Fire Summoner

Chapter Twenty: Flashback

Muffled voices floated through the air as Alice lay motionless on her back next to what sounded like a small, crackling fire.  

Her body hurt. Her head was pounding, her side was on fire where the Koral had sliced her skin to ribbons. All the minor cuts and bruises that she had gotten during her and Connor's impromptu sprint through the woods kept demanding her attention.

There was something hard wedged between her shoulder blades. Every time she took a breath she could feel it press into her back, jutting along her spine and ribs.

The fire was nice. There was a chill in the air, it must still be night then. Alice wondered how long she had been out. She hoped it hadn't been long, getting knocked unconscious was horrible for the brain.

Someone shifted in the dirt next to her and she felt something cool brush against the slashes on her hip.

It felt nice for a moment, then it began to burn. She tried to shift away from the burning but someone, Connor maybe, said "Hold her still," and firm hands grabbed her shoulders and pressed her harder into the dirt.

The thing in between her shoulder blades pressed in harder against her spine, causing a sob-filled groan to be ripped from her lips.

Alice wanted to be left alone. She never wanted to hear the word "Koral" again, the dark memories of teeth gnashing together as they flew at her throat flashed behind her closed eyes.

Another brush of the cool substance, it felt like a gel, caused her to push off of the ground again. This time her eyes ripped open and fluttered against the onslaught of light given off by the dull flames of the fire.

The throbbing in her head increased tenfold at the light, and her vision went blurry. Alice couldn't tell if it was from the concussion she was sure to have or the tears in her eyes that she could feel running down her cheeks. It was probably both.

Through the blurriness, Alice could just make out the dark, curly hair of Nick as he hovered over her, pressing his hands down on her shoulders.

"Sorry, Sparkles. Just a little bit longer, you're ok bud," he said with a strained smile as he fought to keep her still. 
There was something strange in his eyes, an emotion she had not seen in his eyes before. It was fear that glinted there, wildly in his dark blue eyes.

Alice grit her teeth as she let out a faint scream when Connor spread another glob of the gel into her wounds. She watched him pull out a large patch of gauze from his medical kit and taped it to her side.

"Emily, can you grab me some water, please?" he asked before turning to dig through his medicine bag again.

Alice hadn't even seen Emily sitting by the fire, watching the ordeal play out before her with her lips twisted up into a grimace. She looked like she had been to Hell and back, Alice noticed.

Her blonde hair, which had been tied up away from her face when they had parted earlier in the evening now hung loose down her back. She had new cuts on her face, a bloodied lip, and what looked to be a broken nose.

She glanced up at Nick, who had an ugly gash across his forehead, slicing through an eyebrow, and the beginnings of a black eye. That eye was half swollen shut, she hadn't noticed it through her blurry vision and the pain. She could see he had also burst a blood vessel or something in his eye because the blue iris was cornered in red.

Alice had always had an eye thing. She gagged out a "Sorry," before turning her head to the side and threw up all over the side of his pant leg.

"Yea, I know. It's your eye thing," Nick said sympathetically as he rubbed her back while she heaved. She saw him turn his head into his shoulder, to block his eye from her view or to shield himself from the sight and smell of her vomit, she wasn't sure.