mind altering

He was shaking. Uncontrollably. His body was on fire. A thousand pinpricks of fire, burning needles pushing through his skin like it was wax, and it was melting. His core was cold. It felt like he was dying. The pain was all consuming, all empowering. The pain was divine. It was everywhere and nowhere. It could not be seen, and yet in his head, at this moment, it was all there was. The cavern was dark. His screen was lit by a blue glow. He was sitting by it, leaning against the wall, mouth open in a soundless scream. His chair was spinning slowly, uncaringly, nearby. The sound of the wheels of the chair on the rock floor, and patter of water as it fell down from above. Drip. Drip. Just one spot.  His head was burning. And though he was silent, if you were looking at him, you could tell something was wrong. You would be afraid. You would be very afraid. He was shaking uncontrollably. Severe. Abrupt. Shudders and jerks. Mind altering. His tongue lolling out. His mouth opening and closing with a snap. Blood coming out of the corner of his mouth, as openly and freely as if it were drool. Legs shivering. Feet clattering against the rock, indentations in them. Head shaking, as if he were possessed. Hands gripping into one another, nails cut short, yet blood also streaming from the parts where they were digging into skin. And he didn’t seem to notice. Eyes blank. Unaware. Unseeing. Or seeing too far beyond. It was a scary sight. Drip drip, the water went. The cavern was empty but for the large monitors, the one chair that had now stopped spinning, and for the man who sat by the two, propped up against a wall, shaking and shivering as if in a trance, as if controlled by a puppeteer. Too jerky. Too sudden. Not normal human movements. Drip, drip the water went. And then it stopped. The man and his movements, not the water. He shook his head, got up, found a tissue in his pocket, wiped the blood off his face, and then walked calmly to the chair, as if nothing had happened. He continued to monitor what he had been seeing on the screens with a renewed urgency. He behaved like nothing had happened. But he knew his time was coming to a close. And he had much more to do. The deal he had made had given him all that he had. In exchange for this disease. One that people didn’t have. And wouldn’t. One that was uniquely tailored to his genetics. To his dna code. Was it worth it? Even now, he thought it was. Even in those moments of pain, he thought it was. Or he would have, if he’d had the ability to think beyond the pain. But it was. It was worth it. For now though, he had a lot more to do. And time was fast running out. He kept watching and moving the pieces.