Maybe I was brain-dead, and this was a vestigial lizard-tail of pain firing away in my cortex.
Haruki Murakami
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
vɛˈstɪdʒiəl
adjective
forming a very small remnant of something that was once much larger or more noticeable
The term 'vestigial' is often used in biology to describe organs or structures that have lost most or all of their original function in the course of evolution. These vestigial remnants offer clues to an organism's evolutionary history.
Maybe I was brain-dead, and this was a vestigial lizard-tail of pain firing away in my cortex.
Haruki Murakami
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World