more on those annoying sounds, trying to keep that buzzing away from those distinct syllables.

Then, she was quite surprised by what she recognized. They were speaking in English.

So, it was only natural for her to return conversation in the same fashion.

"Where," her voice was rough, like a creaky door, "the hell am I?"

Even after minute after minute passed, she still didn't get an answer. The nurses went all over her, checking her pulse, temperature, oxygen levels, and whatnot religiously. Some of the others worked hard on MC's injured led, something she hadn't 't noticed.

The patient wanted to protest, she didn't know these people, what they were up to. Her muscles, on the other hand, disagreed. They stubbornly refused to move. And so, she stayed quiet and still.

Then, another figure, one of a rather short girl with black bangs and long tied-up hair, came into the room. A white shadow, identical to her, appeared out of thin air. The girl extended her arm towards MC and instantly, her wounds and overall aches vanished. Well, some of them, at least.