32 Comatose

SALIM I opened my eyes to a dimly lit room disoriented and surrounded by unfamiliar sounds. The first thing I noticed was a soft, steady beeping. The rhythmic beeping of machines echoed through my senses. A sound that seemed to pierce through the haze enveloping my consciousness. It was a metronome guiding me back to reality. My eyelids felt heavy as I struggled to open them. The weight of an unknown world pressing against me. Slowly the fog in my mind began to lift and I realized I had awakened from a deep slumber. The world around me felt both distant and immediate, like trying to piece together a fragmented dream. As my vision adjusted to the subdued lighting, shapes emerged from the shadows. Cold metallic surfaces surrounded me, and the air carried the antiseptic scent of a hospital. Tubes and wires snaked across my body, connecting me to machines that monitored every heartbeat and breath. The unfamiliarity of my surroundings bore down on me. I tried to move but my limbs f