clutching onto ****** bedsheets, i woke up in paralysis, petrified by silence next to frequencies repeating in my ears like a killer headache. my body was stuck in a pale green buzz: sickly and menacing and groggy. i wanted nothing more than this, for i had fallen ill, and i could not escape it. hands down my throat, mud in my lungs, i blacked out underneath my shallow breath decaying and dilapidated, dying with every second.