White Phantom: Chapter Twenty Six

Chapter twenty seven

The pain was incredible. He’d woken several times that he was aware of, he had cognitive memory of being alive, but he knew little more than that he was in a very bad place. He was tied down to a bed. Why was he tied? Had he been violent to somebody? Up to this point, attempts to open his eyes had been futile. He tried again but his eyelids felt crusted to the lower rim of his socket. The other times he hadn’t been able to stay awake long, there was always a deep pull back into either sleep or unconsciousness, he wasn’t sure which.

He thought he might be on some kind of heavy sedation, sometimes the pain in his head was different, it came down his nerve receptors in waves, but not as intense pain, he was high, morphine maybe, and he was aware of it as a noise, a building, horrendous noise in his skull that only allowed him moments of wakefulness at a time. He must be in hospital.

Now the pain in his head was bad, but he could feel something else, a new ill that hadn’t been there before. He had a heavy intense weight on his chest. He felt as though his sternum was caving in, he couldn’t breathe. Every time he inhaled it felt as though something was squeezing down on his chest trapping the air inside him and not letting it out again. It took him several breaths to realise that this wasn’t internal pressure. He hadn’t broken every rib in his body and cracked his chest open, there was something cold and extremely heavy on top of him. He needed to see what it was.

He tried to move and the thing on top of him adjusted its position. It moved too, but not with him it moved independently of him. It was alive. When it moved, the warmth where it had been lying left and a sudden rush of cold air blew over his sweating body. The thing repositioned and where it had previously touched him it felt warm, but the new areas of it coming into contact with his hot body were cold. It was sensation unlike anything he’d ever felt before, and it was so heavy.

He forced his closed eyelids to move upwards. He felt them un-stick, just the movement of opening his gluey eyes caused a new wave of pain in his head. He felt as though he might vomit, and fought down the rising nausea.

His vision was blurry, wherever he was, it was light, harsh fluorescent light burned the back of his eyes and caused the headache to intensify so much that he was forced to close them again.

The thing on him shifted. He felt the movement. The bulk of it stayed in place, but he felt some part of it moving upwards towards his face. Although he’d never felt anything like it before, some primal instinct knew exactly what it was. His mind was screaming at him that there was a huge snake crawling up his body. But that was ridiculous. If this was a hospital why was there a snake lying on top of him? He was delirious. He couldn’t make any sense of it, but he did need to see.

Aware of the light this time, and prepared for it, he opened his eyes. His vision was still blurry, but now it came into focus as he demanded it. His mind knew that he was in terrible danger and ordered his eyes to put some effort into working.

When his vision came into part focus, he saw the giant head of a large brown snake inches from his mouth. Its amber eyes with the elliptical cat-like, no, snake-like black pupils bored into him. The holes along its nose were open and went right inside its head. Its tongue slithered out between the horrible fleshless lips and touched him on the chin.

He tried to inch up the bed, he tried to jump out, run away, but he was tied fast, with metal, his mind made the next leap towards understanding his circumstances. He was handcuffed to the bed, so that was it, he’d been arrested, but that still didn’t explain the enormous weight of the snake on top of him, pinning him down.

This was lunacy, he was insane. It couldn’t be happening, but since when did hallucinations feel so heavy? He opened his mouth and screamed. The effort was too much for his injured body to take and he felt the darkness calling him back. The snake moved an inch further up and actually put the tip of its hideous nose into Colin’s mouth to investigate the warm, damp darkness in there. Colin closed his mouth, fast, and the snake jerked back, startled. Colin dropped his eyelids and drifted into unconsciousness again.

He felt the sharp sting of a hard slap across his face. This wasn’t the gentle tap of a nurse to rouse him back into consciousness, or even a duty police officer come to question him. It was a hard, brutal, welt-raising slap that made his face sting and his eyes water.

‘No, you don’t. Not again. I’m sick of you sleeping all fucking day, wake up.’ A hand came into his view, a slender hand, small, like a child’s. It lifted the snake’s head and tauntingly wafted it in front of his face. ‘Don’t you like my little baby,’ the voice crooned. He screamed again, but this time it didn’t carry him off into the dark world where even snakes and creatures of nightmares didn’t prowl.

He was aware of a door opening in front and to the left of him. Somebody came running into the room. ‘Jennifer, Oh my God, What the hell do you think you’re doing, now? What’s going on, get that thing out of here. Why have you brought it? Get it away. Are you trying to scare him back into a coma? Jesus Christ.’ The voice had risen in pitch on almost every word until it was virtually a scream. He was aware of a scuffle; the second person was still yelling and swearing. The great heaviness was lifted from his body and where it had been, the sweat on his torso was cold and wet, the sheets beneath him drenched. He heard the door open.

‘I’ll take him back home then. I don’t see what you’re making such a fuss about. I was only showing him Darklord. I thought you’d be pleased that I’m being friendly.’ The door closed and the horrific snake was gone.

His vision was still hazy, the second person was moving towards him. He couldn’t see very well, the light was so bright and he had to squint to be able to keep his eyes even partially open. They were water-filled and sore.

‘Colin? Colin can you hear me?’

He steadied his head. It wasn’t moving but it felt as though it was rocking from side to side in nauseating waves. He concentrated all of his attention on focussing. ‘Beth,’ it was a croak, hardly recognisable as a word.

‘Yes, it’s me. Don’t worry, it’s going to be all right.’ She was wiping his face with a soft cloth, it felt nice, soothing after the harsh slap.

‘Where…?’

‘You’re safe, that’s all you need to know for now.’

‘Tied up?’

‘Yes, I’m so sorry about that, but it’s unavoidable, you see. I really am sorry Colin, about everything.’

Was it fine? After all, Beth was a nurse, wasn’t she? ‘Hospital?’ he croaked, his voice rising in question. How could this be safe?

‘No. Not hospital. Look don’t you worry, everything’s going to sort itself out,’ she crooned. The room was coming into focus now. This was no hospital ward. Where the hell was he?
‘What the fuck?’ He tried to sit up. He fought aggressively against the bonds holding him down.’ Untie me, fucking untie me. Where am I? What’s happening to me? How…’

He felt the sharp prick of a hypodermic needle in the crook of his arm, on the inside of his elbow. He was still thrashing, trying to get loose and then, ten seconds later, a blanket of wooziness started in his stomach and spread up to his head. He fell back onto the pillow, tried to force his eyes to stay open, to not close. And then he was gone.