Something touched my face. I bolted upright, realizing as my vision cleared that I'm still alive. I was sitting on a stretcher inside of a medical room. I must have passed out and been taken to the hospital after the fall.
"You should lie back down," a nurse said from beside me.
I didn't listen though. I jumped off the stretcher and started to leave the room. Some wires from a heart monitor were still attached to my chest. I ripped them off and threw them down.
Pop!
When I touched them, a surge of electricity made the monitors go haywire. Sparks and smoke came out of them. I stumbled out of the room as the smell of burning plastic filled the room.
"You need more tests!" the nurse yelled from behind me.
I stumbled into the hall frantically, searching for the exit. An ear splitting scream came out of one of the rooms. I wanted to ignore it, but I knew the voice making it. I searched the rooms down the hall until I found the one Mike was in.
"It fucking hurts!" he screamed and thrashed.
He was lying in a hospital bed with his arms and legs strapped to the side rails. Doctors and nurses rushed around him, trying to help. As he whipped his face from side to side, I got a good look at his face. The area around his eyes was black but had pulsing green veins coming out of them, stretching across his face. I audibly gasped at the sight before a nurse saw me and slammed the curtain shut. I left the hospital trying to get the image out of my mind. Not sure of where I was even going, I turned down an alley. I just needed to get away from the hospital.
"Are you okay?" a female voice asked me as I walked away from the hospital.
I glanced over at her. She was leaning up against the wall of the hospital, looking like she had nowhere to be.
"Are you talking to me?" I asked, slowing down but not stopping.
She twisted her face up at me and stepped away from the wall.
"Who else is walking through an alley in a hospital gown and smells like piss?" she asked.
I looked down and saw my bare legs sticking out of a pale blue gown. The socks on my feet brought the entire outfit together.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said and sped up again.
Her boots clacked on the concrete as she followed behind me.
"You won't be for long once he finds you," she said in a nonchalant voice.
I turned around and stared at her. She stopped suddenly so she wouldn't bump into me.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, really looking at her for the first time.
She was tall and thin with long brown hair and blue eyes and wore a black hoodie over some blue jeans.
"Your little 'power display' caught a few people's attention. They want you dead,"
She rocked back on her heels with her arms clasped behind her back as she spoke to me. I stared at her, trying to make sense of what she was saying.
"What power display and what people?"
"Well, I guess 'people' is a loose interpretation of the word. Either way, they are the kinds of people that send out assassins when they get scared. Your little stunt scared the hell out of them."
My eyes narrowed.
"Still don't know what you're talking about."
She nodded her head slowly.
"Well, maybe he can explain it better," she said and pointed at something behind me.
I turned around slowly and found a man in full bronze armor. His helmet covered most of his face, but what I could make out was completely black. He had two glowing red eyes that were fixed directly on me. In his right hand, he carried a sword that looked more than capable of slicing off my scrawny limbs. He carried a bronze shield so large I could hide behind it if I ducked on his left arm. I stepped backward before he rushed at me with the sword raised over his head and his shield raised in front of him. There was no way this was real. Nothing that had happened after I walked out of that bathroom made any sense. This had to be a dream. Maybe I slipped when I tried to rush out of that toilet stall and hit my head. The floor was wet. I'm probably knocked out on the bathroom floor at school right now.
The soldier stepped forward and swung his sword straight down in a deadly cleave. His movement was too fast for me to dodge. Even if I dove straight backward, a part of his curved blade would slice through me. Even in a dream, I didn't want to be skewered by him. I could dive to the side. Then I might only lose an arm. I went for it. I jumped to my left. His blade came down on what should have been my right shoulder, but hit a wind barrier that knocked his sword out of his hand. Instead of jumping to the side like I planned, I rocketed to the left and slammed into a brick wall. Everything around me blew away as the wind barrier around me continued.
"Defensive wind power, not too bad," the girl said from beside me and nodded. She leaned against the wall next to me as if she knew the soldier wouldn't attack her.
I glanced at her as the soldier went to pick up his sword. She pulled out her phone and tapped the screen. A tiny arc of yellow electricity traveled from the back of my right hand and zapped her phone. It exploded in her hand and startled her. She fumbled and dropped it before glaring at me.
"I liked that phone,"
She rolled her eyes and looked away from me. As if I had done it on purpose. This dream was strange, and I really wanted to wake up now. The soldier retrieved his sword and turned to face me again. He raised his shield and marched toward me again with his sword in the air. There was only about 6 feet separating him from me. I needed to know how to wake up.
"Hey, I know this is a dream, so how do I wake up?" I asked the pissed off girl.
Her head turned to face me at a slow, menacing pace.
"You're not sleeping. Actually, you're actually awake for the first time. You just have the unlucky reality of being stormblooded,"
She turned her head forward again after saying that, as if she had explained anything to me. I didn't have time to ask her another question. The soldier came forward and thrusted his sword directly at my face. I flinched and threw my guard up, shielding my face with my arms.
Whoosh!
I heard what sounded like an enormous gust of wind, followed by things clattering all around me. I opened my eyes. Everything around me had blown away. The soldier was thrown backward and slammed into the wall on the opposite side of the alley. The girl remained standing, but she was several feet away, near the entrance of the alley. Trash cans and wooden pallets were strewn all over the area. It looked like a tornado had touched down and then vanished.
"That was you," the girl said and nodded.
I didn't wait for her to clarify. I just took off running away from her and the soldier.