A throbbing pain spread across Micah's skull as if someone were striking it again and again with a hammer. Each pulse felt deep and heavy, echoing inside his head. His throat was so dry it burned, as though he had swallowed a mouthful of sand. Even trying to swallow hurt. His tongue felt thick. His lips were cracked.
He tried to remember what had happened. Nothing came.
His thoughts were like loose pages caught in the wind, there for a second, then gone. He could not grasp a single clear image. Not a face. Not a place. Not even a sound.
His eyelids felt impossibly heavy, as if small stones had been placed on them. He tried to lift them, but they refused to obey. The only thing he could sense clearly was the pain in his head.
