9. Like Someone Set Fire to It
LIKE SOMEONE SET FIRE TO IT
WILLA
I wake up outside the studio, facedown on the concrete, surrounded by passersby as sirens wail. Blood trickles down my head and face.
“Wh—” I begin, but squeeze my eyes shut.
“Don’t move. I need to check you for a head injury.” The voice is so familiar that I tense. It’s not right—not here, anyway. It’s so eerily similar to Paul’s, it’s uncanny. I’d swear it’s him, but it’s hard to think straight.
“Don’t touch me.” The force of my voice is gone.
“Shut up.”
“Shut up?” I hope those words come out of my mouth. I try to push them out but only hear them in my mind.
“Willa? Willa!” Jackie’s voice is far away, an echo reverberating through my skull. “What the fuck did you do?”
Why is she mad at me? I’m the victim. And why does everything hurt?
“Shut up! How many times do I have to tell you—”
“Step aside, sir. Move. Please allow us access.”
The scuffle around me sounds in stereo… It’s at my head level, above me, and surrounding me.
Finally, hands roam my body. Fingers gently press my temple, my neck, around my skull. Pain shoots across my head, electric bolts zap down my spine as they press.
“Stop.” I mouth the word. I can’t tell if I said it out loud. Everything is too loud, and my head swims.
“Ma’am? Can you hear us?”
“Yes.”
“What hurts?”
“Head... Face... Hand...Everything.”
“Can you open your eyes?”
I do, but everything is blurry and red. Lights flash and sirens scream, and my cheek feels like someone set fire to it.
“Sirens are too loud,” I moan as they roll me to my back. “It hurts. Everything hurts…”
“Your hand is already bandaged.”
“Did it rip?” My eyes fly open, only to remind me about the pain screaming behind them.
“Stay calm, ma’am.”
“Did the bandage rip?” I ask, trying to enunciate but failing. “And where’s—” I try to look around but moving my eyes in any direction causes the nausea to roil in my stomach and streaks pain across my skull.
A plastic cup covers my nose and mouth. “Breathe deeply.”
“What is it?” I want to fight it, but it’s pressed more tightly to my face and succumb.
I gasp at the smell and taste. Something’s not right and fear rises up, but I have no voice. I shift between dreams and reality until I’m lifted into a vehicle and whisked away.
I assume it’s an ambulance. I hope it’s an ambulance. The sirens just won’t stop, but this whole thing sets me on edge. The whole situation feels… off.
There’s something I’m forgetting. Lots of somethings I’m forgetting.
They flit just outside my grasp.
I succumb to darkness and sleep.