Sunday, December 28, 2014

The Silent Room: Part 24

Prompt from writing with Copper

Grenfelder

There had been the initial sensation of cold thick wetness pressing in on all sides after Grenfelder had dropped through the last portal, and then everything had simply slid away as he lost consciousness.

The sense of time and space and being present came back very slowly.  The darkness cradled his senses in a gentle cocoon of muted sound and sensation. The low whoosh-whoosh of a compressor starting and stopping. After a long time of listening to the soothing rhythm of the compressor, like listening to waves lapping at the shore, Grenfelder began to become aware of the room in a more general way. 

A hazy blue star hanging above his head slowly dissolved into a single blue green light located on a large gray white machinery arm.  Eventually he noticed that the machine arm hooked to something around his head, its vice-like grip holding his head in place and a ridged tube filling his mouth and throat. Puffs of air pushing in and out.


He might have freaked out then, have struggled violently against his bonds where he lay half submerged in a slowly draining tub. He might have tried to fight free. But his mind felt disconnected from himself and the present, as though he was looking at the world from a long way away. The present had nothing to do with anything. Eventually when he thought to move his hand it did not bother to respond to his commands.