I blinked and I was thrown back to that time, more than twenty years ago, but this time I fought. I punched and kicked and yelled as I rained blow after blow, desperately seeking to get those fucking hands off of me. But they wouldn’t budge. The harder I fought the tighter and tighter her hold became over me.
“Doc! Doc!”
“Get off of him, man!”
The hands felt tighter and tighter around my body, which forced me to continue to fight more aggressively to free myself.
“Let him go. Shit!”
“Jacob, stop!”
It was the last voice that finally pulled me out of my trance.
Grace.
I looked up and blinked, my eyes colliding with her brown orbs. My chest immediately panged with guilt, shame, and worry because her eyes were filled with such fear. She was standing only about a foot away from me. I went to reach for her and that’s when I saw a pair of hands pulling her away.
“Grace, you shouldn’t be in here,” a vaguely familiar voice called to her.
“Don’t touch her!” I growled and began lunging toward whoever it was that thought they could take her away from me. Could put their fucking hands on her. I tried to lunge but was held back by someone.
“Doc, calm—”
“Fuck you.” Turning, I swung on whoever the hell was trying to hold me back. And then I continued swinging, not seeing anything or anyone. My fists made frequent contact, but it wasn’t until a sharp pain radiated through my hand that I slowed down. Strong arms enveloped me from behind.
“Doc, calm the fuck down!” Connor growled.
The pain had made me coherent enough that I could discern whose voice was speaking. I blinked and scanned the room with my gaze. There were at least ten pairs of eyes on me, staring, befuddled. I pushed out of Connor’s hold, stumbling and looking back, realizing that somehow I made my way out of the ring and was halfway through the audience. I swallowed and stared down at my throbbing hand. It took some time for me to realize that my right hand pinky was sitting in a very awkward manner.
“He’s hurt.”
Grace.
I lifted my head from my hand to find Grace coming to kneel down in front of me, since I’d somehow sunken to the floor.
She took my injured hand into hers. “This is bad, Jacob. We have to get you to the hospital.”
“Wh-What are you doing here?”
She looked up. “I came looking for you.”
I sealed my lips shut because I didn’t know how to respond to that. Why would she come looking for me?
Nothing was making any sense, and the constant buzzing sound in my head was growing louder and louder.
“He needs a doctor.” I heard Grace say.
“Heisa doctor.”
“He needs an ortho doctor. I’m pretty sure his finger is broken.”
“Is he catatonic?”
Is that Joshua?
“I’ve never seen him get that fucking crazy before.”That has to be Damon. I was pretty sure it was, but the damn buzzing just continued getting louder and louder.
I squeezed my eyes shut and hit my forehead with the palm of my left hand, trying to make it stop, but it wouldn’t. Even worse, were those fucking hands kept coming back, grabbing at me. Moving underneath the sheets and touching at me.
