Once upon a new life... Book one: Tom

Prologue

Darkness...
Just plain darkness that surrounds me.
Wether my eyes are peacefully closed or wide open, I could not know the difference.

Numbness...
All I can feel is nothing.
I cannot feel my legs, nor my arms.
My fingers seem to grab nothing nor can I wiggle my toes.

Silence...
There is no sound.
Not even the beating of my own heart nor the breathing that escapes my lungs past my lips can be heard.

It is just pure, peaceful nothingness...
Until it no longer is.

Like a bolt of lightening I feel my body shake awake.
Pain, I am in so much pain.
I try to open my eyes but am blinded by a white light.
Voices are screaming loudly in my ear.
Some of these voices speak in tongues I understand.
Others speak in foreign tongues.

My body feels heavy and painful.
My brain is pounding against my skull.
My heart is racing in my chest.
My breath escapes my lungs past my lips in quick, shallow exhales.
I long back to mere moments ago, when I simply floated in excistence...

And even though it seemed an eternity in agony to me.
I finally return to the land of numbness.
To the land of peace, where the warmth and deep darkness drags me further and further down...

Slowly, very slowly I feel something soft beneath my fingers.
Something warm and gentle carasses my face.
A soft breeze starts playing with my hair.

I wait a few minutes, affraid of the changes I just went through...
Soon courage and curiosity wins from fear,
And I open my eyes once more.