Answer:
His neck ached horribly; his brain was on fire, his heart, which had been fluttering faintly, gave a great leap, trying to force itself out at his mouth.
Explanation:
Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a short story that tells the story of the hanging of Peyton Farquhar because of his crime of attempting to help destroy Owl Creek's railroad bridge. The story focuses on his dream where he escapes the execution but in reality, he was hanged. The story oscillates between the dream and reality.
Understanding that the narration oscillates between the desire to escape/the dream and the reality of the situation, it is difficult to know which is which. But in the given passage, the sentence that shows the reality of his situation is the description of the pain he experienced. The narrator reveals, <em>"His neck ached horribly; his brain was on fire, his heart, which had been fluttering faintly, gave a great leap, trying to force itself out at his mouth."</em> This is, in fact, the real pain that Farquhar is experiencing when he was hanged, but to him, he dreamed that he was underwater and that he's going to escape.
Thus, the correct answer is<u> "His neck ached horribly; his brain was on fire, his heart, which had been fluttering faintly, gave a great leap, trying to force itself out at his mouth."</u>
