I floated to the surface and blinked. That simple movement took about an hour, my eyelids weighted with iron bricks. Something gripped my left hand and held my fingers straight, though I couldn't see exactly what. There wasn't any pain, just an un-naturalness to it that I didn't really care for.
The taste of metal danced over my tongue, zipping every cell awake with an iron-fueled high. Except for those cells in my eyelids, which had fallen shut again. The parasites inside me twirled and bounced, urging me to swipe my tongue over the iron cube tucked in my bottom lip.
I did, and whoa. I sprang my eyes open at the rush of energy galloping down to my toes. The zing also awakened the hunger gnawing at my belly. I was ravenous.