The Necromancer ✓

Chapter Fifteen

I had to talk to the police. I told them I couldn't remember what happened. Oren was in the bed next to me, in the emergency room. He didn't say anything to anyone. I overhead the doctor saying that the trauma had disturbed our minds. I'd blocked out the memory, apparently. In reality, I just didn't want anyone locking me up for being crazy. And it does sound crazy, doesn't it?

I was kidnapped and tortured by the prince of another world. I didn't know how I got out, exactly, or how I managed to bring Oren with me. It was obviously the same way that Jack traveled between the worlds, because it had felt the same, but I wasn't aware that I was capable of doing it. Even if I did have the medallion. A small voice whispered in the back of my mind that Jack had called it a passport. An even smaller voice reminded me that he'd also called it a transporter...

I realized then, that the medallion wasn't just something to get me through customs, it was my ticket, my seat, and the plane itself. I glanced over at Oren.

It even let me take passengers, apparently.

Oren had to stay in the hospital longer than I did because Zephan had longer to do his work on him, whereas I'd left the party a little earlier than he'd wanted me to. Sometimes there are more important things than being polite to a host. Staying alive is definitely one of those things.

I went home, wrapped in bandages, with a bag of replacement dressings and a box of pain pills. I walked into the kitchen, and put my bag down on the table. I needed another pill, so I went to get a glass of water. Then I saw the floor. Where Oren and I had come in.

I stared at it. I couldn't take my eyes away. It was like I was hypnotized. I'd seen blood before, but never that much, never mine. Not like that. I don't know how long I stood there, staring at the dried blood on my kitchen floor. Long enough that my entire body began to shake, that I shivered with the returning pain.

"What happened?" Tyler asked. I jumped. I hadn't heard him come up behind me.

"I..." I had to force the words past the lump in my throat, "was attacked."

"Here?" he asked, staring at the blood stain with wide eyes.

"No," I shook my head. I took a step away from the blood, so that I stood behind him. "Could you get me a glass of water?"

"Sure." He stepped, warily, over the blood. I took a tablet out of the packet. He handed me a glass and I took the pill. "I'm sorry I wasn't here," he said, quietly.

"Where were you?" I asked, realizing he'd only just come in, that he must have been gone since a couple of days, to have not seen the blood earlier.

"A friend of mine has a place in the Valley." Tyler shrugged. "I slept on his couch. I had left you a note by the door."

"Oh." I hadn't seen it.

"Yeah."

"I'm going to go lie down," I said. I picked the bag up and tried not to look at the blood.

"Okay," he nodded.

I didn't go to sleep. I didn't even lie down, actually. I mean, I'd planned lying down, it's not like I'd lied to Tyler. I just never quite made it to bed. I sat in front of my dresser, staring at myself in the mirror.

I had a vivid bruise across one cheekbone and my lip was split. My nose was swollen and dark circles spread out under my eyes. My hair was frizzy and shot out in different directions. I felt along the edge of my hair, feeling the small round ends from where my hair was singed. I grabbed a pair of scissors and took to the ends of my hair. I pulled the strands forward, trying to see what I was doing as I cut the burned ends off.