A lesson in life, he thought – and his macabre laughter was completely silent. A lesson in death, he thought – and instead of laughter, another silent scream escaped. With the burst of the next pain, he realized, with crystal clarity, that he had laughed for the last time. The pain became fixed. With what he still perceived as a mixture of satisfaction and terror, he felt that the intensity had reached its peak, and he understood what would follow. The downward slope. The curve of the pain no longer rose; it had begun to level off, and beyond it, he discerned the steep decline which, with its irresistible slope, led to absolute nothingness. Or – if he struggled hard and managed to dismiss this thought – to God. His body's pores gaped open, small mouths screaming out the huge Why, which he himself could not articulate in any way. The images began to come to light; he knew they would. They had already appeared as the pain reached levels that exceeded even his most extreme imagination. He was amazed by the possibilities he had hidden within himself all these years.
Man carries incredible energy potentials within him. As his entire being erupts in waves of pain, the senses seem to shift from the fingers, the genitals, and the throat to some other part outside his body. The terrible agony, in some way, became universal, rose above the body, and invaded – he had to dig deep inside himself for the word – his soul, while all the time he was trying to keep his thoughts clear. But then the images appeared. Initially, he fought to maintain contact with the outside world, and the outside world was nothing but giant airplanes passing quickly outside the small crack of the window. Every now and then, the silent silhouette of the executioner with deadly tools flashed past him. Eventually, the roaring airplanes merged with the images, and they too began transforming into wild ghosts of the abyss.
