Scarlett

Chapter 1: Waking up

"Call the doctor. Call her now." I heard a woman's shrill voice pierce through my ears.

"She is on her way. What's the matter?" replied another woman with concern evident in her voice.

"Her fingers...I swear, they moved a little." I heard the first person speak again. Her voice quivered, as if in disbelief and astonishment at the same time. There was something unsettling about her voice as if something good yet bad had happened. It filled my mind with questions and a slight sense of panic.

Whose fingers moved? What was going on? I did not understand.

I knew my eyes were shut but I did not know how to open them. I could not see the women. I had no vision. Everything was black, completely dark. I only heard voices, some whispered right next to my left earlobe while others screamed from somewhere far away. Then I heard a continual loud beep from my right side. The sound was familiar but I could not identify it. The unknown sounds terrified me. But I was even more scared of the darkness. I was baffled as I did not understand what had happened. All I wanted was for all of it to end. I wanted to open my eyes, shut my ears and run far away from the constant darkness that had engulfed me.

Why could not I feel my body or my surrounding? Why could not I feel anything at all? 

I started to panic and the noise around me soon became indistinct. It had to be a terrible nightmare, I thought. My panic grew as each moment passed. The anticipation of what will happen next terrified me. I was afraid of the dark. But I knew that the thing with nightmares was that nothing expected ever happened. What I precisely felt was indescribable. I was definitely terrified but I was also frustrated. I felt suffocated amidst the darkness that seemed to engulf me completely. I felt like I was locked in a cage half of my size with my limbs tied up, and I had no air to breathe.

For a moment, everything seemed to stop. But then, I felt it. I felt an electric shock right on my chest. I felt electricity run through my veins and extend throughout my body. I had forgotten how to feel because of the numbness and nothingness that I had experienced for so long. But soon I began to feel my surroundings as my body heated up. It felt like I was burning. It seemed like I was drowning in fire, slowly but completely. I began to feel the pain. The pain grew with each moment that passed and I feared to think for how long it would go on. It was the most painful thing I had ever experienced. But I had not experienced a lot as I was only six.

I wanted to scream and run away from the fire that was burning me from the inside. The electricity in my body was almost unbearable. I wondered if it was the end. I realised how helpless I was. Being helpless is never a choice. No one wants to feel it. It is something that makes us bound to pessimism. We can then never look at things differently. We can never imagine light when all we ever seem to find is darkness. This imagination then turns to reality, as darkness engulfs us, slowly but completely. That is when we lose hope and peace. And that is the end. 

I was not ready for the end. I wanted to fight for all that it would take to open my eyes and be able to move again. I needed to see the light again. I needed the pain to stop. I did not want darkness to inundate me. I grappled and soon the electricity that seemed painful turned to be quite provoking. It seemed like a challenge to tolerate all of it. I knew that I was ready for it. I was forced to overcome the pain for better. That is what pain does, it teaches us. It gives us an experience that we never want to encounter again. We try to mend ourselves so that we shall never have to experience it again. In the process, we become a better version of ourselves. Pain teaches us things that no one else can. We all hate it. But even after all the resentment, we meet pain, after which we are all left shattered. But as pain says goodbye, it gives us the opportunity to be happier and stronger than ever.