Unexpectedly and at the same time, two strangers parted the veil on opposite sides of a hidden clearing. Each had returned to the location after a long period away in order to retrieve an item of critical importance, so the presence of the other was viewed as suspicious, if not threatening. The woman attempted to defuse the situation by making small talk; assuming that the other person's surgically reconstructed face meant that he was in the process of becoming a biological woman, she asked, "So, when are you transitioning?" He looked at her with a pained expression. "Trust me, if I wanted to be a woman, I wouldn't have done this to myself. I was branded as a traitor. I didn't feel a thing." He raised his hand to his face and removed the skin from over his mouth, revealing a mess of stitches where his lips should have been. How he could speak at all was never made clear.
At this point, a juggernaut of a man lifted me from my seat and spun me around, and I knew that it was my turn to receive the same fate. I looked into his heartless eyes and saw no soul there. A quick glance at the table behind him revealed a grisly collection of torture devices, and the words "You won't feel a thing." reverberated in my mind. I somehow wrenched myself from his iron grip and bolted toward the door. I ran up what felt like an infinite spiral staircase in matter of seconds before bursting out into the sunless world above. Though the exit was fenced by barbed wire, I knew that I had to escape at all costs. I leaped through the barrier, hoping to wake from the nightmare.
Unexpectedly and at the same time, two strangers parted the veil on opposite sides of a hidden clearing. Each had returned to the location after a long period away in order to retrieve an item of critical importance, so the presence of the other was viewed as suspicious, if not threatening. The woman attempted to defuse the situation by making small talk; assuming that the other person's surgically reconstructed face meant that he was in the process of becoming a biological woman, she asked, "So, when are you transitioning?" He looked at her with a pained expression. "Trust me, if I wanted to be a woman, I wouldn't have done this to myself. I was branded as a traitor. I didn't feel a thing." He raised his hand to his face and removed the skin from over his mouth, revealing a mess of stitches where his lips should have been. How he could speak at all was never made clear.
At this point, a juggernaut of a man lifted me from my seat and spun me around, and I knew that it was my turn to receive the same fate. I looked into his heartless eyes and saw no soul there. A quick glance at the table behind him revealed a grisly collection of torture devices, and the words "You won't feel a thing." reverberated in my mind. I somehow wrenched myself from his iron grip and bolted toward the door. I ran up what felt like an infinite spiral staircase in matter of seconds before bursting out into the sunless world above. Though the exit was fenced by barbed wire, I knew that I had to escape at all costs. I leaped through the barrier, hoping to wake from the nightmare.
I did.
And that is why I am still awake.
(Related: http://i.imgur.com/FfmZs.jpg)