This only happens in the movies.
I sink onto my knees.
When I feel a cold rush of liquid along my knee I realize I’ve dropped my glass of champagne.
The last thing I see is the high, vaulted ceiling of the Onyx front room.
The ornate chandeliers, far up above me.
The shifting shadows that the candles make along the wooden walls.
Then everything goes black.
“You’re prettywhen you’re knocked out.”
I pull in a gasp of air as I wake up with a start.
The world still looks hazy for a moment, but as I wake up I see that I’m still in Onyx, though I’m in the common room in the back, now.
I feel like I’m moving through sludge.
My limbs are heavy like bags of sand.
Hunter’s on a chair far away, across the room from me.
Hecouldn’thave been close enough to have whispered those words in my ear, but as I slept, I swore he was saying them to me.
I’m able to keep my eyes open for brief moments, here and there, trying to fight the urge to fall back into slumber.
What happened to me?
It’s a question I can’t answer yet.
And with the smallest shred of energy I can muster, all I do is watch Hunter.
He watches me, too.
And I’m too out of it to protest.
He’s taken off his suit jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his black collared shirt.
I gaze at his forearms, and the strong muscle that forms a line from his elbow down to his wrist.
There’s a little constellation of freckles along his skin there, forming no particular shape.
His brow is slightly furrowed as he leans back in hischair, looking at me like he’s trying to figure out an answer to a question that’s too complex.
Trying to figure out who did this to me?
Or something else?
I can’t take my eyes away from him, every time I manage to open them.
It’s like Hunter’s the only person in the room, and in the hazy fog of my mind I’m not thinking clearly about him.
Still shocks me, how handsome you are.
Even more than you used to be.
