Words of Ink

Seven.

[A/N: This is the story I gave in for my Creative Writing Competition entry. The topic was "After the rain". (The delirium/ coma is kinda based off my poem 'a grass plane') whyso_sirius, thank you for helping me develope the plot :D]

A grass plain.
Some birds were flying above me, V formation. Straight ahead.
I blinked.
I detected a lightning strike in the corner of my eye, somewhere to my far left.
I waited. 1, 2, 3, 4...
A thunder rumbled in the distance. Sending a quick shock wave through my body. I tensed.
A drop of rain on my nose.
A drop of rain on my eyelash.
A drop of rain on my outstretched hand.
------------------------------------
"Will he be alright?"
"We can't tell yet. The pill overdose didn't kill him, but he is in an anoxic (brain injury) coma. He is trapped in a sort of delirium. It is possible that he will wake up soon, but we're still running some tests to make sure."
I try to turn my head, but I'm stuck. It's raining, I can hear it. Pitter-patter, on the window.
------------------------------------
A strong gust of wind brings me back to reality. What a strange dream.
My hair whips around my forehead. Since when had it grown so much?
I hear a woodthrush singing it's last notes, slowly, full of melancholy, a tortured soul.
The rain picks up speed.
The song of the dying woodthrush is extinguished in the continuous thrumming of rain on earth.
------------------------------------
"Please come back to me my baby," I hear a woman sob. She seems to be sitting next to me, but the rain pelting on the window makes her sound distorted, a far fetched dream. "It's been almost a month now. The doctors said to give it time, but I need you my baby. Momma will be here for you when you wake up."
------------------------------------
I exhaled.
Droplets of water suspended in air.
I observed the structure of my water vapor. Shifting, taking different forms, and then disappearing in the cold air.
Cold. So cold. Teeth clashing on teeth, chattering.
Everything is grey.
------------------------------------
"... coma for almost two years now... not much hope... death..."
What? No. I don't understand!
What's happening? What's happening?!
The rain is so loud. Deafening.
------------------------------------
Running.
I run as fast as I can.
The waist high grass swishes around my hips and legs, wetting my jeans.
A memory.
Weaving in between trees, avoiding branches and twigs that reach out like claws, scratching at my face and pulling at my shoulder length hair.
Maybe I should have tried to solve my problem before choosing death. What if I hadn't overdosed? Maybe I would be alive. Maybe I wouldn't be trapped in this illusion that is my own minds prison cell.
A forest of "maybe"s and "what if"s.

Maybe it was time to wake up.
------------------------------------
I opened my eyes. Sunlight.
The warm sensation tingled my lips.
Slowly, rising up my upper lip. My nose. My eyes. My whole face was a glow.
I smiled.
------------------------------------
A grass plain.