Morph: Book One

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I woke with a start.

I had lost all sense of time long ago. It could have been days, weeks, or months. I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.

When I could grasp onto brief moments of awareness, only pain would assault me. I could feel every poke and prod, every slice and injection. It felt like my nerves were set ablaze. The fire would erupt from my chest first. Then, a pain that I could only describe as liquid fire filled my veins and traveled through my body. It left me utterly raw. As I encountered this pain, I succumbed to it and passed out.

When I could fight against the torture and force my eyes open, a bleak, white, sterile room met me. I could barely make out the corners of the room because they seemed to all blend in together, creating no clear end or beginning. I knew that hidden from my sight, just behind where I lay strapped to a medical table, was a door. But I had no idea what was beyond that door. I usually couldn't stay conscious long enough to piece details together.

This existence was my life now, strapped to a cold table in a cold room, only able to live my life in my head. In these brief moments of consciousness, I often found myself giving in to hallucinations or hysteria. I would imagine graduating high school, falling in love, going on adventures, having kids, and then comfortably dying surrounded by the people I loved. The worlds that I had created felt so real that I felt like I was living in them. Each one I fabricated was different, allowing me to explore and do what I wished. They kept me sane, somewhat.

These were nothing but elaborate hallucinations that my mind formed to preserve my sanity.

Deep down, I knew this. As soon as these hallucinations ended, only a world of experiments, agony, and loneliness would exist. I couldn't help but become hysterical. But this time was different. My mind was clearer, my body was free from pain, and besides the slight soreness that seemed to cling to my muscles from not moving for so long, I felt normal. I found myself second-guessing if I was indeed awake or if I was hallucinating. I had felt pain for so long that the moment that I didn't, everything seemed off–seemed wrong.

I concluded that this was an elaborate hallucination. To test my hypothesis, I lifted my hand to my head and ran it down my face and my body. I explored the parts of me that had formerly been restrained to the table. Then, content with my findings, I slowly rolled to my side and lifted my upper body off the table. Next, I moved my legs until they were hanging off the table, and I was sitting up. I glanced around the room. The room was empty other than the table I sat on, myself, and four white walls that rose to meet a similarly white ceiling. The only thing that wasn't white was the door, but even that was just a plain solid piece of metal.

Boring.

I felt like I was missing something vital, something important, but I couldn't place it. The moment my mind started to wander, a bright red light flashed, and a piercing alarm came from the direction of the door. I jumped to my feet, startled. I nearly tripped over myself as I quickly put the table between myself and the door. I began preparing for what would appear from the other side of the door. I could feel my heart race and hear the blood pumping in my ears as the metal door slowly slid to the side to reveal a man.