The year of the nightmare

Chapter XXVII: Come back and love…

Everything was silent, brilliant, soft, and paradisiacal. There were neither smells nor noises. The silence reigned in master. Everything was white. It was the only color. He enjoyed dreaming it about the other next days. He had felt moreover never so relaxed, happy to live. This sensation transported him in euphoria according to the imaginary beating of his heart. It has been quite a while since it seemed to him not to beat any more. His whole body was for the rest, light, almost like the air. He felt himself floating. He was free. Nevertheless, it was only this state, and this only state which allowed him to reach the pure and utter bliss. He was quiet and serene naturally "at ease with himself" as we used to say. It was in fact a selfish happiness, in the end.

-…

He heard some rustles which broke the silence, coming to rock him in his enjoyment.

-Shane…

The rustles increased in intensity. Soon, he had the sensation to be in the middle of a conference where persons murmured noisily around him. The pains went up in his body, reaching the stomach, making him bend under its weight, the back, the throat, the head … He was paralyzed by pain. The color became then black. In this total and deep night, he was seizes by violent pains, that became dreadful, unbearable. It seemed to him to be able to hear something beating violently in his trunk. He was as taken in an iron vice, crushed by the wild jaws of some plague. He thought that it was his end.

-Ah!

He gave way to the suffering by closing eyes of all his strengths, incapable to resist this stream which submerged him, the lively far from the paradisiacal bank. He had no more the strength left to move. A demonic yoke surrounded him, imprisoned him, squeezing him from head to foot. He felt sucked up, taken towards an unknown territory which already frightened him. He believed to hear an abyssal music. His resistance weakened. The nothingness attracted him. The black became blood red.

-Ah!

A feeling of solitude invades him. He was alone. Only in his event. Nobody to help him. He had to cross the solo passage. No other choice. He repeated that it was his end. The eyes, big and empty, began to shine with a lively brightness. He felt something beating down on him. Something heavy, stifling.

-Ah!

The pain was eventually so strong and violent that he almost lost the common sense. He had jerky gestures, shouts, and groans … Nothing could describe what he felt at this moment. As if the world, the Earth crushed him. And then, suddenly, it was as if God's hands quartered him. A deep and intense light blinded him, burning his eyes filled with hope. His body was caught on fire, his lungs were burning. He gave a long and powerful cry.

-Waa!

Tears flowed on his cheeks so much for he has never felt so alive. Then, a lady in white blouse accompanied with the other doctors, without breaking eye contact, red, breathless, roared with enjoyment.

-He is alive!

He hardly had time to blow, quite sweaty, that Mitchie held him by the neck, squeezing his arms. She cried. He coughed, and she released slightly her embrace. The deep brown eyes shone with life. He smiles to her and kissed her again. While holding her near him, he murmured her some words to her, so she was the only one that could hear him.

-Don't ever leave me, Shaney…

-Never. Love is where your heart is…

They looked at each other; they were lost in each other's eyes. They smiled mutually.

-I love you.

-I love you too.

From this moment on, when they embraced, they understood that the real adventure is to live, to go through events. He has revived for her, she lived for him. You should not look very far to find the paradise…

Song "featured" in this chapter: Breathing Space, X-Ray Dog