I wake up to darkness all around me.

I can smell the crisp disinfectant odour that always marks one's presence in the hospital. I know I'm in the school's clinic.

But everywhere is dark, and I cannot move my body. My head hurts badly and I feel like my whole body is on fire. I try to open my mouth to call out to someone, anyone, but my lips seem stuck together. My eyes feel like they've got sand in them, and I'm unable to open them either. I feel so helpless and so afraid.

Suddenly, I feel like I'm being rolled into myself, like I'm a piece of cloth in the bowel of a faulty washing machine.

It feels as if I'm jerking and tumbling at the same time. My teeth gnash against one another and I'm terrified. It is not the pain from my gnashing jaws that terrify me; it is the fact that I do not have control over what is going on with me.

Tears stream down my eyes and I remain in this terrible condition for what seems like eternity.

Suddenly, it all stops.

I sigh in relief, though I'm still unable to move my body on my own. I struggle to open my eyes and mouth but they are still stuck.

I feel trapped in my own body.

Then the rolling and gnashing starts again.

Where is everyone?

I need help !

I scream in my mind. My jaws are moving like they have minds of their own. I taste something horrible in my mouth, but I am powerless to spit it out. The sounds of my teeth grinding against themselves are like hundreds of nails scratching a chalkboard in my ears. My head hits the metal head of the bed and pain shoots down my back.

The rolling and jerking and grinding continues.

I'm going to die here.

Why is nobody checking up on me?

I beg God to make this stop.

I am so scared.

Please stop, please stop, please stop.

Then my request is granted, and I gratefully slip into oblivion.