X-Ordinary

XO - Chapter 6

XO's POV

One moment – I'm falling asleep on Jace's chest.

The next moment?

Time is bent, lights burn my eyes, sound makes my ears sing as they try to adjust. I blink multiple times, as my vision adjusts to what's in front of me.

I'm awake, dizzy, but awake.

I'm... standing in the middle of traffic, high beam lights blurring my vision. Looking down at my hands to escape the light – I see bloody finger nails, a bloody butter knife clutched in my stiff hand, and half my leg is burning, on fire. I pat it out with a numb hand.

People are yelling but I can't hear what they're saying. My nerves are singed. My organs hurt.

I must have run out here – and then the rain started to pour down over me. I only notice it's raining now because it's the rain drops that keep blurring my vision.

I have no idea what happened, but I stumble to the pavement, looking around an unfamiliar part of the city and strangers standing back, calling out to me , asking if I'm okay.

"With me, Ordinary."

I hear a voice, an unknown voice – it's confusing and I'm still disoriented. An arm wraps a coat around me and I look up to a young man with a dark beard and golden eyes and a bald head.

He pulls me along quickly, until we're hurrying down steps into a night bar, small and illuminated with hundreds of candles.

He pulls me to the back, shoving aside a rug curtain held up in our way, he pulls me through a bunch of people wearing patchy, old clothes, until I'm lead through some doors out back.

A few twists and turns later and we're in a small room with a two seat couch, a grey rug and another three seat couch on the other side and paintings on the wall. It's a tiny makeshift room, even the walls look wonky like they're temporary.

The man sits me down and I obey in my distress.

"Amanda!" he calls out, "I got her. She needs your help!"

I remain still on the couch, the butter knife still locked in my hand and held out front.

I look at my nails and I see blonde hair in my palm.

Blondey-white... S-Snyper.

No, no – did I kill him? Vesva said free will was important. Free will determined action, thought – memory.

But I remember nothing.

I know as my leg burns, and I drop the butter knife onto the table.

"Ordinary," he comes back, "Sit, stay," he begs me, as he returns with a first aid kit.

A woman appears too, kissing him on the cheek and murmuring something loving before focusing on me with scared eyes.

"Oh my," she whispers, looking me over, not knowing where to start.

"We need ice for this burn, it's healing but it's going to scar, this was a bolt of lightning, your whole body must be in pain –"

They start to touch me and heal me but I zone out, closing my eyes, not listening to them.

I remember... movement.

I focus, I force myself too, willing myself to remember.

I play out one feeling, then another, until a dull, blurry scene of events scatters through my brain.

Jace screaming my name.

I had clawed into an eye – deeply. I had scooped the whole thing out. The hair in my hand was from an eyebrow, my nails had dug down a strong face. I had attacked while he slept.