The Patient
The sound of a heart rate monitor beeping wakes me. Dazed, I look around my surroundings. I feel like I've just woken up, but something doesn't feel right. I try to move my right arm. Nothing. I can feel my body, but I can't move anything. I look straight up to see a light shining down at my chest. I gaze my eyes down and see my chest cut open, my heart beating rapidly.
Where the hell am I? Last night I was in bed after getting home from work and now... now I'm on a surgeon's table. What happened last night? Did something go wrong? Did I have a heart attack?
I look down at my heart once again to see a scalpel being inserted into it. I feel and see it begin to beat faster, and suddenly I feel sweat begin to pour down my forehead. Oh god, what the hell is going on? I dart my eyes up again and see a figure in a doctor's uniform staring down at me, his hands, wrapped in those thin blue hospital gloves, work at my heart with various surgical tools. I try to call out to him, “Stop! What are you doing!”, but I can't move my lips. All I can move is my eyes, and nothing else.
I try to see anything else around me, to try and find out where I am, but everything is shrouded and darkness. I dart my eyes left and right, up and down to see if I can get the doctor's attention, but nothing works. As he prods at my beating heart with his various tools, it feels like I should be in a tremendous amount of pain, but I don't feel anything. Am I on anaesthetic? There isn't a mask over my face, so it can't be being administered that way. Maybe the mask fell off and the doctor hasn't noticed. Maybe he has noticed... Maybe he took it off...
Why can't I remember anything? What, do I have amnesia? Did I go to the hospital and forget I was in surgery? Maybe the drugs are messing with my brain. Maybe this is all a dream. I have always been prone to nightmares... but I know this isn't a dream. It feels to real, and if it was a dream I would have woken up by now.
Oh god, what the hell is happening. The doctor continues to work at my heart-- Why is there only one doctor? Jesus, if I'm having heart surgery there would need to be more than one doctor working on me, and especially a nurse. Maybe I just can't see them. Maybe I'm not in a hospital at all... What the fuck is happening to me? I try once again to shake my body, I try to force my body awake, but everything stays numb.
As far as I'm aware my body feels fine. With the exception of my heart being exposed I can still feel all of my arms and legs, I just can't move them. It's so damn frustrating! I can't move anything! Let me go, you sick bastard! Why are you doing this to me?
I try to call out, but my lips don't even attempt to move. I stare at the figure as he continues his work, but nothing works. Wait, only his arms are moving... That's it... Nothing else is moving, just his arms. I can't see his face, the light is pointed in the wrong direction. What if this isn't a doctor? What if t-this is is some fucking robot! I take a deep breath, or at least I try to take a deep breath. I can't actually breathe, but I'm not lacking any oxygen, or at least I don't think I am.
Maybe it's the drugs. Maybe this is just a normal surgery and the medicine is messing with my head. I watched the first SAW movie on Thursday for the first time, this could just be a hallucination. I'm fine... This is all in my head.
My heart begins to slow again, and I begin to calm down. Maybe I just need to go back to sleep. Yeah, I need sleep. This is all... in my... head. Everything... will be... fine.
My vision begins to daze again and I feel my eyes shutting. I hope that by the time I wake up, this will have all just been a nightmare.
A loud and fast beeping sound seems to pierce through my head and my eyes leap open. My body flinches and I jump up from the operating table. My hands clutch my chest and I breathe a sigh of relief. Thank god! It was just a dream!
I turn my head around and find the surgeon's room lit up. Everything appears to be normal, but the monotonous beeping sound continues to play. It gets faster and faster. I clutch my ears as I pray for it to stop, but... it changes. Instead of playing a repeating beeping sound it just plays one long one. My heart begins to bounce inside my chest as I turn my head left and see a heart rate monitor, with its multiple wires connected into my body. As I look at it, I see three straight lines arranged horizontally on the screen, and a large '0' in the top right hand corner. My jaw begins to drop as I look at it in equal concern and bafflement. Then my eyes turn to the right slightly, where I see myself lying still on another operating table. Surgeons surround it and chat to each other.
“Damn it, he's gone! I think we'll need to configure our robot's programming before we bring another subject in."
