Broken Stride

Phantom Pains

Cassian groaned, wincing at the harsh light that assaulted the outside of his eyelids. He tried to roll over away from the light, only to be met with a resistance he hadn't expected. Begrudgingly, Cassian peeled his eyes open.

There were immediately two things he noticed

He wasn't in his room.

This couch was exponentially too small.

"Where?" Cassian winced as a burst of pain shot through his body when he tried to move.

His legs had cramped horribly curled up as they were, and his head was thumping something fierce. His vision swirled nauseatingly as he tried to sit up, causing him to give up on the endeavor quickly. Cassian let out a groan—curling into the couch in a futile attempt to block out the light. It was not helping his headache.

Wait—why did he have such a headache?

"Oh, are you awake?" Cassian winced as the sudden sound of a voice grated against his ears. He glanced up from behind his arm to find Driver smiling at him from the other end of the couch.

"What time is it?" Cassian asked, noticing the dryness of his throat; it felt like someone had shoved a wad of cotton in his mouth.

"It is. . . 1:32 pm."

"Oh, ok." Cassian moved back behind his arm.

. . .

Wait.

"Fuck, I have school!" Cassian shot up quickly.

Cassian tried to stand, cursing as his knee smashed into the table—a considerable lack of leg where it should have been. He managed to catch himself, though quickly ended up on the floor anyway as a wave of nausea crashed over him.

"Shit, are you ok?!" Driver rushed over. They grabbed Cassian by the arm and helped him back up onto the couch.

"I guess I should've mentioned I took your leg while you were sleeping, huh."

"You what?!" Cassian sent a glare toward the vilzone boss, who shrunk under his gaze. "Why?"

"Well, you seemed to have trouble with it, and I was curious what kind of model it was. So I took a look and when I saw it was a Nexus version six I got curious and kinda removed it while you were asleep so I could get a better look; then I noticed that it was kinda janky so I was gonna fix it up for you but I got distracted and—"

"Ok, stop. Stop!" Cassian groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. His head was seriously killing him and Driver was not helping.

Cassian let out a sigh and leaned back against the couch, wincing as the movement sent a shot of hot pain down his leg—the one that wasn't there. He was tired, he was dizzy, he was nauseous, in pain and just generally felt like shit. What's worse? He was in the company of a villain he barely knew. He really just wanted to go home. He didn't want to be here—god everything hurt—he just wanted to curl up somewhere dark.

Dark. It was dark.

There were sirens—why were there sirens?

Fuck. Everything hurt.

Someone was talking—who? No, he was alone. Sinking. Being crushed.

Screaming—someone was screaming. Was it him? No, he couldn't—he was drowning. Bleeding.

Suffocating.

Dying.

Cassian squeezed his eyes shut, choking on half a sob as another wave of pain hit him. Fuck, it hurt so much—why did it hurt so much?