I awoke to the sound of conversation. Opening my eyes, I began to breath, to take in the sights and sounds around me. I was strapped to a table with leather strips and buckles, and the room was unnaturally cool. I began to breathe faster as my eyes adjusted, and I became aware of the bright lights shining from the domed ceiling. I glanced around, and saw people standing above me, leaning out of balconies and chatting with each other. One man with slicked back hair and thick-rimmed glasses caught my eye, but quickly turned away. The murmur began to fade, and I heard the clicking of shoes on tile to my left. A man began to speak through a scratchy microphone, and though he was speaking English, I couldn't make out the words. The people standing around the circular room began to applaud, and I craned my neck to try and make out the speaker. The straps held me down and cut into my skin the more I moved.

The man walked over to me, and I heard a clink. A hand touched my arm, and I whipped my head around, only to see a man with a syringe of light blue liquid. In the washed out grey tones of the room, it stood out. I wasn't really scared, but a deep, sick feeling had settled in my bones. I wriggled more, trying to get free. I felt a stabbing in my arm, and tried to scream, but my throat wouldn't move.

My eyes opened wide as the poison set in, and I found myself standing in a dimly lit hallway. It was silent, and as I walked, the lights flickered. I was past wondering how one minute I was on the operating table, and the next I was somewhere else. Upon closer examination of the rooms attached to the hallway, I gathered I must be in some other part of the building. Hospital equipment stood abandoned in the halls, IV drips, wheelchairs, stretchers. I wondered where all the people had gone.

I continued to walk, a sort of haze suppressing my mind. I began to feel weak, and I stumbled into one of the rooms off the hallway. I glimpsed something odd, something wrong, something that shouldn't happen in the normal world. With a sickening pull in my stomach, I found myself back on the operating table. I heard the clink of metal and felt something cold touch my stomach. I looked down my body, and found myself looking at something that shouldn't have been possible- a gaping hole lay where my stomach had been. Blood seeped form the edges, and again I tried to scream, only to find it stuck in my throat. Mute, I attempted to pound on the cool, smooth surface of the operating table, but to no avail. I stared at the men who surrounded me, white lab coats swishing past. I closed my eyes, hoping it would be over soon. I slipped back to the room where I'd passed out, finding solace in some other realm.