Night of The Inferno

The Hangover

12 October, 2021.

I woke up smiling. Sunlight shone through my window, warming my face and reminding me how wonderful and youthful I felt. I sat up in bed, yawning deeply as I stretched.

Lies. All lies.

In reality I woke up before the sun did. My phone said it was half past five. I wasn't smiling. My body was alarmingly weak. I bet if I tried to stretch, something would pop or one of my limbs would fall off. I felt like an old man with a severe case of arthritis.

I was holding my head, groaning like somebody was continuously hitting a titanic gong right next to my ears. Or inside my head. There wasn't much of a difference.

The migraine waved a yellow clock in front of me as it whispered "Focus on me. There is nothing but me."

I fell for it. I fell for it hard.

The migraine was the only thing I could think about. At one point I was completely convinced that, even though I've never experienced it before, a hangover couldn't possibly be more unbearable than what I was feeling.

My eyes felt as if they were made of stone. Looking anywhere shot even more fiery pain into my head. I had to move my eyes and my head in sync to avoid it.

Walking made it worse. I was getting weaker by the moment, and every step I made sent vibrations to my head, dipping me deeper into my personal sea of pain soup.

Regret-flavored, with a sprinkle of Depression spice. Yummy.

So there I was, painfully walking to the kitchen to get myself a cup of water, when I got hit by a dizzy spell.

Yeah, it got so bad the migraine started using magic spells. It felt like a boss fight in Shadow Fight 3.

I had to sit down in the hallway, making sure I avoided all eye contact with the roof. Looking up and "seeing the light" was the last thing I was willing to do in that moment.

I don't know how I got there, but I eventually found myself in the kitchen. I filled a cup with water, drank two drops because the water made my stomach feel queasy, and then went back to bed with the familiar speed that would make old ladies even prouder.

One thing I dislike about dreamless sleep because it takes all the fun out of being half dead. It makes a whole night go by in what feels like a blink of an eye.

Well, I 'blinked' once and suddenly the sun was staring at me through the window like a not-so-subtle stalker. To keep safe, I did not attempt to stretch or do any fancy-shmancy morning workout, even though I felt much better. I thought I was out for ages but I found out it was only a few minutes after ten.

My mind was a dark, silent room. At the end of it was a door, not too far away. It was slightly open, revealing infinite darkness and a pair of glowing, bloodshot eyes. The migraine smiled at me.

"Try anything, boy. Try anything dumb and watch me rip your mind apart!" it rasped.

I listened to it. Instead of confronting my inner hollow like Ichigo, I chose to pretend it wasn't there. As the day went on, the headache became less of a feeling and more of a memory, which brings me to where I am right now: A lovely afternoon with a beautiful blue sky, and no pain.

I don't want to jinx myself by blabbing about how glad I am that it's all over so I've decided to just sit through the rest of the day quietly, reading some Rick Riordan books or maybe even diving into the Monster Hunter world.

I'm still not looking at the roof. You can't be too careful, right?

No? Uh... cool.

Well, it's time for my thoughts on the whole experience.