I’d never thought to view the world from this point of view, but my enjoyment was cut short by a blinding white light.
I swatted my stinging hands in front of my face as that same voice said, “Hey, hey. Stop, it’s me. I’m just checking your pupils.”
Me who?
My thoughts were a jumbled mess as I crunched into a sitting position, the blooming aches and pains rapidly deflating my good spirits. Focusing took some effort, but after a long moment of concentration, I placed the voice and internally sighed.
“Jeremiah,” I mumbled, but it was so loud here in the middle of the festivities, he probably hadn’t heard.
“Let’s get you up,” he shouted, but before he could get a good grip on my elbow, I got my feet under me and set myself to rights.
I blinked rapidly against the spots in my vision, unsure if they were from the fall or from rising too quickly. Jeremiah cursed and grabbed my arm, steering me toward the gazebo.
Once there, I squinted against the sudden light. The fairy lights in the rafters were at full brightness but didn’t do much against the constantly shifting colors and shadows beyond the space. The interior had been transformed into some sort of medical bay for the event. The paintbrushes, bags, and coffee cups I was accustomed to seeing there in the predawn were replaced with first aid kits, radios, and sealed water bottles.
It felt….
I clenched my hand into a fist, then hissed at the pain. It didn’t feel good to me. None of this did.
Jeremiah pulled out a folding chair and plopped it right in the middle of the space. “Here, have a seat so I can check you over.”
I frowned at the brown metal chair. “No, thank you.”
The music that had been blasting through the speakers suddenly cut out, and the change unsteadied me further. Then an even faster, louder tune started, which apparently signaled the parade’s imminent start to the crowd, who all erupted in choruses of cheers.
I hadn’t taken much note of the thick layers of stimuli around me before, but now, with my aching head and Jeremiah here, it was all a dreadful sort of déjà vu….
In all my wandering and exploring since we’d moved here, I’d never felt like I’d strayed too far until this exact moment. And all I wanted was to get back to my people.
The air was muggy, as it always was, and I pushed a bead of sweat away with the back of my hand. But it was thick and all wrong because it wasn’t sweat. It was blood.
Not a lot to really panic about, but any amount of unanticipated blood was inherently too much.
Jeremiah grasped my shoulder, and I let him turn me around. “Please, let me check.”
I glanced at the blood on my hands and murmured my assent. There was a sharp snap as he put on his gloves and a fresh sting when he applied an alcohol swab to my brow.
Thankfully, it was the unpierced one. That could’ve been pretty gnarly otherwise.
Jeremiah asked me questions about pain levels and aches as he worked, and just as he leaned in to apply a bandage to my cut eyebrow, a shadow fell over the gazebo, and some instinct had me relaxing enough to take a long overdue breath.
My people must be here. Or one of them, at least.
But then Jeremiah squeaked and jumped backward, disturbing my newly stilled waters. I really hoped he’d use that number I gave him. I’d never met someone so prone to flight.
“Liem.” Cody made it to the gazebo floor in one step, his wild eyes running all over me. He raised a hand toward my face but then frowned and dropped it between us. “You’re hurt?”
“Not badly at all,” I assured him with a smile. “And Jeremiah here was nearby and did an exemplary job patching me up.”
“Who?” Cody asked, his gaze flitting around the gazebo, his frown and gaze deepening, darkening.
The man in question did himself no favors by stepping tentatively out of the shadows and offering his gloved hand to Cody. “It’s Jeremy, actually.”
Cody eyed his hand briefly before dropping his head back and saying to the roof, or perhaps the heavens, “Jesus fuck,not this again.”
Confusion at that statement lost out to my amusement, which smoothed my remaining jagged nerves as I watched Cody collect himself.
Except… he didn’t.
