IT - Pieces in the Dark

Chapter 14 - Open to Attack

Chapter 14  -  Open to Attack

 

      Sam didn’t wake up as such. He just experienced a steady increase of awareness, a slow and steady transition starting with a vibrational feeling all around him.

Then, behind his closed eyes, he could sense light, or shades of grey rather than total darkness. He could hear noises, a rushing sound, cold, pain, and then a flickering light through the slits of his eyelids as they wavered open.

Blurred, spinning visual impressions, mind in imbalance, aches, and disorganised thoughts coming to him. Yet his inner mind was in full processing mode, being fed masses of disjointed sensual data, information coming in and being processed.

Many things were going on all at once trying to establish coherence of what and where he was. Trying to get him through a journey to a physically awake state.

      His brain was also still working hard processing all that he had been through, storing it, remembering it. But it was all transient, unfocused, disassociated, and unconnected, just now like confetti in the wind. A hypnagogic state of transience between sleep and awake.

 All that information would gradually dissipate, become vague, unconnected, and blown out to sea. None of it would stay now for more than a few moments in a form he would be able to consciously remember.

As he continued to wake, what he had experienced was being filed away from him, consciously, systematically, naturally and protectively. He could feel soft cotton sheets over his body, and dry, cold air in his lungs that made him feel lightheaded.

The room swayed around, there were shapes and objects he could not focus on or gain any association with. There was a mask over his nose and mouth, and he could hear a low hissing sound, instilling a disconnected, detached feeling.

He knew she was there, he could sense her, and he knew she was holding his hand, even though he could not feel it. There was pressure at the back of his neck, a pain in his right hand and thumb, and a great weariness that washed over his entire body that made him want to go back to sleep.

He opened his eyes fully, and the small private hospital room was still swaying around out of focus and indistinct. He turned his head slightly, to try and focus on the worried face of Brina, who had both hands clasped around his left palm.

There were other people in the room talking in a group, but he did not recognise them.

It was very hard to figure out what was going on, or just where he was. He could see Brina softly talking to him, but he could not hear her over the hiss that the mask made, or maybe the sound was just in his ears. After around ten minutes he had recovered considerably, and a nurse had injected him with something to make him more alert.

One of the men in the room came over to his bed and stood next to his right side. He had short black hair, was in his late forties and was dressed in a suit and tie. He leaned forward, looked at Brina and then back to Sam.

“We need to do an operation on your neck to relieve some of the pressure on your spinal cord” he said, in a brisk Northern European accent that Sam couldn’t identify.

He introduced himself but Sam didn’t register his name. He was most likely a consultant surgeon. Sam’s eyes moved to look at Brina for a second, and he ascertained in an instant that she had already been involved in the discussion beforehand. He could see that she agreed with what was being said. He looked back and nodded in comprehension as best he could.

There had clearly been a lot going on, people brought in, scans done, decisions made, actions taken. He had no real idea how much time had passed, or what it all meant, or what was going on.