A History of the Future [Harry Potter]

Chapter 6 ~ Kyle Bennet

Chapter 6 -- Kyle Bennet 

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He was alive. He was still alive. Why?

Kyle was no Ravenclaw, but he was sure that there was something wrong about the fact that he was still alive. Instant death, wasn't it, for anyone whose name the dullahan took? Then why on earth was Kyle still breathing?

His eyes were closed, his body was strapped down, his insides still hurt like someone was clawing at them, but Kyle was alive and breathing. More than that, his mind was thinking and it was wide awake. He could feel the sunlight on his skin and he could feel the soft breeze that was coming through the window. He felt like everything but his body was awake -- like his soul itself was liberated from its physical constraint.

What a load of crap, he thought nervously.

He couldn't wake up. He couldn't get his eyelids to open. All he could see was black, and all he could sense was the environment within a five-foot radius. It was like he was comatose, but desperate to awaken.

It wasn't like a movie thing though. He wasn't having an out-of-body experience. He was literally awake, but trapped inside a body that couldn't wake up. How long had he been this way? The pain was still very much there, but there was nothing he could do about it. He wasn't thirsty or hungry, but he did occasionally black out, something that he reasoned was just him mind too tired to be awake. So yes, technically speaking, he was in a coma with a reasonable sleeping pattern.

Every time he tried to move a body part, it felt like it weight a tonne and that Kyle was an ant. His eyelids felt superglued and his nose breathed involuntarily. He heard things he didn't want to hear and couldn't hear things that he wanted to. It was like his physical body was trying to do exactly what he didn't want from it.

Thinking opposite didn't work either.

Oh I totally don't want to open my eyes right now just made things worse. It sent him to sleep. Random blackouts happened even when he wasn't very tired. Even when his mind felt like it had been dosed with caffeine, there were times when thinking just elapsed, and Kyle woke up just knowing that time had passed.

This was horrible. This was worse than dying. Maybe he was half-dead. Maybe the dullahan hadn't killed Kyle. Maybe the dullahan had just... Sent him into eternal sleep. That was a lot scarier, if Kyle was going to be perfectly honest with himself. Waking up, even if he had to face questions (that were surely coming after the dullahan incident) was a nice option as compared to being caged in himself.

I'd really like to wake up now... Kyle thought, before he blacked out yet again.

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He was awake. He wasn't sure how that had happened, but he was awake.

That wasn't all, however. There were two people looking at him: one of them was Madam Pomfrey, the other was the Headmistress. Kyle looked back rather quizzically, and there was an awkward silence for about half a minute before Madam Pomfrey cleared her throat.

"And what is the remedy to that?" she asked.

Kyle was a little more confused now. Had he just woken up to a medicinal pop quiz? He certainly hoped not. "Remedy to what?" he asked, suddenly noticing that he was sitting upright. Had he just done that or was he already sitting up straight? Too many questions...

"The split --"

But the Headmistress cut her off. "Mr Bennet?" she asked, almost in trepidation. Kyle noticed that his hands were strapped down.