The Pain

Mason

Fuck.

Everything hurt. My head pounded like someone was relentlessly smacking my skull with a hammer. The pressure behind my eyes had me convinced my brain had exploded and was pushing itself out of my head. My ears were ringing like a fucking fire alarm. And it wouldn’t stop.

The rest of my body wasn’t better off. My ribs and shoulder and chest ached furiously, and I found myself being gently jostled around and every bump or movement sent little shocks of fiery pain through my veins.

I groaned and lifted my hand to my face to try to rub something wet out of my eyes.

“Mason?”

A woman’s voice called my name from far away. She sounded familiar. She also sounded scared. I tried to open my eyes without success.

“Mason? Can you hear me?”

I swallowed and rubbed harder at my eyes. The woman pulled my hand away from my face, gently stroked my hair off my forehead and said, “Hold on. We’re almost there.”