My head’s bursting and my body feels so heavy that I can’t lift a finger. Is it because I’m soaked? Waves break over me. The salt stings. My head rests against smooth, cold rock. Everything is going numb, and I can barely feel my body now. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to find my way out of here by myself. If I’m lucky, someone will turn up.
Can’t stand up. No idea how long I’ve been here. It feels like a lifetime, but might be no more than a quarter of an hour. Have I been awake the whole time? I suppose I deserve this. I’ve done pretty well for myself, but I’ve not treated the people around me particularly kindly … Mum! She’ll call soon, surely? She normally checks up on me before bedtime. She never stops worrying about me. Old habits die hard, I guess. Sometimes I can’t tell if she’s shielding me from the world, or protecting the world from me. I hope someone sees me here.
I can hear flies, like fighter jets in the distance. Waves break over me, but I still can’t move. So this is what it’s like, having no control; being between life and death. It’s sensing that something is going very wrong with your body, but not knowing what, and not being able to do a single thing about it. That heat at the back of my head must be a swelling. Unless it’s blood. The blow was so heavy, crushing. Then there was the kicking. How many kicks did I get? I need to get away from this place, get myself fixed up. I’ve often made people angry. But never like that. The fury was colossal, overflowing with hatred.
The sky seems to be getting darker. The gloom deepening. But it isn’t because of the dimming of the sun. It’s because life is fading away.
My life.