Agony.
It started in his head, buried deep beneath his temples. A feeling of expansion, like his brain swelling up and trying to squeeze out of his skull. The kind of feeling a balloon must have in the second before it bursts.
Faster than he could raise his arms, it spread across his face, forcing his eyes shut for fear they might bulge out of their sockets. He had never known a pain like it; jaw clamped closed, teeth barred. He tried to scream but the sound couldn’t make it through the tightness in his throat.
Legs gave way, swept from under him, bringing him crashing down hard on the thin carpet. His head cracked but he couldn’t feel it. All he knew was this intolerable strain that had him blind to everything else. This violent pressure in his scalp.
This agony.
He would have given anything to make it stop, torn his hair out just to ease the pressure. His fingers were frozen rigid, ready to claw through skin and bone. He could feel the muscles in his neck bulge out, almost willing them to split open and end the suffering.
Then, as abruptly as it started, the pain just went away.
In a wash of pale numbness, it was gone. Suddenly he was back to his senses, face down on the floor, a cold sweat creeping over his body.
He didn’t dare move an inch for fear that he couldn’t, lying petrified and silent. Andrew’s life had taken a turn from which it would never recover, a series of events that didn’t make sense if they weren’t somehow related. He just couldn’t explain any of it. Not yet.
If just one thing was clear, the pain in his head was a stark warning. A show of control. A sign he had taken a step too close to a truth he wasn’t meant to uncover.
The reason he died every night.