//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: A Skitch in Time (Revised) // by GreyGuardPony //------------------------------// Jake dreamt he was awake, but he couldn't see. All was blotches of shadow and light and the only sensation he could make out was the feeling of hard wood under his back. He tried to sit up, but found that his muscles would not respond. Someone was speaking nearby. The voice was echoing, words fading in and out. One of the dark blobs moved closer, and Jake felt a hand hold one of his eyes open as a bright light was shone into it. A moment later, the light and the blob moved away and the sound of items and papers being shuffled about reached his ears, joined by an instance of shouting. The blob returned and this time he could feel something being dragged across his skin in even patterns. Head to toe, and...under his pants and shirt? Had this freak taken his clothes off? The sound of something being tossed to the floor was followed by a bright blue glow, that at least added some color to the muddled, shifting, pattern. He felt hands on his shoulders and heard more mumbling. More movement, the blob shuffling out of and then back into view. And then came the glowing pink light that began to mix into the muddled blobs. Pain lanced through his body, sickening, almost wet cracks echoing in his ears as limbs were re-arranged and hands and feet stiffened. As he sunk back into full unconsciousness, his skin crawling and flowing like water, all he wanted was for the pain to end.