His arms dragged behind him, his hands bunched into claws. Blood pulsed in his ears, a thud so loud it he thought his head would split open with it. His lungs burned with the desire to breathe, air pushed at his clamped lips, desperate to be released. It was brighter now, shafts of white light spearing the blackness. This was it—death’s hallucinations, the last thrashing of his subconscious.