Comfortably Numb

Pain. That's the only thing I feel. Every nerve in my body is crying out in firey agony, as if some pyromaniac had lit them on fire. It torments me a great deal, but I can't help it. I just lay there on the bed, looking at the peeling ceiling. Funny, isn't it? It hurts to lay in a comfy bed. The irony is strong enough to taste - it doesn't taste good. Apart from that, my jaw is clenched tight and the inside of my mouth is burning like a furnace. My tongue was swollen last time I remember. It hurt like a bitch back then. Luckily, I can't feel it now.

I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Beside me is another bed with a dead soldier on it. I don't know which one he is, but I know that he's dead. He died from blood loss, as I can tell from the steady drips of blood from bed. I stopped counting after four thousand. My braincells were commiting suicide one by one from the boredom in this god forsaken room. I wish I could join in with them. Sadly, I cannot.

This sucks. The putrid smell of blood irritates me, as if I wasn't in enough misery as of now. I'm not exactly sure how much longer I will be here. I've been here for several hours already. It's been a while. Will help come?

I can hear a crunching noise from my mouth. It doesn't bother me, though. My jaw's on fire from all the clenching, so some tooth breaking isn't going to be worth shit. I tried unclenching and easing myself into a relaxed state, but it only hurts more. My tongue is still swollen beyond belief, and forcing my jaw open only feels like a wildfire for all my nerve endings.

I might be going insane. There's an inferno in my head. I can't talk, move or think clearly. The only thing I hear is the steady beat of the blood on the floor. I don't know whether I'll be okay after this. Will I put out the inferno?

"Hello, Is there anybody in there?"

That creepy guy is here finally. His accent really freaks me out, but I don't care. He's my salvation and murder. I can't see him, but he's somewhere around the doorway. I would turn my head, but it simply hurts too much to move around. I hear approaching footsteps and am soon covered in a shadow. I can see the Medic's darkened profile. He's grinning wildly as if he's glad to see me in such a state. I think he's waiting for a reply, but I can't force the words out. His insane smile turns into a skeptical frown. I'm not sure exactly what he's thinking about, but I don't wanna know. All I long for is to be comfortably numb, and nothing else.

"Just nod if you can hear me."

Following his commands, I gather the strength to move my head slightly. The pain is too much, so I let some tears out. The sadistic smiles returns to his face. I really do think he's excited to see me in such a weak and helpless state. Hell, I can't even move without crying. I can hear some more crunching from my mouth. I can tell by the look on the Medic's face that he is geniunely surprised, but nonetheless he's excited to see me like this.

"Come on now, I can ease your pain and get you on your feet again."

He reaches into his coat pocket a rumbles in there, talking in German. I'm not even sure that he's a real doctor, but at this point in time, I wouldn't care if he wasn't. He is the only one by me to help. No one knows his really name, so we all refer to him as "The Medic", 'cus he's the one who heals us on the battlefield. Or, a better term, healed. He pulls out something from his white coat and examines it in the light. A firey-red liquid glistens as he starts to laugh menacingly. It's a syringe. I have no idea what's in it or what the Medic has planned to with it. I sweat a little from fear. He turns around with a psychotic grin and proclaims in a freaky tone.

"Relax, I'll need some information first."

I'm really scared now. I hope he's knows what he's doing. He's almost literally playing with fire, and I can't intervene with his actions, as much as I'd love to.

"Just the basic facts. Can you show me where it hurts?"

Is he being serious? Is he purposefully trying to torment me even more? Is not appart from the massive marks on my body where I'm hurt. And he just effin' smiles as I glare at him. Then it happened. The wounds were like butterfly's wings on my body compared to this. The needle penetrates my leg and the most horrendous burning sensation shoots through my body. Blood sputtered everywhere as I scream loudly, destroying my vocal cords, hurting my tongue and making my jaws explode with a bang. The Medic's already-sadistic smile turned more vicious and more cruel as he cackled at my terrific screaming. I continued shrieking like this for several minutes until I lost my voice.

Suddenly, thing start to change.

My pain... I can't feel it. I look up at the Medic, shocked, but he is still smiling at me. I feel dazed, but this is much better than being crippled and in bed. I attempt to stand up, and to my surprise, I can. There is no problem whatsoever with movement! It's like I'm in a dream! I climb out of the small bed and shuffle towards the Medic. His lips move, but I don't hear anything. I kinda fall on to him - my balance right now isn't the best. He repositions me and tosses the syringe aside. Open-mouthed, I feel funny. My hands feel like two balloons, gently floating up. I examine, I notice that they seem so far away from my body. In fact, everything seems to be distant from me, as if I'm standing behind some fancy glass. I giggle, or at least it feels like a giggle. A surge of happiness comes over me and I laugh out loud. Nothing's funny, but everything's funny! I have become comfortably numb!

I try to walk to the Medic and thank him, but he's so far away and I'm walking so slow. It doesn't matter, because this doctor deserves my thanks. I have never better and more joyful in my life. I fall to my knees right beside the doctor and start laughing again. I can't stop laughing at this! He kneels down and speaks into my ear, barely audibly.

"Can you stand up?"

I stand up, still giggling like an imbecile.

"I do believe it's working. Good"

I don't understand, what's working? The medicine? Isn't it obvious, seeing as I'm finally walking around and laughing? The Medic's flaming sadistic smiles turns into a clever smirk.

"Auf Wiedersehen."

He turns around and walks out of the room. I stand there, confused at what just happened. The euphoria is fading, and is being replaced by the previous pain. I stumble to the other side of my bed, where the dead soldier is, and try to get on my bed again. The hurting is coming back fast; faster than I can walk to the bed. I fall brutally on the floor, beside the pool of blood, and start feeling what I just suffered through several hours.

I feel sick now. Not a little sick, but very sick. All the orginal pain has returned, but ten times worse. My inferno has now spread into a white-hot headache. The lights seem to be very bright; much brighter than before. I can't move. Literally, my body can't do that even if I try. I want the Medic to come back, but I only hear his laughter in my head. I choose to ignore it, however. I can listen and watch the droplets of blood fall on to the ground from the bed. I still don't know who it is, but now, I don't care. I don't care about anything. The dream is gone.

I feel my pulse becoming slower and slower and the dripping quieter and quieter. Funny, for some reason it's not that bad. I was expecting to be much worse. Slowly, I slip away into darkness.

I have finally become comfortably numb.