Max Kael?
Prelude: Wake Up And Smell The Jizz
Hmm.
Hmm?
Wait, what is this supposed to be?
Oh shit. I think this is awareness.
Well that just ruined my day. Ugh.
Now I’m starting to feel something. What is this sensation.. Feels like burning all over my skin but it’s not hot. It’s the opposite of hot.. What is that?
Cold?
Cold!
I don’t like it.
I don’t like any of this.
–
“He’s ready, his vitals are showing signs of him waking up, Doctor.”
It was the first voice he had heard that wasn’t his own. A woman’s voice; Clinical, sharp and direct.
“Increase his dose of Zolpidem and track his heart and brain functions. We lost the last one around this time and I won’t abide another failure, Nurse.” a male voice answered the first, the Doctor. “Bring him out of it, but slowly.”
He could hear other things now, in the background. Beeping and whistling noises, soft enough not to distract; loud enough to make their presence known. His vision had not yet returned leaving him unaware of what the sounds belonged to. The voices disappeared yet the soft sound of shoes alerted him the two were still around him.
The sounds seemed to increase in sharpness as the darkness he found himself rolled back into a gray haze. Dark shapes formed as small points of color poked through like fireflies hanging in an early morning fog.
“We’re getting an increase in brain activity. Breathing and heartbeat remain normal, ninety nine percent oxygen blood saturation.” the Nurse comments as he feels fingers touching various parts of his face. “Look here, he’s trying to open his eyes. He can probably hear.” The fingers pull away from his face as a dark shadow seems to press through the blurry fog. He could feel hot, stale breath wash over his face. “Can you hear me? Maximillian?” the dark shadowy shape says with the Doctor’s face. He can feel the words crash down over his face and echo in his ears. The name registers immediately.
Maximillian.
He tries to answer but all that he manages is a muffled sounding grunt.
“Did you hear that?”
“It sounded like he was trying to respond, Doctor.”
“Try to nod your head, Mister Kael.” Kael? Was that him? He already had a name? Nobody told him that. moments ago he was floating along in the void, not even a thought. Now he had some kind of Doctor calling him names.
Life comes at you fast.
Max did his best to follow the orders given to him. He knows he wants to move his head but he can’t seem to figure out how it works. He can feel the Doctor’s breath
on his skin but he can’t seem to get the muscles beneath the skin to obey his commands. Finally he feels his face flinch. His left brow begins to sputter as he hears an excited gasp from both the Nurse and the Doctor.
“Excellent, Mister Kael, excellent.” he hears the Doctor say with a distinct sound of excitement.
In his mind Max matches the Doctor’s excitement, thrilled to have accomplished the task. This moment of joy is briskly ended as he feels a new sensation reach his brain. A sharp, stabbing pain shoots up from where he assumes his chest is.
“His heart rate is increasing, Doctor!” the Nurse exclaims. What follows is a series of loud alarms to blast out from all around Max. “His brain activity is off the charts, pulse rate is reaching dangerous levels! His body is waking up too quickly!”
The Doctor lets out a curse before he joins the nurse at the monitors trying to figure out what is happening. The sound of shouting filled Max’s ears though he couldn’t make out what they were saying. The pain from his chest was crawling up his neck and into his brain. His mind fills with violent visions of the past which drowns out the sounds around him. Fire, blood and violence, fleeting faces of people that he thinks he knew at one time.
So many different eyes.
As the pain consumed him the growing agony seemed to sharpen his vision. The shadowy, hazy world around him came into focus. Kael’s sight fills with the bright, pale light that hangs high above him. The hospital room around him is alive with unusual pieces of equipment. The walls were a calming teal color which stood in contrast to the screaming machines
around him.
He saw the Doctor and Nurse running around his bed, their faces grim. They seemed eager to toggle switches and check the tubes that ran into his body.
“His eyes are open, Doctor!” the Nurse exclaims as she points toward him. Both the Nurse and Doctor rush toward him. The Doctor pulls a flashlight out and begins examining Max’s face. Though both the Doctor and the Nurse have masks on he can see from their eyes a mixture of excitement and fear.
“Can you hear me, Mister Kael? Your body isn’t quite ready yet so we’re going to have to put you back under.. Try to relax while we get this under control.”
The Doctor’s words are pleading, as he hopes to save the man on the hospital bed in front of him. Max can hear the words but getting told to calm down doe
sn’t have the desired effect on the now panicking Max Kael.
“Doctor, his heart!”
The two figures turn away from Max to stare at one of the medical screens. The edges of Max’s vision start to fray, uncoiling as though the world were ending. New spots of light burn into his vision as it seems like the whole of his body is on fire. He began to convulse as the pain made him very aware of every inch of the body he was otherwise unable to control. A new, wonderful numbness began to wash over him. A welcome shadow wrapping his brain up like an oozy, greasy breakfast burrito. His simple lizard brain began to ease back into that endless void.
His head lulls to the side as he felt a smile stretch across his lips. He was ready for the oblivion that was coming for him.
And then something caught his fading vision.
An old man with a dour, disapproving face floated naked in a tube of clear liquid against the far end of the chamber.
Max remembered that face.
His.. grandfather?
No.
He couldn’t remember the name but he recognized the last time he had seen that face.
Covered in another man’s jizz, dead from consumption. Not.. the Consumption but, you know.. Consumption.
“..Lord… Farthington?”
The name left his lips before he was fully enveloped by the brainy breakfast burrito’s nirvana of non-existence.
