As she came to, pieces that had fallen together in her absence began to surface. The pain was back, and the dark haze, but this last was lessened now, lighter, as if she were closer to its surface. Vaguely she suspected that this was perhaps not the first time she had come back up from the exhaustive sleep of no pain, and that these heavy naps with their preceding bitter taste happened at regular intervals with a very induced quality. They cycle must have happened several times before she was aware of being aware of it, otherwise how would she have memories of acrid gunk dissolving in her mouth, followed by sleepiness so complete that it was lovely to give into, even if sleep might be death.
How could she not know when the pain left?
The woman had come back as well; not herself but the image of her. Projected on glass in front of her: the image of the woman pulling her dead legs behind her, and she understood. Her legs were not corpse legs, but blue and black green pussy burns. Hips - round, beautiful, dead - a bone cradle of quivering, living agony. The firm, translucent grey muscles were like jelly, without skin to hold them in. This rolling girdle, she realized, held the center for all her pain. In either direction it spread, up her chest and down to her toes. Her splintered, black legs. The wide wings of her pelvis cradled it and held it up. For the first time, she was aware of her head. It ached.
Pain built up and time stretched out. She wondered if this had been the way it was between other naps. The pain grew, and she felt her body agitating, worsening it. Her mind began to cry out for the bitter taste with its herald of relief. Air was too thick to breath.
At last there was a movement between her lips as a skinny rod pushed bitter hardness onto her tongue. Skinny? She wondered. Why should she think it was skinny? Had she sucked from something thicker before? Not wanting to think, she waited for nasty bitterness to fill her mouth, and sleep to fill her brain.
Nothing happened.
Her mouth was too dry to dissolve the capsules. Their awful taste remained fixed in the center of her tongue, giving no relief. The pain stretched itself in her bones with a smug grin. Her misery hit a new level she had not thought possible.
Saving grace came as she felt something clink against her teeth. Liquid in the smallest measure dripped into her mouth: water. Water! Not enough to reach her throat, it wet the capsules just enough. With an explosion she would have liked to spit out, they activated and instead she sucked them back and swallowed. Soon after that she slept.