It's Not Magic

Twenty-One

Kane

It took a lot longer than I thought it would. The headache seemed to last forever, and even when the headache had faded enough that I was able to stand, it still seemed my head was ready to explode. Was this how she felt after training? Why she always seemed to want nothing to do with noise those first couple of days?

My vision blurred when I opened my eyes, something that was worse than the last time. That, and the headache. The hell, this headache was awful.

Looking up, I was able to tell that many people were experiencing the same thing I was, even with blurry vision. Seeing blurry figures stumbling and falling back to the ground, I stayed on the ground, knowing I would be doing something similar if I tried standing. I blinked, the world spinning in front of me. God, this was even worse than before.

Matthews, I thought. I have to find her. With the pain searing through my head, I pushed my feet under me, trying to stand. The world spun rapidly around me, and I almost fell to the ground, but I pushed the pain towards the back of my head, trying to forget about it, like how I'd been taught to do back in the academy. Forget the pain, focus on the task at hand. And right now, it was finding Matthews, making sure she was safe.

Pushing myself up to my feet, I swayed as I stood, everything around me seeming to shift in focus. The surrounding people seemed to grow and shrink in their blurriness, and their actions appearing to change speed. My head was pounding, ready to explode at any given moment.

Once I was standing, I saw how many people she'd affected, even with my blurring vision. Everyone in a block's radius seemed to be suffering from a headache, some doing better than others. A few were walking around, but the majority seemed to be still on the ground, trying to figure out what the hell happened. It wasn't going to be long before someone started suspecting magic.

That meant I should get the hell out of there.

Stumbling, I made my way around people scattered on the ground in search of Matthews. But where would she go? What place would she run to?

Making my way up the street, stumbling like a drunk idiot, my vision was going in and out of focus. My hands and feet acted as if they were not attached to my body, my feet changing direction every few seconds. It felt like I had no control over my own actions. I didn't know she held this much anger, especially about whoever 'her' was. The 'her' she'd compared me to.

Trying to turn down a different street, my feet didn't seem to want to obey, running me into a brick wall, my face colliding with the hard wall. I felt the rough surface scratch my face, everything seeming out of place for a moment before I pushed myself away, continuing to stumble down the street.

After turning down a few more streets, I wasn't sure I was going the right way anymore. I wasn't even completely certain which way was left. How was I supposed to find her if I couldn't even tell which direction I was heading?

~•-•~

Ralph handed me another plate filled with cookies. "So tell me what happened." He sat down in the chair across from me as I shoved a cookie in my mouth.

I shook my head, still not wanting to think about it. I'd only lost control like this once, but even then, it wasn't this bad.

"Lili," he said, pulling the plate towards him. "I can't help you if you don't tell me."

I reached for the cookies, but Ralph just pulled them farther from my short reach.

"You have to tell me," he said, placing the plate of cookies on the table behind him.