Academy of Blood and Magic

18🖤

The shrill scream of my alarm clock had me falling out of bed face first on the floor in a tangle of sheets. I grunted, laying there for a long moment before slowly sitting up, my body protesting from my ungraceful fall on my hard-tiled floor. I looked around, noting I was back in my own room, no longer in that cave where I felt those claws or whatever they were slicing open my back.

Footsteps pounded towards my bedroom door and I tensed, my half-asleep mind expecting whoever had attacked me to be on the other side. The door threw open and I relaxed when I saw it was only Mom and Dad.

They rushed to my side and helped me to my feet.

"Are you alright?" they asked in unison.

I opened my mouth to answer but all that came out was a hiss of pain as a wave of fiery, searing pain shot through my back, causing me to fall backward on my bed, pressing my hands to my back.

"What's wrong?" Mom demanded.

I pointed to my back, in too much pain to speak.

She and Dad peered at my back and gasped.

"What?" I managed to breathe out.

"We need to take you to a doctor," was all Dad said before he ran out of my room. A second later I could hear the car starting outside.

"What's. . .wrong?" I said between pants.

"Your back. . ." was all Mom managed to get out, looking on the verge of tears.

My mind went back to what happened last night in that nightmare and fear shot through me. It had felt so real, whatever had sliced into my back. Maybe it had been real. Maybe -

Dad came running back upstairs and helped me to the car, almost having to carry me the whole day. I had to lay on my stomach across the backseats because it hurt too bad to have something pressed against my back. Mom tried to talk to me, to keep my mind off the pain, but I was in too much agony to comprehend what she was saying, much less engage in a conversation.

The ride to the emergency room was only fifteen minutes but it felt like hours by the time we got there. Dad parked in front of the entrance and ran out to get a nurse. Mom rushed out to open the door for me and helped me slide out. My knees buckled and I fell to my knees, fatigue, and pain overwhelming me. Mom called out for help and Dad and two nurses came running out.

Everything was a blur after that. I was brought into the building on a stretcher, laying on my stomach, and rushed down the hallway, multiple voices shouting around me. I remembered hearing my parents' voices and a baby crying nearby. I remembered screaming when something wet touched my back, my skin and muscles igniting all over again. The pain was so intense that I blacked out.

I laughed as Brandon threw a green grape into the air and Jo caught it in her mouth, pumping her fists into the air in victory. A breeze blew by, ruffling the edge of the red and white picnic blanket we were sitting on.

I sat by Brandon as we continued to throw grapes into the air, Jo catching them in her mouth every time. Nearby, our parents were sitting at the benches behind us, talking to each other, laughing as they watched us.

Brandon suddenly cupped my face in his hands and gave me a long, warm, passionate kiss that caused my heart to soar but embarrassment and self-consciousness outweighed it as I thought about our parents and his little sister nearby right, watching us.

I pulled away. "Brand, come on, our -"

Isaac Freaking Warren grinned at me. "Hey, babe."