Veritas

Chapter 45

After she had swallowed sufficient air to feel confident she wasn't going to pass out, Aislinn shakily got to her feet. She stared down at the piles of ashes in shock.

It wasn't a concussed dream, then? She had just used fire on the vampire! How, though? She didn't understand what she did to invoke it. From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the drunkard and remembered the state he was in. She shelved the thoughts of the fire for now, and focused on him.

As quickly as she felt safe to do, she went to the drunkard's side to check on him. He seemed unconscious, back to his fully human form, and appeared to have healed from most of the superficial wounds she'd seen. That meant she just had to remove the wood, so she got to work.

Deciding it was better to leave him unconscious than to try to deal with him awake, she grabbed the wood with her good hand and swiftly gave it a tug.

He quickly regained consciousness at that! Awake with a room-shattering roar, he was apparently more coherent than before. He rolled onto all fours, and seemed ready to pounce as he scanned the room.

"It's okay!" Aislinn assured him hurriedly, having jumped back to keep space between them. "He's gone, it's just us! I'm sorry. I was trying to help you."

The man stared at her, growls bubbling up from deep in his chest. He maintained eye contact and bared his teeth. It was now that Aislinn realized his eyes had changed colour. They were no longer green, as they had been; but, instead, were a beautiful gold. She'd never seen this happen before, and took another step back cautiously.

"Hey, now...Calm down...It's okay" she said as calmly as she could muster. "We need to get that out of you."

In response, as if calling a bluff, the rabid man grabbed the wood and tore it from his body with another snarl. He tossed the bloody wood aside, the entire time not breaking eye contact with Aislinn.

She took another step back, trying to remain as unthreatening as possible. "Alright, that's all I wanted. We're okay now. I'm just going to..." she said, breaking eye contact to look around. She spotted a seat that was not damaged in the episode with the vampire; so, she shuffled towards it. "Sit over here...I'm hurt, and need to rest. You're safe now" she assured him. Then, as an afterthought, since she still wanted to get to a safe house, she added "for now".

The man watched her like a hawk; but, Aislinn stayed seated and unmoving. The pain in her ribs, face and wrist was growing more pronounced as her adrenaline was dropping, so all she wanted to do was sit still and sleep the pain away. Minutes ticked by, and the man continued the rumbling growl.

Aislinn was unwilling to leave the man to fend for himself in the event another vampire came by, and so she was left in a stare-down with him. His growls were almost constant, and lulled her into a near-sleep-like state, save for the pain keeping her conscious. Eventually, after what felt like hours, the growling began to quiet. And then it stopped.

As the growls were lulling her, Aislinn had mistaken growing sleepy with what was actually weakness. When the growling stopped, she tried to open her eyes to see what had changed; but, her lids were just too heavy. She began wondering if she had some internal damage, because she was feeling off. The pain was horrendous; but, it was beginning to feel far away. Without the growling giving her something to cling to, she didn't know if she was conscious or not.

Distantly, she heard a man cursing, and then footsteps approaching. She heard a muffled voice, and then pain rippling through her. She wanted to scream; and yet, she was so far removed from the pain that she decided she really didn't need to. It was like witnessing someone else's pain, almost an out-of-body experience.

And then she was floating. She could feel random waves of pain as she drifted through the air. Oddly, she continued to hear the man's voice now and then, usually accompanied by that strange distant pain.

On and off. On and off. She felt like a beach wave, ebbing away into silence, then flowing back into shadows of pain and voices. She could no longer tell if she was floating; but, there was an annoying beeping that she began to notice.

For a while, it remained distant. Ebbing and flowing as well; however, before what felt like too long, it grew louder and more consistent. Beep beep beep.

Fighting against her heavy eyelids, she finally decided she'd had enough. She needed to find that damn beeping noise, and so she dragged her eyelids open, only to close them instantly against the bright, glaring light.

"Agh!" She grumbled quietly, not sure where that light came from.

And then there was a gasp, and a squeeze of her hand. "Ash?! Can you hear me?!"

She knew that voice. Why was it here? Was she dead? Was he dead?

Unable to find the energy to speak, she just let out a grunt.

"M—dad! He's awake!" Shouted the voice. It was followed by the sound of running footsteps.

She tried again. Once more, opening the eyelids, this time trying to turn towards the voice. She started by squinting, and saw two blurry faces in front of her. One blink. Two blinks. By the third, the faces came into focus.

Ryan and Rei stood before her, staring at her with worried expressions. Both looked like they hadn't slept for days. Once they realized Aislinn was keeping her eyes open, they both let out breaths they must have been holding in suspense.

"Ash? Can you hear us?" Rei asked gently, walking around to the other side of the bed so she could hold Aislinn's other hand. Aislinn followed her with her eyes, and looked down to see that Rei had taken her left hand which was in a cast.

The realization that she must be in the hospital, instead of the bar with the drunk, was jarring for Aislinn. She sat up abruptly in a panic, only to let out a yelp of pain from her ribs. She could feel the bandages around her mid-section, and leaned back into the bed at the urging and ushering of Rei and Ryan.

All that was racing through her mind, though, was where was the drunk? Did he survive? Or was he killed after she lost consciousness?