Extra Human

8: Shadow and Light (Part One)

A quiet pit of blackness entraps my dreams. No light exists inside the space of my cognition. Time is an abyss never relenting to slow down or speed up. Never changing direction or always. It has no rules, but at the same time it follows a pattern.

I sit in complete stillness making peace with my mind. Like a blank slate, no dreams or thoughts corrupt this black hole that is accompanying me now. No foreign noise can be heard within the darkness and I am content with it to the point I never want to leave. No corruption. It's a nice thing for once.

Then, the light comes I was hoping would never show. At first, it is a small flash barely noticeable, but it grows larger and larger in the corner of the obscurity. It corrupts the once blackness of my mind with a fowl red color that emits a harsh brightness.

As it grows, there comes a muffled buzz, unpleasant and relentless. It persists to get my attention, but I will not listen. As it gets closer and louder, I try pulling away harder from it. But it continues its mission to get my attention and make me face it. The struggle is no use. My mind is ready to leave the black hole and follow the malevolent red light with the awful buzzing noise.

A layer forward I take. Then another. I still cannot open my eyes for fear of smoldering them, and there is no way to stop the noise which is loud as ever blaring into my open ears.

Just then, a shock goes down the left side of my face. It moves along my cheek bone to the jaw, stinging with shallow pain. In reflex, I try moving my head away, but I am paralyzed. The shock again brushes my face, but with more pressure. Once more, the shock starts, but before it can reach my jaw my mind springs into full gear and I am able to react to the immediate threat without submission.

The red light turns into a flash of dull yellowish white and the buzzing is softer and easily forgettable. My fuzzy head comes to awareness as does my knowledge of my orientation. I'm crouched with one knee on a cold metal slate and my other leg bent like I'm ready to run.

Both of my hands grip the aluminum bed, my arms tense ready for anything that comes my way. I'm panting heavily like I was in some kind of race. The smell of rubbing alcohol burns the inside of my nose and throat. A protective state of mind makes me feel like I need to be ready to fight, so I stay in the same position until I am sure I am out of harm's way.

"I knew we should have restrained her," comes a familiar voice out of the corner.

"That would have been reproachable," says an unrecognizable voice coming from the other corner. "And no use because she could have simply got out of them with much ease."

I snap my head to the first voice that came out of the left corner and glare down this figure. All I see are colorful blurs, my eyes haven't focused yet. The voice does not speak again, but the other does. The other voice is scared and fears for his life. I ease my body slightly from the words I hear. It isn't me the voice is talking about. Or is it? The adrenaline in my veins steadily goes away.

I respond to the voice, "I'm not going to hurt you, I swear."

The voice speaks again, "How did you know?"

"How did I know what?" I tilt my head to show I do not understand.

"How did you know what I was thinking?"

I continue to stare in confusion until it registers to me that he didn't say anything out loud at all. Looking away towards the ground, I am blank on words to answer his question. It seems no one has anything to say at that moment, so we sit there in the low buzzing, tinted yellow light that characterizes the room. The room is quiet, but the thoughts of the unknown man are not.