Page 131 of The Souls We Claim

And I wouldn’t change any of it for the world.

EPILOGUE 2

SWITCH

There’s something wrong. I keep trying to open my eyes, but I can’t.

The temperature is changing.

Barometric pressure pushes against my body. My heart pumps sluggishly; my blood feels like molasses.

Voices come and go. I can’t latch on to them long enough to figure out who they are.

Some undetermined period of time ago, someone touched me. I felt cold. Like water on my face, but I wasn’t drowning.

I feel too hot. Like I’m in a desert.

There’s a flicker of memory. Limbs spread everywhere. Screams.

A bomb blast.

I need to respond. Why can’t I wake up?

Need to stay awake until morning.

Things always feel better in the morning.

I fade; the darkness keeping me under rolls back over me like a storm.

I lose my grip again.

The world is bright beyond my eyelids when I swim to the surface of consciousness again.

“…cerebral blood flow… metabolic dysfunction…outcome unknown until…”

Her voice is soft. I want to hold on to it, but I can’t. I’m sucked back under, like a surfer tumbling in the waves.

Darkness comes again.

This time when I breach the surface, I can hear him. The voice has been here before. This time it’s clear. Clear as day.

“So, anyway, Ari wants a bike. I said no. Next thing I know, Niro has extended Self Defense Sundays to include training for how to get away on a motorbike, should they ever need to. Now every old lady is learning to ride and wants a fucking bike, Switch. So, you need to come back because if those girls hurt themselves riding machines that weigh ten times more than they do, I’m gonna kill Niro for putting the idea in their fucking heads.”

I understand the words, but I don’t.

“Anyways, you also need to come back because I owe you a lot of money from our bet. You were right. I was wrong. Ari is mine, and perfect. She wears my property patch now and I’m waiting for you to give me shit about being a dumbass when I was trying to fight it. You need to go spend it on some tricked out bike I can be grumpy about because I practically bought it for you.”

The bed I’m in jostles.

Fuck me.

Internally I scream.

I don’t know why I can’t force my way through this.

I try to make a sound, but nothing comes.

I concentrate.