PROLOGUE

Prologue, the narrator describing his future death.

The first thing I’ll feel will be the pavement, cool beneath my cheek, rough and solid beneath me. It will be difficult to breathe, my body weighing me down as my chest struggles to expand. I’ll feel lightheaded, my hands and feet strangely cold and heavy. A deep ache and pressure will settle behind my eyes, but they’ll slowly open anyways. Cracking themselves open, blurry and unfocused, the street lights will look like starbursts above me, twisting and turning as the ground spins, resetting every time I blink.

The edges of my vision will start to darken as the starbursts of light lose their color, becoming less saturated and gray. The only color left is the buzzing static, creeping in from the edges of my sight.

It will feel like centuries and just one second. I’ll have been laying there for years, but also just a moment in time. 

When my sight is dimming, I’ll begin to hear a ringing in my ears, drowning out the usual music, the sounds of the city fading as well. I’ll try to smell something, just to test my fading senses. There’s nothing as usual.

It will feel like I’m floating now, forgetting the strange chill and weight of my extremities. I won’t be able to tell if my eyes are closed or open. I won’t be able to think in words anymore.

It will feel like an ocean being drained. Every thought floating in the water, but all moving towards something in the center. Swirling in circles till they eventually get sucked down the drain.

It will feel like I’m drifting in that sea, being pulled by the current and there’s nothing I can do. All I’ll feel is the cold water surrounding me, slowly permeating every part of my body. Seeping deeper into my mind.

When the cold fills me completely, and I am pulled into the center, it will finally be quiet. The droning static will stop, and the constant music will die down. It’s silent.