Crepsley - Coma Potion

“All right,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Do you have the potion?” He nodded and handed over a small dark bottle. I looked inside. The liquid was dark and thick and foul-smelling.

Mr. Crepsley moved behind me and laid his hands on my neck.

“You’re sure this will work?” I asked nervously.

“Trust me,” he said.

“I always thought a broken neck meant people couldn’t walk or move,” I said.

 “No,” he replied. “The bones of the neck do not matter. Paralysis only happens if the spinal cord — a long nerve running down the middle of the neck — breaks. I will be careful not to damage it.”

***

With one angry gesture, I swallowed the contents of the bottle. I grimaced at the taste, then shuddered as my body started to stiffen. There wasn’t much pain but an icy feeling spread through my bones and veins. My teeth began to chatter.

It took about ten minutes for the poison to work its deadly charms. At the end of that time I
couldn't move any of my limbs, my lungs weren't working (well, they were, but very, very
slowly), and my heart had stopped (again, not fully, but enough for its beat to be
undetectable).

"I am going to snap the neck now," Mr. Crepsley said, and I heard a quick clicking sound
as he jerked my head to one side. I couldn't feel anything: my senses were dead. "There," he
said. "That should do it. Now I am going to throw you out of the window."

He carried me over and stood there a moment with me, breathing in the night air.

"I have to throw you hard enough to make it look genuine," he said. "You might break
some bones in the fall. They will start hurting when the potion wears off after a few days but
I will fix them up later on.

"Here we go!"

He picked me up, paused a moment, then hurled me out and down.

I fell quickly, the house whizzing past in a blur, and landed heavily on my back. My eyes
were open and I found myself staring at a drain at the foot of the house.

For a while my body went undetected, so I lay there, listening to the sounds of the night. In
the end, a passing neighbor spotted me and investigated. I couldn't see his face but I heard
his gasp when he turned me over and saw my lifeless body.

***

It didn't take the doctors long to pronounce their verdict. They couldn’t find any breath or pulse or movement. It was an open-and-shut case as far as they were concerned.

***

It was when I started breathing that I began to worry about the air in the coffin. Mr. Crepsley had said I could survive for up to a week in my coma-like state. I didn’t need to eat or use the toilet or breathe. But now that my breath was back, I became aware of the small amount of air and how quickly I was using it up.

***

Finally, after what seemed like several centuries stacked one on top of the other, the
sounds of digging reached my ears.

He dug quicker than any human, so fast it seemed he wasn't digging at all, but rather
sucking the soil out. He reached me in what must have been record time, less than fifteen
minutes. As far as I was concerned, it wasn't a moment too soon.

He knocked three times on the coffin lid, then started unscrewing it. It took a couple of
minutes, then he threw the lid wide open and I found myself staring up at the most beautiful
night sky I had ever seen.

I took a deep breath and sat up, coughing. It was a fairly dark night but after spending so
much time underground it seemed bright as day to me.

"Are you all right?" Mr. Crepsley asked.

"I feel dead tired." I grinned weakly.

He smiled at the joke. "Stand up so I can examine you," he said. I winced as I stood: I had
pins and needles all over. He ran his fingers lightly up my back, then over my front. "You
were lucky," he said. "No broken bones. Just a bit of bruising, which will die down after a
couple of days."

***

I went for a walk among the graves, testing my limbs, shaking my legs and arms, enjoying
it. Any feeling, even pins and needles, was better than none at all.

***

Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare, Chapter 29-31