"Uurghh..." I groaned in agonizing pain, feeling as though an entire freight train had slammed directly into my skull. The headache that pounded through my brain was unlike anything I'd ever experienced—not just physical pain, but something deeper and more disturbing, as if the very structure of my consciousness had been damaged by forces beyond normal human understanding.
Frowning against the waves of disorientation that threatened to overwhelm me, I slowly raised my gaze, blinking repeatedly as my vision remained stubbornly blurry and unfocused. The world around me seemed to shift and blur, colors bleeding together in ways that made it difficult to distinguish between reality and whatever nightmare I might be trapped within.
