I was floating.
There was nothing but the darkness, and I was floating.
The dark wasn't scary, nor was it comforting. I was just here, somewhere, though I couldn't find myself in the thick layers of black. I felt me, but I couldn't feel me. I couldn't find my arms or my legs or my anything. I scrambled through the emptiness for over a minute before I realized that something was happening, but not here. Far away.
A low hum. Deep, like a bass, somewhere away from me. I stopped searching so that I could concentrate on it. A sound. I could hear it, and it was far. No, it wasn't far. I was far. Too far away from the voice. Where was it coming from? Where was I? I was floating away from the voice, and I didn't want to.
I tried to mentally hold myself in place, but wherever I was, I was leaving. Where was I going?
There the hum was again. Louder. Closer. Yes, yes. I couldn't find the voice, but maybe it could find me. The voice suddenly altered, tightened up. Boxy. The sounds started shaping into more familiar ones, words. And I recognized the voice. I listened harder.
"...come back to me now...yes....can't...sleep forever, wake up.."
I could feel my mind slowly clearing up, and there was a slight pressure on my chest, which I could now feel somewhere below me. A sigh.
"There we go. Deep breaths. In and out."
I listened to the voice, moving my chest up and down, up and down, until I could feel other parts of my body, too, as if they just now appeared out of thin air. I could feel me now, I found myself, but I couldn't move anything except my chest. In, and out. In, and out.
"Can you hear me, Copelyn?" The voice waited.
I tried to reply, but I couldn't focus. Not yet. Too much, too much.
"That's good, just keep breathing. Can you move your fingers for me?"
I paused a breath to think. Even thinking took so much work. And I was so tired. But I tried anyway. I mentally searched around myself until I found.. Ah, there they are, I felt them lying on something cold. Hands, my hands. For a moment, I couldn't remember how to make them move. But finally, I felt some connection as I willed my hand to open, and it twiched. I heard a sigh of releif from somewhere above me.
"Good, good. You bound yourself to your body correctly. That's good." The voiuce waited patiently for me to adjust.
I pulled away from the voice so I could concentrate on becoming fully functional again. My right hand, I opened and closed it. Good, that felt nice. My left, it was a bit harder to move, but after a minute it clenched into a fist. My right toes, right ankle, left ankle. Soon enough, my entire body was able to move when I wanted to. I could feel the warmth radiating from my body now. Here I was. I was lying on a cold ground, too cold. Uncomfortable. But here I was. I was alive. I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.
"Now, open your eyes Copelyn."
Oh, right. No wonder I couldn't see anything. I opened my eyes slowly, keeping them squinted so that they could focus on the colors and shapes around me. The first thing I saw was the sky. It was navy blue, with a few bright white dots speckled here and there. The next thing I saw was a face. Close to me, too close. My body tensed up.
"Oh calm down. We met around half an hour ago," The man said, looking down at me with irritated eyes.
My mind finally connected the familiar voice with the face. "Adrian," I breathed, almost relieved. I hadn't used my actual voice in hours, so what came out was more of a croak.
