Number 1.

Pain.

That's the first thing that entered my mind. Pure and unbridled pain flowing throughout my body. It seemed as if someone was boiling my blood while freezing my skin, making it numb before the fire warmed it up and made it burn.

I try to take a breath before a pain racks my chest. I didn't think it was possible, but the pain increased. It seemed as if my lungs wanted to tear themselves out. Is it possible for one to cry in this situation? I couldn't breathe, but wanted to cry, wanted to let the tears take some of the heat away. I didn't think it was possible. My mind may have been almost fragmented by the pain but memories and lectures went through my head.

"Even after the advancement of technology, we in the 3rd era after the fall still can't explain certain factors about the most basic of emotions, pain. But what is pain? It's a self-defense mechanism enabled by the body when receptors in our skin send a message via nerve fibres (A-delta fibres and C fibres) to the spinal cord and brainstem and then onto the brain where the sensation of pain is registered, the information is processed and the pain is perceived. Based on the intensity of the signal, pain is perceived. Basically it is our body telling us something is wrong. But these scientific facts can only lead till the origin, method of transfer and mode of pain. If needed, it is possible to remove every and each neuron before wiping out the signal for pain. Each and every one of you have an upper limit to how much pain you can handle. If you cross that threshold, there are only two outcomes. Death or permanent disability. This might happen due to two reasons. Your consciousness has literally fragmented due to the pain or your body has stopped working. In the end, raising it slowly is the only way. There are barbaric ways, but we don't follow the backward methods of our forefathers. Not everything can be achieved, and what has been achieved is never everything."

I hear this piece of information as my body begins to burn even more. I do not understand the more complex words but I grasp the crux.

Stop the pain.

I try to move before I scream. Scream through the throat which wasn't even able to croak a whisper, as I feel my bone slowly being pulled through my skin. My brain starts to go faint before I make a last ditch effort to shout out something, anything to help me get noticed.

The pain crashes over me like unstoppable waves over an immovable rock. I gasp before letting go, abruptly and suddenly. The pain stops but I also know that it is the end of me. The end of my brief moments here.

But it is fine.

Because the dark abyss of death is better than the torture of life.