The tongue thickens. What once was saliva is now like unloomed wool. Swelling begins in the hands and in the feet. The sedile digs deeply into the genitals. It is impossible to turn, to change one's position.
Muscles begin to twitch.
The real horror is only beginning. What has happened up until now is child's play. One by one the muscles of the back gather in tight, knotty, cramps. There is no escaping them, no pulling out of them, no gentle massaginghands to ease them away. They move across the shoulders and the thorax.