Familiar

Chapter Fifteen

It was dark when I woke next. 

I blinked a few times before my eyes started to adjust. There were windows to my left along the wall, and I must have been lying in a bed.

My head throbbed, and my arm stung. But the pain was muted now.

They must have given my something for the pain, I thought numbly. My thoughts were slow.

"Glad to see you're up." I turned to see Dane swishing his tail across the floor. I didn't know how a fox could look angry - but he did.

Dane walked over and nudged Ryan who had apparently dozed off in a chair nearby.

"huh? I - oh." He stopped, yawning. "You okay?"

I nodded. And then stopped when it hurt.

"Yeah, I think so. What happened?" I asked quietly, noticing there were other figured on the other beds in the large room. It was like a hospital, with curtains around the bed. I had no idea where I was.

"I got your text and rushed right over. Thankfully Dane let me in and Tanya wasn't home. It would have been difficult to explain me carrying you unconscious out of the apartment."

"How did you get past the guard?" I wondered aloud.

"Easier than you'd think actually. Dane is very good at making a distraction." Ryan grinned.

"You let him see you?" I turned to Dane.

"It was obviously an emergency." Dane said it as if he was shrugging. 

"That must have been quite the scene." I murmured, more to myself.

"Thankfully, yes, or it would have been worse with me having to explain carrying you unconscious through the lobby." Dane remarked back.

I didn't have an answer to that, so I looked around instead. "Where are we?" I asked Ryan. 

"Near the restaurant we were at the other day. But in a separate building. Same owners though, so they - y'know, know things." He motioned to my arm. "They said they had seen that before, so I asked for a contact name and number so you could ask them later." He pulled a business card out of his back pocket. "Here," He tucked it next to my phone. 

"Thanks. Um, so am I allowed to leave?" I looked around and noticed a few people in dark green scrubs. 

"Yeah, once you wake up, they said you would be fine." I grimaced, and Ryan took note. "Okay, maybe 'fine' is an overstatement." 

"Yeah," I added as I pulled my arm up and across my chest to look at it. Bright red swirls covered me from my wrist up past the sleeve of the light blue cloth smock I had been changed into.  "That's going to be hard to explain to my friends." Ryan nodded as if in agreement, but didn't say anything. 

"Maybe tattoos would be the way to go after all." I admitted, biting my lip. "Oh crap, where's my phone?" I glanced at Ryan and he got up, bringing me my backpack.

"I found it on the floor along with some of your other things. I didn't know what you needed so I just kind of threw some things in there."

I nodded, thanking him. Finding my phone, grateful that it still had power, I quickly swiped through to an app.

"Can I ask what you are looking at?" Ryan asked tenatively, returning to his chair.

"Mmm," I murmured for a moment, glancing through some missed messages. "I had a project due - wait, when is it?"

"Tomorrow for you." Dane answered, still keeping his words curt. I wasn't sure if it was from his worry about me, or something else.

"Crap, crap, crap." I muttered, closing the app and opening another.

"Something I can help with?" Ryan asked, his eyebrows raised. I waved an arm gesturing vaguely at the world.

"I had a term paper due last night. For 20%." I winced. "That's going to be hard to explain." Ryan grinned at me as I looked up.

"What?" I asked him, confused.

"You're literally sitting in a hospital. I would say you're excused, or at least allowed to get an extension. Take a picture of the band on your wrist if the prof won't believe you." My gaze went to my wrist. Right, I thought, he had a good point.

"Only you would worry about grades, but not the terrible danger you put yourself and who knows who else, in." Dane snapped and ran out of the room through a set of double doors. I didn't see anyone open them for him, and they didn't seem automatic but I didn't want to dwell on how a magic spirit fox got in and out of places.

"Right, thanks." I said to Ryan, glancing at the doorway. "I know he's mad about," I winced as I moved my streaked arm. "But why is he so angry at me?" Ryan shrugged, then some other expression I couldn't quite name crossed his face.

"What is it?" I asked him, feeling my stomach contract with nerves. Something wasn't right. "What's going on, Ryan?"

"It's-" He lifted his arm to rub the back of his neck, exposing more tattoos underneath his arm. He let out a long breath. "I don't think I can be around you anymore. I mean, I like you and I like hanging out with you, but this-" He gestured to my marks. "I just can't see you go through what I went through. And I thought I could help but, the truth is." He let his arm drop. "I just can't."

Before I could even react to that or come up with an appropriate response, he took the business card out of his pocket and standing, set it on the edge of the bed.

"The contact for the people who know about your arm." He sighed. "I hope they can help, but - , I wish you would stop this. Bye."

I watched him walk out, and this time he grabbed a door handle and made his way out. My thoughts blurred from physical pain, to emotional loss. Ryan was gone, and while I was sure Dane would be back, I wasn't sure what I was doing anymore.

You could have died. A voice echoes in my mind. If I die trying to get my brother back, does that negate what I am doing? 

The only sound was the people in green scrubs cleaning up around the room, and talking quietly to other patients in beds. 

I didn't have an answer for that.


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