Pain

Night came slowly, so did the pain. First came denial, but the fight was lost and the pain overtook the mind and paralyzed the body.

 The pain began as a small seed, deep in the middle of the chest and spread like branches, immobilizing everything it touched.

  First it spread all over the chest, constricted the breathing, I gasped for breath. Then it spread downward to the stomach, it pressed down hard, causing a deep ache. It spread to the throat, it burned deeply.

 It was like a large stone bore down on me, pressing down on my lungs, my stomach. I was unable to bear the weight of this gigantic stone.

 I writhed and stretched in pain, it only got worse.

 ‘I can’t take it, it’s hurting too much, I want to die.’

 ‘It hurts too much, I can’t breathe.’

 The pain overtook the limbs and I lay still, speechless and eyes out of focus. Inside my head I was screaming and thrashing. I was begging for death, pleading for mercy.

 The night seemed to stretch endlessly and the pain…the pain was unbelievable, excruciating.  I lay motionless, suffering, unable to even close my eyes, tears wetting my face; as pain tore deeper and deeper into my body.

  A loving hand gently caressed my hair; slowly the hand came down to my face and wiped away the tears. For the first time, my eyes closed and the tension on my face released. I let out a heavy breath.

 The hand gently took my hands and I slowly managed to turn my head and I saw the most beautiful face. The face flooded my body with strange relief. I could breathe again, with difficulty but I could.

 Tears flooded my eyes as I silently complained about my pain. The eyes on that face, the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen, the eyes that make me weak in the knees, the eyes that brought gushes of emotions through me…they seemed to understand my plight.

 I looked helplessly into those eyes. Those caressing hands gathered my torn body and cradled it to a strong chest; soft, smooth and warm.

 The pain dulled, became bearable, very much bearable. The touch of that chest was tranquilizing. When I closed my eyes, my head blanked out and I felt weary and tired. I sank into a state of painless oblivion; a trance; a state of emptiness.

 I sank deep…deep into a warm, comfortable, subconscious.