“Good. That’s really good, Felix.”
It’s like a bizarre game of heads, shoulders, knees, and toes. But I don’t have the energy to try and get that joke through my misbehaving mouth.
Something drips into my eye. It stings. I try to blink it away, but my eyelids feel weighed down with sandbags.
“Hot,” I manage. “Face…hot.”
“That’s the swelling, mate. You’re doing brilliantly.” He leans in closer, his hands moving carefully along my arms.
“Does anything hurt?”
The left side hurts, but the right is next level. “Right,” I gasp.
“Scale of one to ten?”
“Eleven.” I try for humor, but it comes out as a whimper, which may undo the effect.
His fingers find my wrist, pressing lightly. I can hear him counting under his breath. “Pulse is fast but strong. That’s good.” I sense his hand hovering near my face. “Felix, I saw some bleeding on your face. I’m going to apply pressure and padding to stop it, okay? This might hurt.”
Something soft presses against my right cheek and lightning shoots through my skull. An inhuman sound escapes me.
“I know, I know. I need to keep pressure on this for a bit.” His other hand stays on my wrist. “Felix, do you feel dizzy at all? Lightheaded?”
“Can’t tell. Everything’s…spinning anyway.”
“Thirsty?”
“Yeah.” Weird how I hadn’t noticed until he asked.
“Are you…? Are you…?” The fuzziness around the edge of my brain seems to be claiming my words, and the rest of my sentence gets lost somewhere between my brain and my mouth.
Luckily, Jared has mind-reading skills, along with his chocolate-cake voice, and can fill in the blanks of what I’m trying to ask.
“I’m a paramedic. You’ve been in a car accident.
“Where…?”
“You swerved off the road, and your car has gone off a cliff and down a tomo. They’ll need to get special machinery to get you out. In the meantime, I’m going to stay here with you, and you’re going to stay awake talking to me. Okay, mate? Can you do that for me? I need to preserve my phone battery so I can keep the line open with emergency services, so I can’t use the torch much, but I’m right here, okay?”
My mind latches onto something he said.
“What’s a…tomo?”
“A vertical limestone cave.”
“Good to learn some…geology,” I manage to get out, my voice still sounding scratchy and unfamiliar.
Jared huffs out what almost sounds like a laugh.
“I need to check something. Can you smile for me?”
I try. The left side of my mouth moves. The right side…nothing.
“Okay, half a smile then. That’s all right.”
“So I…pass?”
There’s definitely laughter in his voice now. “Yes, you pass.”
