Hiding from the Shadows

Chapter 8

My vision goes in and out, fading from sweet, black nothing to a street, then some stairs, a door, and the inside of an apartment. The coven members fade in and out of these images, hovering in the background and just out of sight. Eventually I come back to consciousness, but I keep my eyes closed. My entire body hurts like hell, especially my arm, but the insistent pounding in my head has stopped. I try to move my arm and pain tears through it. I wince and slowly move back.

I open my eyes and look around. It's dark and I'm in a small room laying in a twin bed on top of the blanket. Other than a few clothes laying around, I can't see much due to books being stacked literally everywhere. Shelves that are all different line the walls, overflowing with books, but there's also books on the floor, and on the desk, and even a few sitting on the end of the bed.

Bracing myself for the onslaught of pain I have no doubt I'll feel, I push myself into a sitting position. I grimace and let my left arm go limp, gently bringing my other hand up to help brace it. The rest of my body doesn't hurt quite as bad as my arm does.

The door opens and I whip my head up, ready to scramble back and use the nearest book as a weapon. But it's just Aria. I sigh and she sits down next to me.

"How are you feeling?" she asks.

"Shitty," I reply. I nod at the jar of honey in her hands. "What's that for?"

"Well, according to the NCBI, honey can help the healing process when applied to superficial burns and full thickness wounds. I came in to apply it to yours, so it is good that you are up."

"What burns?" She points to my arm, and I look down. I try to move my arm closer to see in the dark, then wince. Grinding my teeth against the pain, I move a little slower, and take a closer look. There are black tattoo-like marks snaking up and down my arm. They lead up my shirt sleeve. My heart beats faster as I panickedly strip off my shirt. My shirt that has no burn marks, even though black burns matching the ones on my arm snake down and around the rest of my body. I put a hand to my arm and tentatively touch it. It's completely smooth. I reach for my pants to take them off as well, but Aria puts a hand out.

"Please. Keep your pants on." I let out a shaky sigh and let my hands return to the bed.

"Ok," I whisper. "Ok. This is ok. I... I just gotta... what the fuck... what happened?" I finally ask. She hands me the open honey jar and motions towards a mirror hanging on the door. She helps me to my feet and I start to carefully rub the honey along the black... burns.

"We were walking back to Logan's apartment after going for a grocery run. Layla was about to text you when they dropped their phone and started walking across the street. They do that sometimes. When their Divination magic is super strong, it will just take over them. So we followed them, and they led us to some sorry excuse for an apartment building. We found Saar trying to get into a window around the back. We heard chanting and could see a bunch of hooded people surrounding you. Rikki broke the window and we all came through and got you out of there. You were unconscious, so we brought you to my place, which was closest."

I stand there, silent, processing everything she just said.

"I'm going to get you something to drink," she says, getting up and grabbing some clothes from a desk drawer. She lays them on the bed and goes to open the door. "How about you put some honey on any other burns and change? I'll be back soon." She shuts the door quietly behind her.

I slip out of my pants and inspect the burns there. They're mostly around my ankles, but they go up to my thighs in some places. Same on the rest of my body. The burns are thickest around my wrists, biceps, and torso. They snake up my chest and around my arms a bit but the furthest they go is right above my collar bone. There's one burn that branches off of the mass of burns on my left arm twists up the back of my hand and around my thumb. They look so familiar...