Everything hurt.
From the backside of his eyeballs to the end of his fingers. Toledo was hurting. He couldn’t even tell if his eyes were open or closed. In either position, a throbbing red rectangle flashed in front of him. He winced and covered his eyes.
Then he felt his stomach turn upside down.
He rolled to his side and emptied his system. A hot mess of lunch, convenience store snacks and whatever else he’d thrown down the hatch tonight.
As he wiped his mouth, his ears popped and he heard a low frequency grumbling. Was somebody talking? Was there something jammed in his ears?
He moved his hands up to his face and forced his eyes open. Still nothing. Only the throbbing red rectangle.
As he was fumbling around, he felt a steadying hand locking onto his shoulder.
“Who is that?” he shrieked, his lungs burning with each word. He groaned and collapsed into a fetal position.
“I’m sorry buddy, I didn’t think it would turn out this way,” a voice echoed in the darkness.
“Ray? Is that you?”
“Just try not to move, re-entry is still a little rough.”
As more details emerged, Toledo relaxed. He was in the company of a friend. Not some state controlled private hospital as he originally feared. He’d heard more and more stories lately of people ending up in these experimental facilities. Usually, they’d disappear for a couple of days, and then show up back in their regular lives, like nothing had happened. With no memory of what happened during their stolen time. It was something Toledo had been looking into on the side of his other casework.
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