Chronicles of the Lost: The Warrior

Headache

My head hurt. I reached up to find a bandage and a giant goose egg. No wonder my head hurt. What happened? I felt tired although I was pretty certain I had just slept for a while. The room no longer spun and my ears were finally quiet. I deep feeling of relief washed over me. I sat up slowly. My muscles ached and as I pushed myself upward, I did feel a little dizzy and a hint nauseous. So, I plopped back down on the pillow, the force of the fall sending a stabbing pain through my temple.

I could hear sounds from downstairs. Voices, many of them unfamiliar. My heart skipped a beat. Someone had finally arrived here and they were having a heated altercation with Tristan. Maybe he's in trouble. Maybe he's been shot. How could I have allowed myself to get injured like this? He needed looking after and he had been up to his own devices for, well, who knows how long! I panicked causing my stomach to churn harder.

Screw the dizziness. If I throw up, I guess they will just have to deal with it. At this point, I wanted answers and I had to make sure Tristan was okay. I slowly made my way to the stairs and proceeded to sit down, dropping my body down each step, not trusting my feet or balance, knowing if I made this concussion any worse, it could kill me.

As I turned into the front room, Tristan was sitting on the couch watching some Kung Fu fighting movie. I shook my head for a moment, remembering he was able to work the television, mentally kicking myself for the panic.

I started toward the couch, but only managed to make it a step before he caught me out of the corner of his eye. He did a double-take.

"Star, you shouldn't be up." He said. "Why didn't you call for me?"

He stood quickly and took me by the arm, assisting me to the couch. After I was seated, he went about the business of making me comfortable, offering food, drinks, pillows, blankets and anything else he could think of. We settled on a glass of water and some crackers. I felt especially parched for some reason.

"Who fixed me up?" I groaned.

"I did. And I did it without a flashback even. I think I am finally starting to get better Star. I mean, I am still taking my medicine but I fixed you up right as rain without a single panicked moment. My training was in full go mode." He said, grinning one of the biggest grins I had seen since he came home.

"I'm proud of you. That's good. Just don't get your hopes up too much. It was one incident. You have yet to be tested if it's a stranger or under more tense circumstances." I advised.

His smile broke a little. I hated having to be real with him, but I had seen small progress like this before. I had also seen when he backslides from these small moments and is so disheartened by it. He's not broken but I'm fairly certain he feels that way a lot of the time. Someone had to keep him on target and even keel. It sucked being the one who always had to be the realist in the family.

"I know. I was just proud of myself. I didn't panic at all. I just took care of the problem and it was a good thing I knew how because you were pretty messed up." He said.

"Where did you find all the supplies?" I asked.

"I found them in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom upstairs." He answered.

"Are any of the other bathrooms stocked?" I asked.

"There's toilet paper in all of them, but the one upstairs was the only one with any medical supplies. They even had an identical prescription to mine which was a good thing because I accidentally left mine in the car...and we're still locked in here." He said, a little glumly.

"And no one has shown up here at all?" I asked.

"Nope, just you and me. Probably for the best. You don't need a lot of commotion if you're trying to recover from what I think is a significant concussion." He reasoned.

"Is there a phone?" I asked.

"We have our phones. I did remember the charger but there's still no service." He lamented.

"No landline?" I clarified.

"Not that I could find. And I've been over every nook and cranny in this house. I mean, we've been here for almost three whole days now." He replied.

"Three days!" I said, the volume of which caused my head to throb. I calmed myself a little and leaned back. "Three days. Are you sure?"

"Yeah and I'm not sure we should stay any longer than we need to. There are some strange things going on in here." He said.

"Stranger than what already happened?" I asked.

"Definitely. For starters, it's like someone keeps coming in at night somehow and refilling all the stuff I take from the kitchen." This caused me to sit up, despite my body's protest. He continued, "And that attic looks totally normal in daylight. There's no second staircase or anything."

"Tristan, you are certain you are taking pills that are the same as your prescription?" My curiosity and fear building as he explained.

"Definitely, I have that memorized to make sure the pharmacy doesn't give me the wrong stuff again. I can take care of myself you know." He insisted.

"What name is on the prescription you found in the bathroom?" I pressed.

"Don't know. It was scratched off." He shrugged as if this were normal.

"And you're certain it's not expired?" I could see he was becoming annoyed with this line of questioning but I needed these answers.

"Yes, in fact, they expire about the same time as my prescription and this guy gets three times as much as I do. Probably so he doesn't have to go into town once a month to refill them." He answered.

"And this was all in the bathroom like the food was in the kitchen?" I continued pushing for more information.

He rolled his eyes at me and waved me off. "You need to get rest so you can heal. Otherwise, I'm not the only one who will have awful nightmares and hallucinations. I wouldn't want anyone to have all that."

Picking up the remote, he began to scan the channels for something else to watch. Maybe he was trying to find something I would rather watch to distract me. I leaned back again, trying to get comfortable. He was clearly done talking.