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When I could focus again, Tria was back in my view. Her face was covered in bright red and blue flashing lights, and she was talking to some guy in a uniform. The air around me was cool, and I wasn’t on the ground any more.
“Fucker stabbed me,” I mumbled as I looked around to try to get my bearings.
“I know, baby,” Tria said. I felt her fingers tighten on my right hand. “Wade got him. They're loading him into the other ambulance.”
Tria’s other hand skimmed the side of my face. I managed to focus on her just enough to see the tears in her eyes. I wanted to reach up and wipe them away, but I couldn’t move my arm. There was something holding me down.
Another face flashed in my head—the guy at the edge of the cage.
“There was another dude,” I tried to say, but words weren't coming out again. I could taste blood in my mouth.
I was never one to pass out, but suddenly everything went dark.
Chapter 15—Heal the Body
I was roused from a bizarre dream about placing fruit in geometric patterns all over Tria's naked body. Though I was awake, I couldn’t open my eyes. I could hear voices around me, but the sounds were muted. The only thing that made me feel at all connected to what was happening around me were the small, soft fingers running continuously up and down my forearm.
“Are you sure?”
“It can take time.”
“But how long?”
“Everyone is different.”
My hand was itchy. There was also an itchy spot just above where the soft fingers ended their continuous journey on my skin. Just under my nose definitely had an itch. I wanted to scratch at them all, but my limbs weren’t responding any more than my eyelids.
More murmured voices filled my head, but they were too mixed up to make any sense to me. I tried to tune them out along with the rest of the world, but they kept coming back. My throat was dry, and the tickling on my hand, arm, and nose was driving me nuts. At least the voices I was hearing cleared up.
“…so, if you wanted to just maybe open your eyes or squeeze my hand or something, I’d kind of appreciate it.”
Tria.
I tried to swallow, but nothing happened.
“No change?” It was Yolanda’s voice.
“Well, they stopped arguing with me about being in the room, at least,” Tria replied. “That’s a change.”
“Oh yeah, how did you manage that?”
“I, um…” Tria’s voice trailed off. “I called someone who had a little more authority.”
“Ah shit,” Yolanda said. “That isn’t going to go over well.”
“It was necessary,” Tria replied. “I don’t want him to wake up alone.”
I felt fingers trailing slowly back and forth over my knuckles before wrapping around my hand and squeezing gently. I wanted to turn my hand and grab hold of the fingers, but my body wouldn’t comply.
“Are they going to show up?” Yolanda asked.
I tightened my fingers a little on Tria’s hand.
“Liam? Can you hear me?” Tria said quickly.
I felt my arm rise as she wrapped both her hands around it. My throat clenched, but I still couldn’t swallow, so I tried blinking instead. Everything was blurry and really, really bright. The pounding in the back of my head increased.
“Squeeze my hand again?”
