A cacophony of sound and images entered into the tortured
mind of the subject under examination.
Bright, flashing lights, a banshee-like shriek. It started to come to him in bits and
pieces. A swirled mixture of blood and
viscera flowing in rivulets from a gaping wound. He tried to move, but couldn’t. More images flooded into his consciousness,
like an unstoppable raging torrent. He
clamped his eyes shut, trying to shut out the roiling visions, but still they
came. A tumbling world, gnarled trees spinning
endlessly, their clawlike branches reaching for him. He again tried to shift his body, but couldn’t. Something held him down. More images.
Lights again, but different this time.
Dangerous lights. Unavoidable,
blinding beams. Coming closer, inexorably
closer, like a creeping tide on the seashore.
Time slowed. Fear. A cold, gripping fear, the knowledge that
death’s bony fingers had a grasp on his soul.
Pain. Oh, so much pain. Mind-numbing pain, unlike any he had ever
experienced. It coursed through every
vein in his body, as if his lifeblood had been replaced with shattered bits of
glass. A beep. Another.
Steady, but faint. Another beep,
this time slightly delayed. Again,
again, and again, but each beep further and further from the last. Finally, one steady tone, unbroken. The pain eased, the images stopped, and he
knew no more.
-Sampo Hynynen
First line credit: Shane Otis
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