He was dead. He should be dead, but he wasn’t. His eyes were stiff and crusted; they hurt so much. His mouth was worse; he tried scraping his tongue on his teeth to relieve the sensations of cotton and copper.
He tried moving, but nothing worked, and he felt flat. Everything had a blue filter over it like he was stuck in a bad horror movie, a single hue on every scene, leaving one dark, muddled mess.
His breath was short and slow. What shapes he could make out were squarish and shadowy. Could those be shelves? The only sure thing was the door in front of him. The whole place smelled odd. It wasn’t a chemical smell, but it wasn’t organic. Some kind of storage room?
Racking his brain, he tried to remember what happened. Anything, anything at all, just a hint to what was happening to him. His legs! That’s right, they were gone right at the knee. He winced at the thought. He didn’t feel any pain there? Were they really gone? What about the back? He remembered.
It burst like someone ripped out his spine. No, no, wait, was that right? He struggled to arrange his thoughts. It was after the man did... Something? Wait!, The Man! We were together; he was supposed to protect me. We trusted each other. I... I think? I thought we did, at least.
He struggled to move again; panic seeped into his brain like dye. Then he heard it. A sound. It was coming from outside the door. A whirring mechanical sound. High-pitched and fast in an odd rhyme.
Up and down, Up and down.
He froze, now more terrified than ever, his memories trickling in as he listened.
Up and down, up and down.
There was a woman. He remembered it now; she did this to him, but The Man. He brought him here. The Man betrayed him! His eyes widened uncontrollably, crunching. He wanted to cry, but all he got was a dark liquid oozing from them. Blood?
It all began to unravel as he lay there in the darkness. There had been a light, a bright, searing yellow one, directly over him. She held him, forcing his body under it. The surges of pain ebbed to the cadence of the machine.
Up and down, up and down.
That horrible machine! What was it? Why did she put him through it? The sound, the light, her touch, her breath on him. He gagged, lost in the memory of It. He could taste the metal as it pierced every fiber over and over.
Up and down, up and down.
He smelled heat and oil; its fumes still clung to him. He frantically tried to move; he wanted to rub it away. Swat at it as if it were burning him. But he was still Frozen, Wide-eyed. Afraid, afraid of what else he might remember.
Up and down, up and down.
The sound of soft swearing brought him back to the present. The machine was quiet. A thick clicking sound, then the machine gurgled, letting out short metallic screams as if struggling with its next victim. A sharp snap followed by more swearing. After a while, the machine found its key again, leveling out, and continued its rhythmical song.
Up and down, up and down.
He must have passed out then because when he opened his eyes, there was sunlight coming through the door. It burned a little, but it was comforting. He reached out towards it, but nothing moved. He lay folded into himself. He raged his brain afire.
Why? Why do I live? Why couldn’t I have died? What is this?
A bell rang, and a door opened somewhere; a slight draft hit him. The air was cool on his surface; It surprised him. He tingled in places he didn’t remember, like there were foreign extensions to him. What did she do to Him? He struggled to feel; he begged to move, to wiggle even the tiniest bit. It felt so tight and constraining, smaller yet bigger.
The woman was coming. He could hear her feet falling up and down as she got closer. He screamed, he cried, he whimpered, cursing the day she was born, damning the very earth she tread. But he was silent, his throat airless, his mouth overflowing with cotton and copper.
She stood in front of him, peering down from unimaginable heights. Her eyes were rich and brown; they had a kind of sparkle. She radiated pride as she lifted him and carried him out. What unspeakable monster was she? To do all this to him and have the gall to be proud? He wanted to fight, to spit, to rip her limb from limb, but there was nothing, not even a tremble; he was trapped in his own body, a moving train, his world passing him by.
His emotions seethed with hatred when he sawhim. The Man. The very man who was his friend. The one who walked with him as one, his Betrayer.
He was struck by an unquenchable helplessness. An empty foul hole formed in what was left of his soul. Why has The Man done this to him? What has been done?
His stomach churned as she turned him round and round for the man to see. The Man was pleased. It made him sick to see the looks on their faces. His eyes rolled back, his mouth frothing with rabid hatred, and suddenly, it was peaceful.
A void surrounded him in a quiet shroud as he tumbled endlessly up and down in the blackness.
He Had Passed out.
" Thank you so much! This is incredible, you did a wonderful job!”
She blushed.“Oh, it was nothing! Really!”
“I hardly even knew anyone did this anymore.” The Man smiled broadly.
“It’s an old trade, but I enjoy it.”
“Well, I’ll be back, that’s for sure. You got my business.”
She smiled, proud that something so simple made someone so happy.
“Just couldn’t bear to part with ’em, y’know? They just don’t make ’em like this anymore.”
“I can see that they were well loved,” she paused. “Youwillhave to break them in again; they won’t be quite the same.”
“No worries! I’m sure it won’t be long till it’ll feel like nothing ever changed.” He tucked the freshly wrapped package under his arm.”
The Man thanked her once again and left her to get back to work. Not even before the door was shut, she was back working at her machine, and it was singing.
Up and down, up and down.
