CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE 

The world around the vegetable seller had disappeared, but it was coming back now.

Slowly, steadily.

His eyes had been closed for almost an hour, seeing only black and grey in a darkness that pressed against his eyes. His head was hit hard, and it still ached in several places; making his brain now sit inside a cracked skull.

His body felt like a bag full of pain.

His shoulders were stiff and out of place, his wrists broken and disjointed, and his legs like dried logs. Heavy and riddled with bumps. His right knee was dusty and bleeding from a sizable gash.

The world was still a hazy image as he tried to open his eyes. He stopped, flinching, as a sharp pain shot through the back of his head and down to his feet. Then up again, making him fold his shaky eyelids shut.

The effort to even open his eyes was painful, and suprising, as they now seemed to be connected to the rest of his body in an unusual way. Like the rest of him didn't want him to see the pain, but actually feel it with his