The water gurgled; The noises deafened one's hearing; The feeling of being surrounded felt suffocating; It was wet, very wet, as though floating on a river; Then it felt wet, yet dry, it felt soft, yet hard; A thud at the chest, a cough released, the palms gripping hard the soft moisture of the earth. More coughs followed, and for a second, fear creeped in.
*****
He jerked up from the bed. Confused as to what was going on. Was this the afterlife? Does one dreams in the afterlife? He had never heard of such. The dream felt too real to have just been a dream. He was dizzy, and so was his sight blurry. In an attempt to get up from the bed, he met himself flat-down. His k eyes were weak ND numb. He heard the door open and heard hurried footsteps approaching him, but he was too tired to move.
"Young master."
He heard the person say in an unfamiliar, yet familiar language. He could have sworn that he had never heard such a language before, but yet, he seemed to understand it with ease.
"Young master."
The person repeated as they carried him back on the bed.
Though blurry, he could see two figures standing side by side by the bed. He blinked his eyes repeatedly in a slow manner, but still couldn't see any better. He opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a muffled screel of pain.
His blurry vision saw one of the two people by the bed, the one closer to his head quickly bent down to check up on him. He tried to speak again, but nothing came out this time around.
"Please stop, young master. You are still recovering, you should stay still. The doctor is yet to remove all the poison in your body. And the poison would spread the more you move.
'Alcohol poisoning? Did I drink that much?' he thought to himself.
"But I'm worried master. Why did you try to kill yourself? I know you are always acting foolish, but why go as far as committing suicide? I was scared, very scared. I thought you were dead for real. You looked like a corpse when you were brought out of the pond. You would have died for real, if not for the night guard that was on patrol that night, and had brought you out before anything worse could have happened to you. Young master, you... "
"That's enough." The other one who stood still all of those while suddenly said.
"You should let the young master have some rest."
The chatterbox scurried away immediately.
"Get some rest, young master. You must be very shocked hearing all these. I'll keep watch outside."
He bowed, then exited the room.
Being the only one left in the room, he sighed heavily. The words the chatter box had spoken earlier, played on in his head. The particular one that lingered on were the words
"If not for the night guard that was on patrol that night."
He closed his eyes, and opened them again.
"Just how long have I been asleep?"