{"id":4357,"date":"2020-07-08T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T13:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4357"},"modified":"2020-07-08T09:00:33","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T13:00:33","slug":"eight-05-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4357","title":{"rendered":"Eight – 05"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thomas Merlin Ambrose’s point of view.]<\/em><\/p>\n

I tugged on my boots.\u00a0 Kailey crossed her arms, watching me, her expression suddenly suspicious.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you not telling me?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

I shook my head quickly and regretted it as the world spun around me, then slowly righted itself.\u00a0 Oof.\u00a0 Don\u2019t do that again, Lin.<\/em>\u00a0 I rubbed at my temple.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t worry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose<\/em> are words out of your mouth that I am too damn smart to believe,\u201d she said, snagging a spare blanket from my bed and the last book she\u2019d seen me reading\u2014one I was admittedly still reading.\u00a0 \u201cCome on.\u00a0 The family wants you safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the family didn\u2019t always get what it wanted, but for the moment, I\u2019d play along.\u00a0 I let her usher me outside and found myself mumbling a heartfelt curse against the glaring sunshine.\u00a0 The pain was almost enough to make me double over.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s why Dad always wore the sunglasses after a big fight.<\/em>\u00a0 I\u2019d never known exactly why, but back then I\u2019d chalked it up to just looking cool and concealing anything like dark circles or black eyes.\u00a0 I\u2019d never considered another practical purpose for the act. \u00a0Now, the reason he\u2019d worn them was becoming abundantly<\/em> clear, especially if I\u2019d inherited at least part of my heightened sensitivity from him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d Kailey asked me as she turned me toward one of the entrances to the tunnels.<\/p>\n

I almost shook my head but barely managed to stop myself.\u00a0 \u201cJust the light.\u00a0 Making the headache worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Aunt Jac gave you something for the pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe did.\u00a0 Clearly, not enough.\u201d\u00a0 Probably because she\u2014rightfully\u2014expected me to stay in bed and sleep it off.\u00a0 Which I would be doing if the world wasn\u2019t suddenly exploding.<\/em><\/p>\n

Was this really<\/em> what it had been like for our parents all those years ago?<\/p>\n

Something told me we were about to get a stronger dose of their experience than either of us had ever bargained for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thomas Merlin Ambrose’s point of view.] I tugged on my boots.\u00a0 Kailey crossed her arms, watching me, her expression suddenly suspicious. \u201cWhat are you not telling me?\u201d she asked. I shook my head quickly and regretted … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[336,337,351],"tags":[340,150,171,170,345,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-4357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-08-book-8","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-kailey-astoris","tag-original-fiction","tag-post-apocalyptic","tag-serial","tag-serial-fiction","tag-story","tag-thomas-merlin-ambrose","tag-web-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EBlN-18h","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4358,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4357\/revisions\/4358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}