POV _____ :

'It's cold…'

'...'

'Everywhere…'

I slowly started to wake up, my mind and body felt muddled… almost lodged in place.

As I tried to form a new thought, the previous one slipped from my memories and was replaced by what was at the forefront. I tried to string together a coherent sentence but that in of itself felt impossible.

'Where… I?'

Where I?

I did not know. But it wasn't home.

My skin felt cold and wet, my breathing laboured, my body suspended with no forces acting on it.

'Am I dead?'

The thoughts became easier to form, alas the first proper idea I had was a terrifying one; not one that I couldn't believe however… it was a long time coming.

I tried to open my eyes but they wouldn't budge.

I could feel my body, every inch of it felt cold and damp yet it wouldn't move. No amount of writhing or spasms had an effect on my body; I stayed still.

'Paralysed? Nightmare? Sleep paralysis?' As my mind started to work properly, a plethora of ideas assaulted my thoughts, some scary, some sensible and some outlandish.

'Reincarnated and I'm in a new womb?'

That was the most ridiculous one of all.

Understandably, reading too many novels had an adverse reaction on my grasp of this world. It was not a surprise at all.

Regardless, I kept thinking, thankful my mind was once again working.

'Think… think…'

I wracked my mind to hopefully figure out where I was. My memories slowly started coming back to me, something I was immediately grateful for.

'I was in my room…'

Bound in a white sterilised bed, how I hated that place.

'Doctor Toby had just checked up on me and…'

Nice enough man, his overflowing pity got a little sickly sweet at times though.

'He was saying something…'

That's right! He was saying something important. I remember he looked panicked, how unprofessional of a doctor.

'Emergency? Some sort of emergency…'

I was having an emergency?

Yeah…

Unconsciously, I willed my arm to touch my heart, for a moment my hand twitched but I had harsher things to worry about than the return of my motor functions.

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'The emergency… it finally gave out huh?'

Born with a fucked up heart, my lifespan was severely limited. Routine checkups only served to lighten the load on my family, it did me no good really.

I knew it would happen eventually…

But I'm thinking now aren't I?

It must mean I'm not dead!

Or is this the afterlife?

Some kind of strange experimental treatment?

A liminal space between life and death?!

'Fuck, my brain hurts…'

Although I was able to twitch my fingers now and think coherently, it seems that thinking deeply still hurt. That was new, never had my heart issues affected my thinking.

*twitch*

Unconsciously yet again, my eye twitched. Feeling confident with my movements, or at least much more than before, I once again began the quest of opening my eyes. Slowly but surely, a view came into sight.

'Green?'

A deep murky green surrounded me, I couldn't crane my neck to look behind but chances are that the murky green continued to surround me.

'So fucking weird… is that tube coming into my face?!'

Now that I had regained my vision, I saw a tube made of what looked like plastic attached to my face, with the green "water" surrounding me it was difficult to tell sensations apart from one another but now that I had noticed it, I could feel the tube attached to my face with a mask of sorts. The mask was covering my nose and mouth, keeping it separate from the murky green that enveloped me.

'This… I can't even begin to explain this…'

The setup I found myself in, surrounded by murky green liquid with a breathing tube attached to my face was closer to a sci-fi movie than a viable treatment option for my condition.

*BANG!*

As the panic started to set in again, a loud, almost booming noise shocked me into focusing on my present situation.

*VVHHRRRMMM*

The murky green that was in front of me seemed to change colours, from beyond it I could see a window opening, sliding outwards to reveal two figures that through the green looked like shimmering shadows.

They were speaking to one another, yet I could barely make out what they were saying; their murmurs barely registered.

"... Yes… Vital signs… possible candidate… "

'What are they saying… I can't understand them, yet at the same time, I think I can?

The language was not one I spoke but each word they uttered and phrase they spoke flashed lights of recognition within my mind, it automatically translated to a language I was familiar with.

"...rama cells implanted… eyes incompatible… above average… minimal brain functions…"

'Incompatible eyes? I can see though! Is that Doctor Toby?'

The two figures were nothing more than visages of a human body but I could tell they were staring at me and I at them.

"He's awake… Kukuku… interesting…" This time, another voice spoke out. The first voice sounded relatively normal but this one creeped me out, the way he spoke was more reminiscent of an animal than a human. Fortunately, the other voice took charge again, an elderly man by the sounds of it.

"Not suitable… only two base elem… inferior to others…"

'What's he saying? Inferior? Is something wrong with me? Well, yeah, my heart's busted but other than that I should be good… fuck there's something else wrong isn't there?'

'I'm in what looks like a vat of Shrek's piss so yeah there's something most definitely wrong with me…'

The two voices fell into a dull silence for a while, for some reason they both seemed upset.

I started to move my legs and arms, I needed to let the doctors know I'm still alive!

"Kukuku… rapid movements…" the drawling voice spoke out again.

"Those are likely spasms Lord… talent is viable yet there is little to no cognitive… recommend disposal." for some reason, these words from the elderly male voice sent shivers through me.

Why were they not reacting to me? I was awake! Let me out of here!

"Keep him… useful maybe… kukuku…" the strange voice argued.

I couldn't yell or scream but with every passing second, I got more worried. I understood one thing clearly from the limited words I picked up from them, these men did not care about me or my wellbeing, whatever their purpose was, it's not something conducive to my health.

I kept thrashing, half out of the hope of being let out, the other half due to fear.

The doors which opened slowly began to shut with similarly loud clunks, as the shadowy figures once again disappeared from my vision a sudden and overwhelming surge of fatigue attacked my body. I had enough cognitive ability to realise that the breathing tube attached to my face was probably at fault for this, the sudden change in the smell of the air was apparent.

'Why are they doing this… please…'

I didn't know what was happening. Did my parents tell Toby to euthanise me? Why… why is any of this happening?

Someone, please…

'I'm so tired…'

Someone…

Ah…

…