Stung Awake - Swarmed by bees, he survives, but awakes with new abilities

Stung Awake

He could feel the ground, hard and cold beneath his back.  He was confused, wondering why he was on the ground at all.  The last thing he could remember was being up on the roof, he was pulling sheet metal off to replace it, and the last sheet he had pulled up, right at the edge of the roof, was hiding a beehive in the trim.  He grunted the sequence of events came back to him.  He had pulled up the sheet metal and the upset bees had swarmed him, he remembered getting stung, face, hands, neck, twenty or thirty stings in all.  He must have fallen off the roof, nothing felt broken, but his face felt puffy, his lips were swollen, he couldn't open his eyes.  He realized he was having trouble breathing.  The cool mountain air moving in a breeze across his face, he needed to open his mouth and draw it in deep to his lungs.  He couldn't manage to get his breathing to work right, too shallow, not enough air deep enough.

PAIN.

His leg felt like it had been broken, but it was alright just a minute ago. No it didn't feel broken, only punctured like something had stabbed through it.  He could feel his thoughts slowing down, it was getting harder and harder for him to think.  But he had been stabbed.  Who the hell had stabbed him he wondered.  He could still feel where the stab wound was, funny he couldn't feel the cool mountain breeze on his legs, he should be able to.

PAIN.

Detached, he wondered if he was ever going to get the chance to get even with the sadist that was stabbing him while he was laying here incapacitated.  He was starting to get angry now.  His thoughts didn't seem to be as sluggish anymore, in fact his mind was racing almost as fast as his heart seemed to be going.  A glimmer of light, he thought he might be able to open his eyes soon, and that insistent buzzing that had been blocking out sound to this point seemed to be lessening.

"Bill! Bill! Can you hear me, can you breath?"  Sasha's voice seemed to come from miles away, but he could just make out what she was saying.  

Bill tried to speak, to answer her, but all he managed was a croak.  He could feel the swelling going down now, even his breathing was improving.  But despite his best efforts, all he managed was an affirmative croak.

"Don't worry love, the ambulance is on it's way.  You're lucky that Jim from next door saw you fall, and that he had his bee sting kit with him."  Sasha's voice was clearer, now that the buzzing in Bill's ears was receding.   

He absently noted the receding buzzing, now if only there were something they could do about the headache.  It was like somebody had inflated his head to about four atmospheres and the pressure felt like it would bug his eyes out of their sockets.

Ah, there!  He managed to open his eyes and sure enough he could see his Sasha kneeling with a worried expression on her face.  He noticed the way her hair was drifting in the breeze, the gentle play of the sun and shadows across her brow.  He tried to reach up a hand and brush back the hair from her face, to reassure her that he was fine, that everything was alright.

His arm didn't move.  Or did it?  He could feel his body pressed against the ground, but he saw his hand move up and brush her hair back.  She had jumped when he touched her cheek, like something had startled her.  She never used to do that when he reached out to her.  

Bill was confused.  The puzzlement must have shown on his face, Sasha tried to explain what was going on as best she could.

"Bill, it looks like you got stung by a swarm of bees, you fell from the roof, and you swelling up from the allergic reaction.  Jim is allergic to bees so he knew what he was seeing when he found you.  Knowing that there was very little time, Jim hit you with his Epi-Pen, trying to avert your reaction.  I came out with a bee kit when I heard Jim yelling, and without asking Jim what he'd done, I hit you with our Epi-Pen."  Sasha ran out of breath at that point, and stopped talking.

Jim spoke up, "Two shots of adrenalin shouldn't hurt you, but the ambulance is going to take you to the hospital just to make sure you're alright."

Bill managed a ghost of a grin at this.  He tried again to reassure Sasha that it was all going to be alright, but all he manged to get out was a croak followed by a groan.  He went to push himself up off the ground, asking for water for his throat, but he felt a tearing sensation as he went to move his arms.  He stopped and settled back into the grass.  Trying again to raise his arm and reach out to Sasha he realized that he could in fact feel the grass on his fingertips while he was seeing what looked like his own arm reaching out to touch Sasha's shoulder.  Concentrating, he managed to pull his senses completely back into himself, where he was when he woke up.  Now...  If he could just manage it, yes, his real arm did move, and so did his ghost one.  He had somehow developed a set of mental muscles.  He'd read about such things in science fiction, being able to move things just by thinking about it.

He experimented.  Could he reach out his imaginary hand and squeeze Sasha's hand, yes!  She reacted to that.  Bill grinned as he considered the possibilities.