Chapter 7 – Raphael

Darkness. It surrounds me, suffocates me. It's weird, I can hear sounds and register movement around me but I can't react to anything. I have no idea how long I've been in this unyielding hell… it seems like forever.

Someone comes and sits beside me again I hear crying and something or someone touches my arm. I listen carefully to the words being spoken but I can't make any sense of them; somewhere deep down I'm sure that everything being said means something but that part can't or won't reach my consciousness.

Something wet hits my neck and I try to move away from it knowing that it's useless… wait… that was different, did I actually move a little? Something tugs at my consciousness, it pulls me up and suddenly I can see the smallest ray of light. We move closer to it; it feels so warm and inviting, such a contrast to the eternal cold and dark realm I've become so used to. We're just beside the light now, I reach out and touch it and suddenly I'm bathed in the light… what a relief.

I feel my eyes opening and am assaulted with a painfully bright light, I close them again and try to clear the spots away from my vision. The entire effort takes more energy than I expected it to. The talking is back and this time I can make out at least some of the words but it feels as if they're coming from a long way off even though I can feel the presence just above me.

"Raph!..."

Huh? Raph? Who is that… it that my name?

"…. Open…eyes…"

If the guy is speaking to me, maybe I should do what he says. Hopefully I'll get some answers. I open my eyes again and am met with a large green and orange blob hanging over me. What the heck? Who or what is that and where on Earth am I? The blob moves again and I blink to try and bring it into clearer focus…. It works, I can make out a face now staring at me with concerned eyes. He looks vaguely familiar but I can't place him. Everything's so strange, and I feel so tired… maybe I should rest for a little bit.

As I drift off to sleep one question echo's through my head… 'Who am I?'

Okay I know I ended on a little bit of a cliffy there and I hope you all will forgive me for that. I regret to inform you that I will be putting this fic on a temporary hiatus effective immediately. I know that y'all probably think that I'm gonna put this away and never come back to it but I give you my word of honor that I will finish this story. This was born of an idea that I got on a whim one day, and I originally had no idea where I was going with it. Now I have a clear beginning, middle, and end in mind but not a real idea of how I want to get there. I happen to be a real perfectionist about my writing so I would rather wait awhile and give you something better to read than to rush through it and give you less than my best.

Anyway, I'm not sure how long it will be before I come back to this but I promise to let you know if it goes longer that a year (which I really hope it won't!) In the mean time I will be working on my new story Learning to Love which I've been playing with for years now so things shouldn't be a touch and go as it has been with Shattered Consciousness.

Thanks for all of the reviews and encouragement I've gotten so far with this and any other messages I get are greatly welcomed and appreciated, It's good to know that people have enjoyed my work!