Everything Goes Black

Photo by Leonardo Yip on Unsplash

The earth shook or so I thought. Maybe it was just a dream. If it was a dream, how did I end up on the floor? Had I been tossing and turning and rolled off the bed or was it an earthquake? Down the hall I could hear the wind chimes clanging back and forth. I specifically remember closing the window by the chimes before I went to bed. Just then the wind chimes began getting louder and CDs started falling off the shelf.

I jumped up as fast as I could and held tight to the door jams of my room. How on earth could we be having an earthquake? We never had one here before I thought, as the shaking finally subsided.

I see lights outside my room, so I find my flip flops and head outside. These were the brightest lights I had ever seen. I was having to shield my eyes and look at the ground as I stepped outside. Suddenly, I hear something that sounds like the chopping of helicopter blades. I’m trying to look around but am blinded by the lights. I make my way down the stairs and head straight out so I can see what was going on.

All of a sudden, I am attacked but I don’t know by what. Both of my arms are being pinned to the ground. I feel something connect with my face and that’s when everything goes black.

I’m uncertain how long I was out, but as I start to wake up I can hear what I believe to be scratched. It reminds me of nails on a chalkboard. All around me I hear this sound. I open my eyes, but it is just blurry and red. I try again but still I can’t see clearly. It almost looks like I’m looking through cloudy water.

As I try to move my arms and legs, I realize I am strapped to some kind of metal table. The scratching sound has become so loud I’m having a hard time thinking. It is then that I feel pain in my right forearm and what I believe to be some kind of needle. Then the left side of my stomach feels like it has been poked also. I can’t see what is happening, but it feels like air is being shot into my body. I can feel my skin starting to peel away from my muscles. I try to scream but nothing comes out. I end up passing out from all the pain.

When I wake up, I’m on the floor of my bedroom, I push myself up onto my butt. I have the worst headache I have ever had. Slowly, I look around my room. My eyesight is normal, and I say, “Hello” out loud to no one.

As I climb up off the floor I stagger to my feet and start walking around. Everything appears to be in order, and I begin to think it was all just a really bad dream. I put on my flip flops and head outside. The wind chimes are calm as I open the door.

Outside everything looks like it should be. As I turn back around to head inside, I accidentally bump my right shoulder as I go through the door. I massage it for a minute then look down and start to examine my right forearm. Everything seems to be normal. I think to myself that was the weirdest dream of my entire life.

Then I head to the bathroom so I can take a shower. I stand in front of the mirror examining my face and touch around my eyes and mouth. I’ve come to the conclusion it was a nightmare. I turn on the water so it can start to warm up. As I take off my shirt I notice a small amount of blood on the left side of my stomach.

I reached down and touched it with my finger and I brought it up in front of my face. I turn my finger in all directions and as I’m staring at it, suddenly it reabsorbs through my skin. Out of fear I push myself away from the counter so hard I end up tripping over the rug. I’m not able to catch myself as I fall and my head ends up hitting the side of the tub. I feel instant pain in my neck.

The noise from the fall woke my roommate and his girlfriend and they came running in. By the time I arrived at the hospital I had been declared dead on arrival. The thing was, I was still alive or at least I thought I was. I was trying to yell or move my eyes or do anything to alert the doctors, but they never noticed. Then I heard a doctor say, “Let’s get him prepped for surgery, a young healthy donor like this is going to save a lot of people.”

— Nicole Barden 5/1/2021

Originally published in Illumination on Medium