He clenched his fists, the veins on his arms standing out like cords.
It was into one of these bulging veins that the needle had been pushed, puncturing the throbbing vessel as if it-were some kind of bloated worm.
Scott hardly felt it. The massive agony that filled his head eclipsed everything else. He groaned softly, the sound muffled. Again he tried to open his eyes and, again, found it impossible. There was only darkness. Was he blind? Sightless and voiceless, only his pain for company? What was happening to him?
'Scott.'
He heard the voice close by. Whispered so close he could feel the breath on his ear.
'Scott. Can you hear me?'
He tried to speak but no sound would come; his throat felt as if it had been scoured with steel wool. He croaked something inaudible, wondering if his ability to speak had gone the way of his sight. And all the time there was the pain.
'If you can hear me, move the fingers of your right hand,' the voice said.
Scott tried but couldn't. Paralysis, blindness and an inability to speak. He only needed deafness and he had a full set.
'Move your fingers,' the voice urged.
Again he tried, this time managing it.
Christ, that pain was still there, screaming inside his head.
'Good,' said the voice.
Scott moved his lips but still no sound would come. He opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish.
'I've given you 50cc of morphine,' the voice told him. 'That should help the pain quickly.'
Scott was sure his head was going to explode. He was beginning to wish it would; at least it would mean an end to this pain.
He clenched his fists, not realising at first that he'd managed to move his hands.
'That's good,' the voice assured him.
Scott lay still, his breath coming in shallow gasps. He was aware of the pain subsiding slightly; perhaps the morphine was working. His skull still felt as if it were full of boiling steel, but the agony was diminishing by the second. He tried to swallow, but it felt as if someone had filled his mouth and throat with chalk. He could only make a strangled hissing sound.
'Drink,' the voice said and Scott felt the cold edge of a beaker against his lips. Drops of water splashed onto his tongue and down his throat. He gasped.
The pain was still there but it was easing off now.
He was still blind, though.
It took him a moment or two to realise that his eyes and, indeed, most of his head were covered by bandages. More water spilled into his mouth. Some of it ran down his chin, to be wiped away by a gentle hand.
'You can hear me?' the voice said. It was a statement rather than a question.
'Yes,' Scott croaked hoarsely.
'The operation is over. You've been unconscious for ten hours.'
It felt like ten years.
'Was it successful?' Scott asked, a renewed stab of pain jolting him.
'You're alive, aren't you?' Dexter said. 'I won't know how successful for a while yet.'
'How long is a while?'
'You must be patient. All I want you to do now is rest.'
'Take the bandages off my eyes,' Scott said quietly.
Dexter gently cut through the gauze until he revealed the two cotton wool pads covering Scott's eyes. He lifted each one away with a pair of small forceps, noticing how dark the lower lids were.
'Open them slowly,' he instructed.
Scott tried but couldn't.
The pain throbbed inside his head once more.
'I can't,' he hissed.
'Yes, you can,' Dexter insisted, reaching for a piece of cotton wool. He soaked it in liquid and gently rubbed Scott's lids. When he tried again he managed to open his eyes. The light caused the pain to intensify and he snapped them shut quickly. After a moment or two, however, he opened them again, the lids unfurling like ancient roller blinds. He could make out Dexter's blurred shape. He blinked to clear his vision, his eyes still narrowed.
The image sharpened.
'Can you see?' Dexter wanted to know.
'Yes,' said Scott, a note of relief in his voice.
'Rest now,' the doctor told him. i'll be back to check on you in a couple of hours.' He turned and walked away, his footsteps echoing inside the ward. He disappeared through a door at the end and Scott was left alone.
He looked slowly to his left and right, the movement of his eyes causing him pain but nothing as intolerable as that he'd experienced upon waking. He saw that the ward comprised just six beds; only his was occupied. The windows were large, arched and equipped with shutters that were pulled shut. It was difficult to tell whether it was night or day beyond them. A single light in the ceiling above provided the only source of illumination. Scott stared at it until his eyes hurt and the throbbing pain in his skull began again.
As he lay there with his eyes closed it lessened and he let out a sigh of relief.
He was tired; his eyelids felt as if they'd been weighted.
Sleep.
If he slept, though, he had no guarantee the pain would not creep over him again like some malignant invader.
There was always the morphine. Sleep. Pain. Morphine.
A simple equation.
He closed his eyes.
He slept.
***
'Scott.'
He heard the voice, perhaps in a dream.
'Scott.'
More insistent now. A hand on his arm.
He opened his eyes.
Pain. Not as bad as before.
He blinked hard, trying to make out the features so close to his own.
'It's me, Porter,' the other man said, his voice low.
Scott recognised his cell-mate.
'What are you doing here?' he said, his throat dry. He reached for the water on the table beside him but couldn't get it. Porter put the beaker in his hand and helped him drink. 'How did you get in here?' Scott persisted.
'Laundry, remember? I was told to bring in some clean sheets, leave them here.' He looked at his cell- mate. 'What the fuck have they done to you?'
'Listen to me.' Scott gripped the other man's wrist with almost unnatural strength for someone in his weakened state. 'I need your help. I've got to get out of here.'
'Out of where?' Porter said scornfully.
