Fire Summoner

Chapter Eighteen: Wood Smoke

Connor, with Alice slung around his shoulders, stumbled down the hill towards the faint glow of the streetlights in the distance.

Alice simultaneously felt horrible for making her friend carry her, and relieved that this gave her head a slight reprieve from the mind-numbing buzzing. What had started as a faint, barely noticeable fuzzy feeling at the base of her skull had progressed into a crushing force all around her head that she could not ignore.

A whine slipped past Alice's lips before she could stop it as Connor stepped over the concrete barrier that separated the road from the wilderness beside it. There were shallow puddles scattered throughout the road. It was nearing dark now, the sun had set low in the sky, the dark clouds above them were lit up with hues of pink, purple, and orange by the setting sun. The further the sun set, the more Alice began to feel her injuries. Even Connor seemed to slow down as the sun finally slipped below the horizon.

They hurriedly crossed the road onto the opposite sidewalk. Alice stumbled slightly as they stepped up over the curb, her foot catching as Connor tightened his grip on her waist.

"I'm going to find a more secluded place to patch you up, away from curious eyes." Connor said as he eyed a car that had turned onto the street. Alice could see the woman in the passenger seat look at them with concern as the car went past.

Alice could only imagine what they looked like. The woman probably thought Alice looked half dead, she sure felt half dead. She would not be surprised if the car turned back around to ask if they needed help. But the car continued down the road and turned the corner out of sight. Alice felt a slight tinge of relief as the car drove off. She had already endangered her parents and best friend enough, she didn't know what she would do if a stranger just trying to help her got hurt.

They continued on, slowly heading towards the strip of fast food chains and gas stations they had seen from up on the hill in the woods. They passed what looked to be a school on the edge of a suburban neighborhood. The playground was backed up against a field of tall, untamed grasses separated by a short length of a rusty chain link fence. Beside the playground was a small pavilion with a few wooden picnic tables underneath it.

"Here is good." Connor grunted as he swung Alice's arm from around his shoulders, setting her down on one of the picnic benches. The wind blew softly around them, causing the swing set to squeak as the seats swung back and forth lightly. The wood of the table felt rough against Alice's back as she leaned back. Now that she wasn't moving, her head felt the smallest bit better.

Beside her, Connor set his pack and the medical bag down on the pavement. He pulled a small flashlight from a side pocket and clicked it on.

"I'm just going to do some reflex tests to see if you have a concussion. You took a few too many hits to the head today, Ali." Connor said with a slight grin. Alice was about to quip back a retort, but the words caught in her mouth as Connor flicked the flashlight beam quickly from eye to eye, testing her pupillary reflexes. She cringed at the sudden flare of pain and recoiled back as far as the picnic table behind her would allow.

"That's what I thought." Connor mused, a frown pulling his eyebrows down and creasing the tan skin at his forehead. Alice thought that her eyes must have been playing tricks on her from the flashlight, because when Connor pulled the light away from her face his was slightly illuminated for a second before he clicked the light off. Alice could have sworn that a scar danced from the right side of Connors chin up to the corner of his mouth, where it then split into tiny threads of scarred tissue across his lips; like he had been struck by lightning.

Alice blinked hard and looked closer at Connor's face. Weird, there was no scar now. It must have been a trick of the light, Alice assured herself. Surely she would have noticed if one of her best friends had a scar like that at some point over the years.