Excerpt: Echoes

One minute Gareth looked at his watch, checking the time, the next a strange tingling at the base of his spine made him turn ... and he was lost. He just stood there, frozen, fists clenched, amongst the hustle and bustle on the platform. He could feel people brushing against him as they passed him by as if he wasn't there. He could even hear them, but the sounds seemed to come from miles away, as if his ears had been plugged. He could not see anyone, though, he saw nothing but grey all around him, the cloudy grey of stormy weather that kept him rooted to the ground, unable to move or scream or close his unseeing eyes.
He wondered if some creepy crawly had stung or bitten him to provoke symptoms like these, and hoped that someone would notice. Yet no one did and time passed tantalisingly slow as Gareth waited, and waited, caught in his own stormy grey world, getting drowsy. Something in that grey world drained him, drained his energy, made him light-headed. He shouldn't even be standing up anymore ... was he even standing? He couldn't tell anymore.
Then the pinpricks began, tiny ones, like little needles being jabbed into every never ending his body posessed, quicker and quicker, like something tryhing to enter. His body screamed abuse and his stomach didn't know what was up or down. The pain almost drowned out the sensations accompanying the pricks; elation, warmth, loneliness, etc etc etc. Gareth couldn't handle it, it was all too much, too fast, too intense, and he screamed. At least, in his mind he did, he couldn't hear himself scream. It seemed to help, though, because the flow slowed down, but it didn't stop. And Gareth so wanted it to stop, wanted it all to stop, wanted control over his body back, wanted to see properly again. Sweat trickled down his face, and he thought he could taste blood, maybe he had hit his head at some point, even if he had no idea whether he was still standing or not.
Suddenly a blur of puple and black forced the grey out of his vision, and Gareth blinked his eyes and wobbled on his feet, surprised to find himself still standing up, though he'd have gladly let himself slide down to the ground, if they crowd around him wern't pushing him toward the waiting train. With his vision too blurry to really see anything, he didn't care whether it was his train or not, he just let himself be [WHAT?] towareds it, gladly accepting the strong hand at his elbow, to help him inside.
As soon as he found himself sitting down, he leaned his head back. Sleep had never seemed this welcome before. Something stung his cheek. Gareth opened his eyes to find a blurry pair of concerened eyes watching him.
"Are you all right?"
Was he? Gareth frowned. "Tired," he said, though he had no idea why. At least ...
"Here," the voice said, pushing something into his hand. A wad of tissues, he realised when he looked down.
"Thanks, but ..."
"You have a nosebleed," the voice said.
Did he? Gareth pushed the hand with the tissues against his nose. It came away red, and he pressed it back again. "Oh."
"I think your tie and shirt are ruined. Your [suit] jacket seems fine, but it's quite dark, so the blood doesn't really show.
Bugger! It was his favourite. With a sigh, he took his tie off and stuffed it into his jacket pocket.
He blinked to clear his vision, glad to finally be able to identify his aid as a woman for certain.
"What happened to you?" she asked.
He face was awfully close, he thought as he looked down, only to find one of her hands leaning on his knee. "Sorry?" he said, "What did you say?"
"What happened to you?"
Gareth frowned. "I'm not certain. I think something stung me. I'm still a bit hazy."
"Maybe you should got to the A&E, have someone check you out."
"Yes, maybe I should. Thank you for your help."
The woman blushed and smiled as she leaned back. "Oh, it's nothing."
Gareth smiled back and closed his eyes for a bit, still tired beyond belief. His nose didn't stop bleeding until just before he reached his stop. He threw the tissues in the bin as he got up, thanked the woman once more and got off the train.