Birds of a Feather

Chapter 12: A Plethora of New Fucking Rescues

          The crash woke us all. We knew something was wrong. And I knew where the crash came from. I was in her room before the others. I was faster. I'd always been just a little faster. I often wished I wasn't. Today was one of those days. Idona had locked the door on her the night before. We all knew she wasn't strong enough to just quit. She was yelling now, pounding on the door. I worried she would hurt herself. But when I threw open the door, she charged at me. She threw something that hit me square in the head. I crumbled, grabbing at the sharp pain spreading all around me. I swore I could feel warm blood making it's way down from the injury. Luckily someone was close behind me. Someone who could grab her flailing limbs. She screamed at the top of her lungs and I heard the crack when her hand met their leg. "Let me go! Let me go! I swear, I'm not gonna do it, I'm not gonna do it! I just need to get out of this room! It's too hot, too hot, don't you feel it?!" the rest of her words were utterly incoherent, but it didn't matter. What mattered was the way her face was red with anger. The way her body shook, out of her control. The sweat matting her hair and soaking her clothes. The incoherent screeching. As I stared at the way she fought the people in front of her, I was aware of only one thing: I did not know the woman in front of me. Whoever this was, she was not Esme. There was blood leaking from where someone had managed to catch her, but I don't think she even noticed.

          I'd seen what drugs could do to people before, but this was something entirely new. She was rearing around like a scared, angry animal. Her eyes were wide and terrified and she continued to shake with the chills of withdrawal. She reached for a mirror on the wall next to her, but we all saw it too late. The mirror collided with Idona, but she didn't even notice. The glass went everywhere. I watched them all recoil, glass striking eyes and cheeks and chests. She might've gotten away in the shock of the moment, but I reached for her hand.

          It collided with cold, clammy flesh and it was all I could do to not puke on the spot. She came down hard, because she'd put all of her energy into running. She crashed down, immediately trying to worm her way away from me. I pulled her against me, attempting to hold her down her limbs. She was stronger than me, and I would not be able to maintain this long, but I hoped someone else would be there to help sooner than me. That might've worked, if her teeth didn't sink into my arm. You know, you always think you're completely ready for an emergency, but nothing in the world could've prepared me for that. The pain was like something I'd never known. I might've hit her, entirely out of reflex. I wasn't entirely sure. All I knew was that she got away from me, but someone stopped her in the hall.

          When I finally regained the ability to think clearly, I assessed the damages. There was no way we were going to get out of this without a trip to St. Mungos. So much for keeping a low profile. Idona absorbed the majority of the impact of the mirror. Her face was bloodied and she was cradling it in her hands, trying to hide the fact that she was sobbing. I reached down but she flinched away from me. The terror in her eyes was real, vivid, nothing like the Idona I knew. It only took her a second to realize that it was only me, but that second was far too long. The tears and blood were mixing on her face, and I knew she wasn't going to make it if I didn't take her to the healers right now. 

          "What the fuck is up with her?" She reared, regaining her Idona nature. She stormed out of the room, barely taking the care to step over our fallen friends in her pursuit of Esme. When we got out, she was lying in the hallway, bruises already spreading on her face from the falls. Her hair was sticking to her face in a mixture of blood and sweat, but she didn't look like the beast she'd been moments ago. Now she looked vulnerable. She was passed out, so she looked almost like she was sleeping. She could've been calm were it not for the grimace on her face. Idona's shoulders fell and I knew that she couldn't be angry at her anymore.