Freezing Wings

Prologue

I woke up in the dark.

My head felt cloudy and numb, my mind slow and slurred, unable to form a coherent thought. I felt like someone had drugged me and hit me over the head with a baseball bat then stuffed me into a drawer.

I couldn't remember anything, as if my mind had a sort of blanket over it that prevented me from recalling anything of my past. I didn't know where I was, what day it was, who I was, or even my own name. All I knew was that I was trapped, tired, and freezing.

The air was cold and stuffy, like I was in an old, damp meat locker. It seeped into my bones and made my teeth ache from the chill. My stomach quaked and I couldn't feel anything from the waist down.

My body wanted to fall asleep so bad, it was like I was hit with a tranquilizer. I fought it as hard as I could. Something told me that if I went to sleep now, I might not ever wake up again, I would freeze to death first. And my lungs were quickly telling me that even if I did freeze, if I didn't get some oxygen now, I wouldn't be alive long enough to feel it. I concentrated on breathing, but even that was a fight.

I tried to take a breath, but my body screamed at me to stay still. My lungs rattled in my rib cage and my throat was like sandpaper. The muscles around my lungs felt like they were on fire, but I shivered in the cold. When I exhaled, it was like I was barely moving air and I felt my energy leave me. I wheezed in another breath, puffed it out, and then repeated. Over and over and over again until the once incapacitating pain had subsided to a painfully apparent throb.

I tried to move my arms but they were pinned to my sides, as were my legs. They ached, like if they had held that position for much longer than I had been awake. All I could really do at that point was painfully try to suck in the freezing air and try to stay conscious, but I was quickly losing that fight.

Despite my best efforts, my mind refused to stay awake and I felt myself begin to drift off. The inside of my eyelids flashed as if someone had flicked the lights on and off and the world around me tilted as my center of balance disappeared. I started to roll down what felt like a hill - as if I was in a giant bowling ball - and the temperature dropped dramatically. If it felt like I was freezing before, I was definitely freezing now.

My lungs convulsed as my already shallow breathing shortened and my muscles shivered in an effort to keep warm. My blood ran cold, and all my energy seemed to seep out of me, along with all the warmth in my body. I felt my erratic and pitifully weak heart rate grow fainter as my breathing slowed to a crawl. I was like a stone statue as my already weak muscles locked up and the chill took over my mind and body.

Spots clouded my vision as I lost consciousness, and I wasn't sure if I would ever wake up again

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Thanks for reading, please remember to comment what you think, vote, and share.

Sorry it's so short, I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as I can and fix any mistakes I find.

-the author