Darkness and pain were nothing new to Salma. She had faced them both several times, more than she cared to count. There was a time when she was afraid of them both, but now they were like old companions; unwelcomed but still known.
This time around though, Salma felt no pain. She simply felt empty, detached from her conscious self. She tried to move, but her limbs wouldn't obey her. She tried to open her eyes, but she only saw a hazy blur. Different figures moved in and out of focus, each one different than the previous one. A few appeared with some form of colour, but most just seemed too blurry to distinguish.
Salma felt a weird sensation of being suspended in space. But she couldn't explain it. She was neither up nor down. She knew that she wasn't dead, because death certainly wouldn'
