Excerpt #1

A Prince's Honor

Smile ‘till the sky falls an’ the rain burns like acid.” a young female’s soft voice called out to him in his subconscious ever so gently. A feeling of warmness swept through his body and soul.

Slowly, ever so slowly, almost as if it was the very first time, his eyelids opened revealing his brilliantly grey eyes to the world outside. Whether he didn’t want to look anywhere else, he couldn’t look anywhere else, or didn’t have the strength; the only thing he looked at was the ceiling above him that coldly stared back at him. How long he stared at the ceiling he did not know. Maybe it was only a minute; maybe it was a couple of hours. Time had no meaning. For some reason unknown to himself, he was merely content to be alive.

There were long pauses in between his shallow breaths. There was coolness, a mint-like flavor in his mouth. This unique flavor lingered in his mouth. If one were to look at him without thinking of anything special to look at one wouldn’t even be able to tell that he was breathing. His chest neither rose nor fell. He couldn’t consciously take a deep breath even if he wanted; however, this wasn’t the case, for he didn’t have the need to do anything other than to exist. Maybe breathing was all that mattered, maybe it didn’t.

His arms lay flat to his side. His legs were extended and laying flat. He soon realized that he could neither move his arms, legs, or any other part of his body. There was no feeling of pain, no sensations of pleasure; there were no feelings to describe at all. As he lay there, he tried thinking about if he wanted to move any part of his body, but the urge simply was not there. Maybe he would scratch his nose with his hand, but he hadn’t the strength to move his arm, not to mention that his nose didn’t itch either. He thought about getting up from wherever he was at, but where would he go? The answer was out there somewhere, but he couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong. His brain seemed to be floating in a fogginess of confusion. He knew he was alive, or at least he thought he was alive, but now that he started to think about it, he really wasn’t sure about that as well.

He wasn’t sure how long it was after he had awoken, it could have been a few minutes, it could have been four or five hours, but he began feeling the most painful of sensations in his left arm. It began to feel as if a thousand red-hot needles were stabbing it. He screamed with all of his might, but not a single sound made it past the crest of his lips. Slowly, the pain made its way to his other arm. It moved to the tips of his fingers in both of his hands, whereupon the excruciating pain was too much to bear. Tears trickled down his cheeks. Still, there was no expression upon his face. He lay there paralyzed in gut-wrenching pain. Eventually, the pain seized. Inevitably, the agonizing pain returned and when it did it returned in force. His legs were the next part of his body to feel the excruciating pain. His eye sockets and tear ducks were swollen for they couldn’t produce any more tears. His cheeks were streaked with streams of salty residues.

His stomach started to become tied up in knots. It began to build and came upon him in a manner that he couldn’t predict or stop. He had the urge to vomit. However, as much as his stomach’s repeated in muscle spasms and uncontrollable contractions, he couldn’t vomit. However, it was also a relief considering if he did vomit, he would probably choke because he was sure that he wouldn’t be able to turn his head to the side even if he wanted. The feeling came and went in waves of endless torment. It seemed as slowly as the pain came, it would subside. Then just as slowly it would return again. He then felt the gut-wrenching torment of stomach cramps. He knew the pain would end, but actually when it would end, he was not sure.

Seconds passed like an eternity. The hours that passed were beyond words.

  “It was time.” He finally thought to himself after an eternity of consideration. As he still stared at the ceiling, he realized he going to make his eyes look to the right. When the time came and his body was willing to listen to his internal demands, his eyes did indeed look to the right. What he saw was rewarding and disappointing all in one, for all he saw was the color white. As his eyes focused what he was looking at he realized his he was staring at a blank white wall. He willed himself to look to the left, but again he was disappointed. The only thing within view was another blank white wall staring back at him. There were no pictures hanging, no designs embedded into the walls, and most importantly there was nothing unique about his surroundings. And yet, he knew that he was in a hospital.

Then it happened. The first real sensation that confirmed to him that he was truly alive and not sentenced to a life of immobility, pain, and torment. He heard something. It was faint at first and he really had to struggle to hear it a second time, but given enough concentration he did hear it again. It was a low beeping sound. It came again and again. While listening to the repeating beeping noise he was able to deduce that it repeated itself about every seven seconds. Unable to move, he focused all of his attention on listening to every minute detail he could hear. Slowly, he sensed people’s footsteps. There were the soft footsteps of females and the harder, more pronounced footsteps of those who were obviously in charge. There were papers being shuffled about, typing at multiple computer consoles, and he could even hear the squeaky wheel of a rollaway cart. Voices; he could hear voices. He wasn’t sure of what he was hearing at first, but he could hear people talking. He concentrated even harder. In the far background he could he a couple of men arguing; one of the men, probably the one in charge, spoke with a deep throated voice of authority, the second voice was harder to distinguish because of the softness and humbleness of his volume. However, he couldn’t distinguish what exactly they were arguing about. It was at this moment when all hell broke loose. 

A tray of medical utensils of some kind crashed to the floor just outside his room. He had been concentrating with so much exertion, that his eardrums felt as if they were almost shattered. He was taken so off guard by the tray crashing to the floor that he felt himself flinch, though it was actually only twinge in his eye. “He’s awake,” a female’s voice screeched out loud.