Prologue
She was having difficulty breathing. It felt like something heavy was on their chest, but she didn’t know what; she struggled to open their eyes but was gone before she could.
When she opened their eyes she was in a familiar room, though she couldn’t quite place it. Their head was fuzzy, her thinking slow. Something was going on, somewhere, down there; she felt like something was happening. What was it? If only she could sit up she’d be able to see. She tried to raise themself up on their elbows to take a look and discovered she couldn’t. There was something pressing down on their wrists. What? she foggily wondered. Her worry was fleeting. She noted with interested detachment that despite its paralysing effect she didn’t seem concerned about it, whatever it was. She drifted back out.
Something was definitely hurting. She woke to that sensation quickly, the one of pain. She felt tears well up but knew they weren’t because of the pain but because of something else entirely. She felt slippery and weird, wide open, very tense. There was someone else there with her, in the room, but she couldn’t tell who.
