1 Rejection x Coma x System?

I am Alan Bennet, and I am what everyone knows as a regular person. I've always been in the middle list of test-scores, sport activities and looks. If that wasn't enough, I was the second of three siblings, which meant that, even at home, I was in the middle.

This was haunting; to the point I sometimes wished I had the courage to escape my house. I was ignored or, at best, treated like less than my siblings. I had developed such an inferiority complex that I had actually cheated myself into believing that, however hard I tried, I would never get better at anything.

Being given less gifts for your birthday than your siblings, and receiving the worst at Christmas. Having to walk from school to the house on my own, since they had forgotten to pick me up once -and every other time subsequent to that one.

To top it all off, I had just been rejected by the girl I have liked for over two years now, who also happened to be my only friend. It wasn't the fact that she rejected me that hurt; I could've lived with that. It were her words that haunted me. Hence, I took the long road home so I could brood all I wanted. Not like anyone at home would care.

'Why would I date someone who doesn't even try to better himself?'

As I repeated those words to myself, I simply sat on a bench in the park that was farthest away from my house. She was definitely right about that, was what I thought as I played with a squirrel that came close to me.

Animals and nature, you'll see, were my only true friends ever since I had memory. The only time I remember ever being happy, was when I got a pet hamster. It didn't last long though, as my parents gifted Mr. Carrots to our neighbours because my little brother was allergic to most animals' fur. That was how everything I liked was treated in my house. First came what my big sis and lil bro wanted and needed. If there was something left, it was for me, whether I liked it, needed it or neither.

*HONK*

I had been looking at nothing in particular while petting the squirrel and brooding, but when I heard that sound I focused my sight so fast that I could've sworn I actually hurt my eyes. That was when I saw the bastard. A drunk driver on top of a white titan of 600 hp, driving straight towards me as if nothing in the world would ever stop him. And it fact, nothing would.

I wasn't in one of those animes where the main character dies while saving someone from a truck and then gets reincarnated in a fantasy world. I was just going to die. And I certainly thought I had died.

*

As weird as it might sound, I don't really feel dead even after the truck hit me. I know I should be, but somehow I can feel like my body is alive. I can feel how the air I breathe goes through my nostrils into my body, runs to my lungs and is then filtered and mixed in my blood. Talking about blood, I can also feel how my blood is being pumped from my hearth to the rest of my body.

It's a weird feeling. But weird doesn't mean good. Not having control of these things that my body is doing –and that I wouldn't usually notice- is dreadful. After what I felt were hours upon hours, perhaps days, of being trapped in my own consciousness, the feeling finally stopped.

Though not naturally. No. I had spent the entire time focusing on letting go of those feelings. On forgetting my life. On forgetting that I didn't exist for anyone. And it worked.

*

I have no idea how long I had been in this state; conscious yet having no control of my physical being. At first I thought that this was the after-life and that this was Fate's way of continuing to torture me, but that was soon discarded. This was by no means a punishment,

I felt like this was an opportunity. An opportunity for me to make amends with everything I had left behind. So I stopped. Stopped what, you ask?

I stopped denying the feelings of my physical body. I stopped denying the pain of being ignored in the past. I stopped denying the attachment I had to my family. I stopped denying how much I loved and cared for my siblings. I stopped denying the resentment I felt towards those who had hurt me. And I cried. For the first time in years, I cried.

*

"Doctor! Look!" I heard a voice shout while I cried. 'Wait, a voice?'

"What is it, Nurse?" asked another voice that I couldn't recognize. I tried to shout and scream, but I couldn't. My body wouldn't answer to my command. But my body was doing something that I caused.

"The patient is crying!? It is the first sign of life he's given in a month!"

Those words sounded weird. 'First sign of life given in a month?' as I thought of those words, I heard the voice that belonged to the Doctor tell the nurse to call my family and give them the news. He also said that he would check on my condition for any sign of anaemia.

'Month... anaemia... I am in a coma?!'

As if all that wasn't enough of a shock for my poor heart, I began to feel more and more things from my body. The breeze caused by the air conditioner, the movements of the Doctor in the room and even the IV drip on my arm. The most uncomfortable feeling of all was, certainly, the feeding tube that went down my throat.

When I finally felt like I had control over a little bit of my body, I tried to open my eyes. I guess the Doctor caught on to my fruitless attempt, as he started saying my name.

"Alan! Alan! Can you hear me? Try to move! Focus!" I so wanted to yell at him and tell him I was trying. Alas, I couldn't. What I could do though, was shake my hand. And I did. "You can hear me, perfect!"

I could tell he was excited, but not even nearly as much as I was. 'I'm alive! I'm alive!' I kept repeating to myself in my thoughts. I guess a few minutes passed, still confused on how time passed, and finally my eyes opened. As if it was a rehearsed play, my body began to move. First was my neck, then my core and hips, and after that were my arms and legs. The first thing I did when I could finally move again was taking that damn tube out of my throat. "*cough**cough*"

Then the Doctor came in front of me and talked to me. He even did that thing were they put a mini-flashlight on your eyes to check if your pupils react. My pupils did react, but I didn't. I had something weirder and more important in front of my eyes.

[Due to Host finally reaching a state of full consciousness, the Popularity Based System will begin working]