Neuralgia

It burns. It stings. It shoots like an electric shock through a pathway you didn't even know existed until moments ago. Suddenly you know the exact course of a nerve — not because you studied anatomy, but because that nerve is on fire and the map is your own body. A touch, a breath of air, a small movement — and something detonates that bears no relation to the trigger.

With most kinds of pain, the problem lies in the tissue. With neuralgia, it lies in the line itself. It's not the knee that hurts, not the muscle, not the joint — but the strand that normally only carries pain. The transmission line has become the source. The messenger is screaming for itself.