In A World of My Own - Book One

25. Is This in My Head?

My hand travels over the grassy ground without my consent and I groggily lift my head to watch it.

Shadows are wrapped around my hand, lethargically trying to pull me along.

I'm less surprised by the shadows attempting to direct me than I am by the fact that my skin as literally changed color. I am purple. What the hell?! How did this happen to me? I wonder frantically as I wobbly try to sit up, brushing the shadows off my hand so I can look my arms over.

I am purple! It's not a sickly shade though, it reminds me of a wisteria flower actually. It's pretty lovely the more I study it but still. I'm freakin' purple. How?!

The sun is still rising over the treetops, so I've must've only black out for a minute or two.

My head feels like it's full of fuzzy and there's weird ticklish feeling in my brain. What happened? Where's...? OMG! Vyndren! I see him now; he is lying on the edge of the forest, almost completely concealed by the shadows amassed around him.

I glance at the shadows still numbly trying to pull my in the direction of the fallen Dark Rider.

They obviously want me to go to him.

Oh yeah? I feel a spark of fury and defiance ignite in my chest. Well maybe I want to go to Vyndren! I mean, his whole freakin' master plan all along has been to kill me. To kill ME! That psychotic son of a bitch! How could -

But on the other hand; he did fight like hell to protect me a few moments ago... I still can't get over the fact that he put himself over me to take the blows meant for me. I mean, I guess he did try to get us over the woods because he knew what was waiting for us... I guess. Urgh, damn it. To be mad or to not be mad? Choices, choices. 

Why is everything with him so complicated?

I groan and force myself to my feet. Everything abruptly starts to change color. 

Whoa, what?

I watch as the whole world changes from light blue to light green to pale yellow to...I close my eyes and open them again. The world looks normal again, but my skin is still purple. Ugh, why?! Some of my hair falls down into my eyes.

I gasp with alarm. Even my hair has changed color! OMG, how is this possible?! Why is this happening?

At first glance my hair looks black but now that I study it in the sun, I realize it is actually a very dark shade of rainbow. That's right, my entire head of hair is now comprised of dark hues of every color of the rainbow. Weird! 

What is all this about?

But I promptly decide to ignore the fact that my coloring is all off and anxiously stumble over to the Dark Rider. It's obviously his problems are a lot more serious than mine.

"Vyndren...?" I cautiously move closer.

He is laying painfully still. I don't think I've ever seen him so still before.

I shakily kneel beside him, wincing at the sight of the deep slashes across his back. I still can't believe he took this beating for me. Black blood is everywhere and stains my hands as I struggle to roll him over. I gasp when I see his face.

Or rather, what's left of it.

He looks like the victim of a horrible mauling. I can see part of his skull over the left side of his temple where the flesh has been clawed off. One of his empty eye sockets can be seen from the gaping wound over half his face. I cringe. There isn't even any fire in his socket anymore.