More than 1 brain cell at a time

Ch.1. Still under the waves of sleep

The blanket of sleep was heavy on his mind. For however long he had been unconscious, which he could tell if he was completely awake would feel like only minutes of slumber, exhausted he had tried his best to not fall victim to its weight and serenity of nothingness. Even as it dragged him down into the depts, he had tried his best to stay aware of his surroundings and himself. He still failed to keep himself in check as he still thought he was dying or wasn't already technically dead. 

Even if he knew that it was only sleep trying to take him over, he still panicked. But this was soon debunked by the ability to still feel the things that were around him, it felt as if his whole body was on fire, yet also as if he was plunged into the middle of the ocean, as he awoke from something that he couldn't of. 

The explosion most likely took over the village and not just the ruins of the old ritual site, with him being nearly at the exact middle of it all too. But he still had woken in, some sort of outward consciences. And with a nagging secession on the back of this brain, yet never reaching the annoyance or pain of a headache to boot, the burning and freeze of his body was probably what was bling the headache out.

As he felt the wet ground around him but still dry underneath himself, he first tried to open his eyes, the feeling of them even as they were underneath his eyelids they felt dryer than the sun's surface. He could feel the lids constrict, but they never fully opened nor budged, only really twitched. 'Maybe the fingers will work?' was one of the things to came to his head. 

The helping thought of using more and more muscles that are in his body will hopefully help him wake up more. As the endless sleep from before wasn't truly gone fully, forcing his mind to do backflips to stay awake, it just kept reminding himself just how exhausted he was,  he shouldn't think of other things to ponder on, or even think about at the moment, it's extremely important to make sure you have your body in full control. And nothing is missing.

The nagging pressure grew, not fully overcoming the burn and chill, but getting there, never settling as he pushed his limits of alertness to the brink just trying out anything to move, even a twitch of his limbs or fingers, burns would come and co as he did, the freeze cooling it down only for it to start again. 

Felt as though he was underneath multiple tons of rock holding his body down. But all that had happened was the sleep from before had caught back up to him again, trying to lure his brain into submitting and giving up, but Ethan being stubborn, as he always was and will always be, the best he could at the moment, moved on from trying to just move and back to keep himself awake and above the possible threat of sleep overcoming himself. 

The sleep pulling at him calmed the burns and freeze as if a promise that he'll be fine, he knew it would be a lie. Pushing back against it mentally was all he could do for the basis of his mental strength not being able to fight it off normally, weakened as it was from the excursion of the past two days were overwhelming, as being able to move and not practically being paralyzed would usually have helped in that regard.

Right as he thought that he had no chance of staying awake the pressure on the back of his brain had finally settled into a weirdly comforting thum in the back of his mind when wokeness climbed from the bottom of his feet to the top of his skull. Pins and needles poking at his skin, the burn only going in a certain part of it while the freeze rested over his fingers and face.

And right when this happened Ethan finally realized that his body was nearly completely in a fetal position, save for every other limb that was just more stretched out than others, and tweaked and twitched this way and that. When the fellow feeling of waking up had finally pulled Ethan away from the blankets of sleep that had his body nearly completely still, the warmth of the unknowing cold of snow going away with it too, he had finally been able to move. 

As he had finally had control, he moved his limbs one by one. 'Legs? Check. Hands? Check. Head? Obviously. Check. Fingers? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5' even with the pins and cold burning at his fingertips Ethan had to make sure and to count down on the one that had a whole chunk of it bitten off by that one lycan, might give him the answer he needed' so the other hand? 1, 2, 3? 4. 5. what?' 

Ethan shot up from where he was still laying down, most likely tons of bruises were what caused his whole body to groan and crack in protest. But he continued and rubbed at his eyes, even with what he thought to be the hand in the worse state.

His right hand, but as it even made contact with his face and eyelids, he could tell that he had not only fingers back but they felt as if they were silky smooth. No scarring from days of rip and taring of his skin from the cruelty from Louisiana three years ago, or the past two days spent in this horrid village he had been dragged to with his daughter.

So when he opened his eyes he didn't expect his hands and nearly a lot of parts and patches of his sweater and pants, to be covered in smooth like marble countertops, wavy like patches of moss, crumbly like dry mud, veiny like roots, and yet completely intact mold. 

Completely covering his hands and masquerading them as complete pitch black mold of a void molded to look like his hands, was nearly the top thing he hated the most, yet, as he still remembered from when a certain cult leader had ripped his heart out, he was made out of it too. The meeting with Eveline still flashing in his mind like an old record player.

 The soft humming of pressure at the back of his head flared up slightly at the thought, but when down just as fast before he could completely comprehend what he was feeling.

All he could do at the moment of worry of his safety and others was if anyone could ever come in contact with himself, he could be contagious for all he knew as if now knowing about it would unlock an ability to unconsciously infect people without their consent. 

So when chirps from the native birds of Romania finally reached his ears, he finally looked around his surroundings confused, being completely engrossed into his hands and the rest of his seemingly moldy body, and slightly pissed at the realization of what must have transpired or happened came to the light for him quite quickly. 

Surviving the explosion wasn't ideal for a person? Thing? Person. Like him. As he sat in a small yet oddly comfortable dent, or more preferably a hole, inside of a hugely destroyed part of what seemed to be a block of the village. Possibly the whole thing if half of it wasn't nearly protected by the castle that the Demitresku's lived in. 

Or used to. 

But still, a good chunk of the Demitresku's castle got a good hit, as well as a large but not all of a chunk of Hizinburg's factory, both highly damaged and falling apart. Leaving a large cluster of a mess that what used to be a part of the ceremony site, still seemingly smoking from long put-out fires, and just leaving so much derby.

With also multiple of what he assumed is what is left of the megamycete crumbling or at least still broken on the sidelines of the blast, seemingly punctured into the ground as if trying to hold itself up to stay steady and survive. Too late now, as they are all white and crumbling gems and crystals from the long and still sturdy roots.

And yet the first thing to come out of his extraordinary dry throat was.

"What the fuck."