In darkness

For you, the story begins in darkness. You feel like you are floating in a boundless void. You have no idea how you got here or where here might be. A part of your mind can't help speculating on the subject and several possibilities occur to you but even the idea that you might be dead or in a coma seems distant and unimportant. For now, you embrace the strangely peaceful feeling.

Alas, your zen-like calm does not last forever. Slowly almost imperceptibly new sensations begin to intrude into the void. First light, dim to start with, growing brighter. With the light come colours, blurred shapes moving through your field of vision, finally resolving into a human face.

The face blurs in and out of focus before your shifting from an indistinct outline to an **** high definition close-up before settling in a comfortable middle ground.

The face leans in close pushing a pair of thick-rimmed glasses back onto the top of its head. Your still foggy mind begins to connect words to the images. The face is male, a man's face. A man's face creased by deep lines, thinning grey hair scraped back of his scalp. An old man's face looking down at you with, what? Worry? Excitement? An emotion you're sure of that much and something else, something important... His lips are moving!

He's speaking. Speaking to you but you can't hear him...

There's a buzzing hiss, a harsh electrical crackling followed by a loud pop, and sound floods back into your world.

"... how about now?" He is saying "Can you hear me now?"

"Yes," you reply your voice sounding strange and tinny in your ears "I can hear you, but...?"

"Excellent, excellent" the old man cuts you off before you can start on your long list of questions "Now I'm sure you have a lot to ask me and I'll be happy to explain but first I need to ask you some diagnostic questions, okay?"

You try to nod your agreement but nothing happens. Regardless he produces a clipboard and asks his first question...