The dreamland ended in slow spurts. His eyes fluttered open, though they had been wandering around the room since he fell into the high, but this time he was seeing with his mind clear. It didn’t feel as though he’d been out for that long. The ache in his arms and legs were slight, nothing he couldn’t handle. However, the pain behind his eyes irritated him so much that he thought for a second about gouging them out. He wanted to scratch away the pain, to rip out the itch that was right behind his eyes. And there was a rattling sound at his ear. Close enough that it sounded like it was inside his ear. Before he could think about what he was going to do, he pushed his finger into his ear. He wiggled it around, clenching his teeth as he struggled to reach the spot. Everything above his neck,
