{"id":4474,"date":"2020-11-20T12:34:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T17:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4474"},"modified":"2020-11-20T12:34:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T17:34:00","slug":"fourteen-03-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/?p=4474","title":{"rendered":"Fourteen – 03"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\u201cLin, dammit, slow down.\u201d<\/p>\n

I ignored Tory, my head down as I kept walking.\u00a0 I was determined to get back\u2014hopefully before he and Anne had the time to ask more questions.<\/p>\n

Then he grasped my shoulder and I almost blacked out from the white-hot pain that shot through me as his hand closed over the bandages hidden beneath my shirt.\u00a0 I nearly went to my knees, stumbling the next few steps as he let go, eyes going wide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the hell?\u201d he blurted.\u00a0 \u201cLin?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust leave me alone,\u201d I said through gritted teeth, regaining my stride after those few stumbled paces.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m not in the mood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid they do this to you?\u00a0 The strangers?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u201d\u00a0 I bit off the word.\u00a0 He fell in behind me, though he didn\u2019t try to draw up alongside or touch me again, just stayed an arms\u2019 length behind me.\u00a0 \u201cThey had nothing to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen what happened?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAsk someone else.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to bed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m asking you<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

I swallowed a curse and shook my head.\u00a0 My vision twinned for a second, then returned to normal.\u00a0 The thumping pain just got worse.<\/p>\n

I should have stayed in bed like Aunt Jac said.\u00a0 Dammit anyway.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLin, seriously.\u00a0 What\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNext time you\u2019re going to run off to the lake, tell someone you\u2019re going,\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cBecause it\u2019s fucking dangerous out there and my uncle will tell you all about it once you check in with him and let him know you\u2019re alive.\u00a0 Or your mother will\u2014your mother, who\u2019s probably worried about both of you.\u00a0 You should probably go see her.\u201d<\/p>\n

His footsteps stopped.\u00a0 I kept walking.<\/p>\n

One foot in front of the other.<\/p>\n

It was all I could manage as darkness nibbled at the edges of my vision.\u00a0 I just wanted to make it back to my bed before I fell over.<\/p>\n

I failed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post is from Thomas Merlin Ambrose’s point of view.] \u201cLin, dammit, slow down.\u201d I ignored Tory, my head down as I kept walking.\u00a0 I was determined to get back\u2014hopefully before he and Anne had the time to ask more … 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":[336,337,363,14],"tags":[340,271,150,171,170,149,148,168,147,165,200,146],"class_list":["post-4474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambrose-cycle","category-book-8","category-chapter-14-book-8","category-story","tag-ambrose-cycle","tag-artorius-mackenzie","tag-awakenings","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","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-1aa","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4474","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=4474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4475,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4474\/revisions\/4475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/awakenings.embklitzke.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}