IZZY
I felt…something. Like a bad headache only not in my head, or even really in my body. It was somehow deeper, but also everywhere around me all at once.
Something was wrong, but I didn’t know what.
After I’d left Vyns, I hadn’t wanted to return to Rook’s room. So, I’d gone down to the beach. I’d thought to practice what little magic I knew and see if there was anything else I could try… but all I’d done was sit on a large rock and watch the waves. The tide was coming in. My rock would soon be surrounded. A metaphor for my life: slowly being overwhelmed and nothing I could do to stop any of it.
And this strange, new pain was yet anothernot funexperience in this world.
As I hopped off the rock, heading back to The Tumble, it occurred to me that I hadn’t had an episode of chronic pain since I’d gotten here. To be fair, I hadn’t worked myself particularly hard either. Even the rather epic sexcapades with Myel hadn’t been all-nighters like that first one with Rook.
Maybe I should try doing a hard workout, just to see ifsomehow this world had cured me of my chronic pain. But, if it hadn’t, I didn’t really want to deal with anything else right now. My plate was full, thanks.
I took the stairs at The Tumble two at a time, my pace quickening as I got higher. Why was I in such a hurry?
All I knew was, that strange out-of-body ache was getting stronger and somehow it pulled me… toward something?
But why would I want to get closer to the source of this pain?
Also, what in hell was I feeling?
I reached the top of the stairs and recoiled at the streak of blood along the stone-cobbled path before me.
What the fuck?
I looked both ways and saw someone crawling along, clawing their way ever so slowly over the stone path, bleeding so damned much. I had no clue how they could even still move given the blood they must have lost.
Whoever they were, I needed to help them. But this wasn’t some altruistic thing, it was an imperative. Ineededto get closer to them. Ineededto make them feel better. They were what I was being pulled toward.
But why?
Was I now a magnet for people in pain? Wouldn’t that just be a horrible new ability?
Still, I couldn’t help it. I ran toward this person…
No…
Not just any person.
Fucking hell!
It was Vyns!
Someone had beaten the crap out of him. No… not someone… Saldrea. He’d said she’d beat him when he left, but…
Holy Fuckballs!
I knelt next to the man, laying a hand on his back.
“Vyns, I’m here.”
And something within meclicked.
He mumbled something which could have been my name or “dizzy” or just a grunt. Then he went still with a heavy sigh.
Too still.
No!
