Among The Wolves

Company

With a small and short lived squealing in my ears, I tried to open my eyes to no avail. My arms felt like cement blocks and the threat of unconsciousness seemed to come and go. Trying to pull myself out of the deep state of sleep was like pulling myself out of a cauldron of marshmallow fluff. I felt only mildly aware but unable to reason or pull myself from whatever was keeping me seduced. I felt paralyzed. Still, my ears keenly picked up every sound that was made. Although, the sensitive brain receptors made each sound a nightmare. The annoying hum of a working machine, beeping of a monitor, and footsteps walking back and forth beyond my room. The sounds were distorted and echoey, bouncing around my cranium like the ball from the Pinball arcade game.

The desire to call out to someone came but then faded. Wherever the motivation had come from, it was gone. My desire to go back to sleep was mildly absent as well. I just laid there, agitated by my predicament. All the while, too lazy to care about feeling anything about anything.

My doomsday mindset kept my receptors on the wrong side of the mental bed.

Heavier footsteps sounded outside of the room. Coming closer to the room and clacking when the heels hit the smooth floor. The door clicked as a person opened it. I could hear the shifting of clothes. My head reeled at each of the noises.

I wanted the noises to stop. I wanted the bouncing in my cranium to go away. Still, I did not know how to achieve it.  My fingers managed a small twitch but no more. So, I could only endure it until they left or the noises stopped.

The person walked closer to me and sat in a chair that apparently was positioned right next to my bed.

When a moment of silence went by I thought I had fallen back to sleep but the deep sigh of the person next to me sent the PinBall bouncing through my cranium again.

Where's the quiet? My own thoughts seemed to be disoriented as well, it hurt to think.

The person shifted in their seat and the temptation to clout them came with full force. I could feel my heart tick a little faster and that felt painful.

“I don't know why I am here. I told myself I would leave you alone.”

I stilled, stiller than I already was. I did not know who this was but the way the voice seeped into my head was calming. While it seemed I was physically paralyzed my mind had been going crazy, now this voice was acting as a sedative to my noggin. Soothing my anxiety and like a siren song, nearly lulling me back to sleep.

I was able to lay comfortably still without fighting my weak state. Now, I wished this man would continue to talk.

He did.

“I-I don't know what I am doing half the time it seems.”

My brain could not make sense of the words that came from his mouth. Somehow the words missed the translation train. Yet, I could not completely complain that all I could do was lay here and listen to him. I had never had a voice so charming and captivating. I wondered what drugs I had been given.

“I thought myself safe from forming an attraction to you. If I could just conquer this matebond.”

Matebond? I tried to think through the disorientation in my head. The marshmallow fluff was sticking my thoughts together into a crunchy thought crispy.

Now, more than before,  I wanted to open my eyes but the tendrils of unconsciousness wrapped itself in little snags of my awareness. I could tell that I was fading. Even as a single word escaped the crunchy thought crispy, Obsidian.

I managed to get my finger to twitch and then a warm sensation covered it,  my whole hand. Little tingles teased my skin and thereafter I managed to conclude that the man was gently holding my limp extremity.