Chapter Two: Pain and Awakening

I spent an eternity in pain.

I don’t know how long I was out, but I woke up to fire. The burning in my shoulder was spreading across my entire body. At first I believed that the fire from the burning creatures had caught me and I was being burned alive. But it never ended.

Angus was still there. I could hear him whine and whimper as I lay on the ground. The ground should have been cold. It was early November and the temperature regularly dropped well below freezing at night. And yet the ground brought no relief as every part of me burned incessantly.

I would open my eyes for a few seconds from time to time. Minutes turned to hours and the break of dawn found me exactly where I had fallen the night before. In snapshots I saw the arrival of the new day, a day that I was convinced would be my last.

In between surrendering to the agony of the burning, I wondered how long it would be before I died. How long it would take for me to be consumed by the fire, or poison or whatever it was that was torturing me to death.

What were those things?

Later in the day, or later in some day, I couldn’t be sure of time as I the pain was blurring my perception of reality. I heard a vehicle screech to a stop in the driveway. I didn’t open my eyes. I’m not sure I could have opened my eyes any longer. But I could hear well enough.

It took me a while to sort through what I was hearing. Perceptions that were of lesser significance than the burning, and all others were of lesser significance, had to wait their turn to find purchase in my consciousness.

I did hear a woman scream. I think she screamed, “Rosalie.” There was a fair amount of people moving about, and conversation that I couldn’t hear. Angus barked. It wasn’t an angry bark, but more of a, “Hey what about my guy?” kind of bark. At least that’s the way I registered it.

Before long, I think, someone kneeled beside me. “Mr. Gregg, I’m a doctor.” He said.