Chapter Text
It’s too fucking bright.
“Eye movement detected. What is two plus two?”
The voice sounds artificial. My lips pull back to snarl at it, but all that comes out is some dry gurgle. My throat burns. So do my eyes, despite being welded shut to keep out the light.
“Incorrect. What is two plus two?”
“Geez— Rocky! Leave him alone, he just woke up!” This voice does not sound artificial.
“Is not how Hail Mary woke Grace up from coma, question?”
“That doesn’t mean it’s a proper greeting for every comatose human!”
“Ohhhhh. Understand.”
“Whatthefuck…“ I groan, trying to sit up, but pain surges through my chest and abdomen, keeping me firmly in place as I hiss out in frustration.
Footsteps clunk beside me. I still won’t open my eyes, even as I can tell the light has dimmed above me, a shadow cast over my face.
“Hey-hi! How do you feel?”
I answer by pitching forward and vomiting. There’s no chunks, so it must be pure liquid. It’s hot. It tastes like metal. Fuck, please don’t let it be blood—
“Oh, oh God. Okay, that’s not good.”
“Hmmgh.” I grunt in response. My eyelids are sore with how hard I squeeze them shut. But the light is still so bright. I try to shift, my legs feeling heavy beneath sheets.
“Hold on a second there! Don’t try to move. Let me clean you up then take a look at you, you might have some internal bleeding!”
“Think other human swallowed blood.”
“Oh, yeah, I mean, he could have—"
Fuck this.
I can’t stand the rambling back and forth between artificial and real sounds, or the hot vomit sticking to my skin. It’s all too much. I gotta move, I gotta—
There’s pressure on my shoulders, something trying to hold me down. “I’m serious, you have to stay—"
A fully fledged growl rips from my throat and I lunge forward blindly to the voice. I can’t explain, I can’t think, only that it’s grating, I hate it telling me what to do. Finally, my eyes open.
The man is on the floor, beneath me. He’s gasping for air and shaking. His glasses are askew and his hands grasp around my wrist where my hand encloses around his throat.
My hand…
My only hand.
Where the fuck—
“Where the fuck is my arm?!” I roar, and red droplets splatter against the man’s face. Oh fuck, it is, it is blood…
“I don’t— I don’t know!”
“You took it! You fucking took it! Give it back!” As if that makes any sense.
“I don’t know what happened to it! I swear I don’t!”
“The fuck you don’t!” Fear swells in his eyes, deep blue shimmering as tears pool. I don’t stop squeezing. I want those eyes to fucking pop out of his skull.
Something hard and blunt smashes into the back of my head. My vision blurs.
“Rocky! No!”
Another hard impact. And this one makes the world dark. I slump forward with a groan.
“No, no no…”