It's raining tonight.
The three-second loop of pitters and patters is already driving me insane, and I've only been conscious for a moment.
Bright lights blind my blurred vision, zooming past that small slit into the open.
My entire body feels heavy, struggling off the ground. I pause, letting the rain collect and slide down my cheeks, dripping into the puddle my face must have been in.
Rain...I don't remember it raining...
Through squinted, sore eyes I look around. The floor is dark and dirty, strange smelling juices leaking from the trash close by. A rat scuttling through it all, pushing away old papers and food wrappers with its little pink nose, searching for its next meal. The sounds of those tiny hands lost behind the rain.
Another rumble, another light.
My body aches, my head feels as if giant hands are squeezing it tightly and I can't even feel my right leg.
My hair pooled water beneath me, absolutely drenched.
How long had I been lying there?
Wiping the water from my face, I'm able to prop myself up on my elbow. That rat dashing across my other hand before I could lift it.
I didn't care, I liked animals.
At least, I seemed to like animals...
With a heave and a grunt, I'm finally sat upright, head spinning.
I didn't know this place.
I was afraid.
Reaching out to the closest wall, I slowly and shakily pull myself up onto my feet. Legs shaking, I am weak.
I take a step and my right leg buckles beneath me.
Was it broken? But there was no pain...
Taking a moment to catch my breath, I use the wall to balance myself and slowly hobble out of that nasty place.
Another rumble and another light.
Cars?
Looking back, it was clearer now. I'd been lying in an alley, dirty and full of horrible things. Thank goodness I'd gotten out of there.
Out in the open, I can see it all a little better now.
A path beneath me decorated with discarded chewing gum, plastic wrappers, coffee cups and cigarette butts.
Lights coming from shop windows beckon me to follow their glow.
I didn't recognise this place at all.
The only thing I knew for sure was that there was definitely something wrong with my leg.
So surely...a hospital would be the right choice, wouldn't it?
But I had no idea where to find one...
My eyes fell upon an old man, slumped down outside a boarded-up building drinking out of a strange bottle in a brown bag.
I had to ask for directions.
"Um...e-excuse me?"
I called out, hobbling over toward him.
Was that really what my voice sounded like? Strange, talking in my head, I had heard it a little different...
The man looked up at me, the few yellow teeth he had left gripping his lips through a snarl.
"Whadda' you want?"
"Could you please tell me where to find a hospital?"
I asked, my fingers trembling in the cold.
He spat down near my feet, rubbing the loose droplets of saliva from his scraggly beard.
