OOC: Dream
The room was sterile. It stank of antiseptic and medicine and cheap hypoallergenic fabric softener. The walls and floor were all blank and featureless, nothing hanging up, no windows or doors, no furniture but the bed he lay on and no sound but the rhythmic beeping of a pulse monitor and the loud ticking of some unseen clock. His eyes darted left and right, desperately searching for something to give his surroundings meaning.
The ceiling was dark, and when he glanced up he could see a shadowy figure there, tall but otherwise impossible to identify in the darkness. He thought it might be an illusion until it spoke.
Ha...! Look at you. Look what became of you. Look at all that's left for all your arrogant pride.
You're nothing but a lifeless shell. An empty husk, left to rot here while the rest of you burns in hell.
How long will you wait here, day after day? Why don't you just leave? That is, if you can.
The words set a fire of defiance burning inside him. This could not be all there was. He tried to move, but even the slightest motion sent aches and pains racking through his body. He tried to speak, but his throat burned parched and weary from disuse. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't get anywhere. There was nothing to do but lay there and breathe that stale, terrible air. It grew thicker with every labored breath, oppressive and cold. He felt like he was suffocating in place.
This must be what it felt like to die.
Why do you bother hanging on? the voice on the ceiling went on, laced with some quiet anger. There's nothing left for you here. You're nothing but a burden. The fool who comes to the tree day after day and never has the insight to hang himself.
What are you waiting for? Nobody's waiting for you.
Ah... now he saw. He didn't know why he hadn't noticed it before, but the ceiling was a mirror and the figure that of a motionless man... a dead man, lying strapped down in a hospital bed much like his own; his hair black, his brown eyes frozen open and staring, a trail of blood from his lips trickling down his chin.
He inhaled another miserable breath, praying this one might be the last. And suddenly the air changed. Cutting through the heavy sterility came an incredible aroma, rich and exotic, warm and complex, absolutely intoxicating. Immediately his body relaxed. The pain disappeared. He opened his mouth and he could taste it, divine bitterness that brought life back into his dead body. Cracks of light appeared in the wall across from him, sliding open like a door.
There appeared the silhouette of a hauntingly beautiful woman. In the sudden bright light she was nearly featureless as she stepped into the room and approached his bed. The woman seemed to float over him like some unearthly entity and he found he could not touch her, his hand passing through her when he tried. The bittersweet scent was even more powerful now. The woman drew in close, spilling rich brown hair on either side of his face.
Her body was warm and her presence made the pain fade away. He tried to get a better look at her face, but couldn't seem to focus on it. Wordlessly, she leaned down to kiss his eyes, one after the other.
Everything went black.