Two hours into my dosage and already the pain is returning. It doesn’t creep up slowly, either, but swarms over my nervous system like wasps. I did nothing to deserve this, yet they keep stinging me.
The doctors have no clue what’s wrong with me -- test after test reveals nothing about my condition and only frustrates me in the end. Not only that, the but tests are becoming more painful, requiring anesthetics wherever possible. I have been given many different drugs, tried physical therapy, and even homeopathic medicines and practices to no avail. My doctor has stated that if we can't figure out what's going on, I'm just going to have to go to pain management.
I curl up on my side, hugging my waist, and tuck my head inwards. My plan is to ride it out for another hour. Take half my normal dose, then take the rest when I am supposed to and call the doctor.
When I open my eyes again, it is because I am chilled to the core. Pain from my illness is a distant memory -- all I know now is the cold. My breath fogs before me. Obscures the close - up view of the grass I am lying in. The blades jab at my skin, as they are frosted over, but I only barely feel it.
Night is falling now in this alternate world. The wolf waits for me still, sitting primly, only a few feet away but I feel I must find shelter or clothes. Anything to make me warmer. But my muscles convulse too much to be of any use and there are no buildings around anyway.
I lay here for what seems like hours. Days. All the while that bastard wolf sits and watches. Occasionally it will yawn as if it is bored of waiting on this dying human. I can feel everything start to shut down, but I still wonder why it hasn’t tried to eat me yet.
“What do you want from me, dog?”
He gives no response, and instead lies down just out of my reach.
“You just need to trust her.”
I blink. Across from me, at my kitchen table, is the Dwarf from the diner. I don't remember how we got here.
“I...what?”
“Need to trust her.”
“No,” I shake my head. “How did you get in here?”
He cocks his head to the side and narrows his left eye.
“I was just...with the wolf...” I look behind me.
“We’ve been talking for twenty minutes.”
I sigh and bury my face in my hands. The medicine is making me light headed and I'm beginning to wonder if I just took too much.
How long have I been out?
“How am I supposed to know? I didn’t even know you were fucked up.”
I look up. “I said that out loud?”
“Look,” he says, climbing out of the chair. His head only has an inch showing above the table. “Get some rest, okay? You look like shit.” He hobbles over to the front door, letting himself out. Standing halfway out into the hall, he eyes me and frowns. “And whenever you run into Sirrah again, just...just trust her, okay?”
I do not watch the door shut. Instead I turn to sit numbly at the table, wondering what else I have done that I don't remember. The sensation was so strange--first I was freezing to death, and suddenly I appear at my kitchen table? Maybe...
Maybe I just need to get out more...
