InsaneJournal

Day 374 - Open Dream
[Your eyes are open, but there's nothing to see. The darkness is absolute. Your other senses strain to make up for the lack of visual information. More nothing.

The silence builds until it's a palpable pressure, and all you can hear is your heartbeat (is it speeding up?) and the blood rushing through your veins and arteries (did you know that had a sound?). Panic builds in the back of your throat. You need to run or scream or do something to escape the sensory vacuum, but your legs refuse to listen and you can't make a sound. Why should you keep trying? There's no one to hear you. There's nowhere to run.

Your heartbeat is the only thing in the universe. It's too loud. You're too aware of it, and that increased awareness makes you realize how fragile hearts are. It's just a muscle—a fist-sized, fluttering thing in your chest.

Blood roars in your ears. Your heartbeat falters, and you wonder if you're dying.

Something touches your arm and it's like surfacing after being held underwater. Sounds—indistinct shuffling and scraping, but sounds nonetheless—return and you can see just well enough to determine that there's someone next to you.]

It's okay. [It's Nathan. He doesn't sound as if he believes himself.] Are you okay?