• The cold, like a planet hidden from the rays of any star, bone-chilling, and your limbs go numb and your head feels like it is about to explode and you feel so heavy, you can’t do anything, and you wish for it to stop so badly, believing that anything else would be better, wishing with all your heart that you would die, right then and there, anything to stop the pain. Then the heat, you thaw out, thankful for the warmth, but the heat continues to raise, and you can’t stop it, and you are burning on the inside and out, and you can feel your skin blister and melt away as you lie screaming in agony and again wishing just to die and end the horrible pain. But then the heat stops and the cold doesn’t return and you begin to relax, but another feeling washes over you. Nothing burns or goes limp, nothing itching or stinging. But an emotion, feeling lonely and empty, like darkness has just swallowed all the happiness in your being, and you stare, unable to comprehend what could be worse, but you don’t wish for death now, you wish to have back the numbing cold or the blistering heat because you know now that no physical pain could ever compare to pure emptiness and sadness that can only be felt through not your pain, but through the pain of someone you truly love.