Lesson 102- Sometimes the only thing you can do is wait.

Torin lurches to his feet and takes me inside, slamming the door behind him and locking the guy outside. I hoped that being inside would mean the pain would end but not yet. Last time it took a few minutes, and it was only my foot outside for half a second. I want to scream but I can’t seem to make any sound. Actually, I can’t seem to breathe. My vision has flashing lights everywhere and I am definitely not coherent. I don’t know how long the pain lasts, but it feels like an eternity. Eventually it starts to wane. The first sense to come back is my hearing. I know because Torin is talking to me.
“Rina, Rina you’ll be okay. Just keep breathing, please keep breathing.” He pleads and continues to remind me to breathe. It occurs to me that he’s right and I force myself to take a deep breath. At least I intended it to be a deep breath. It comes out as more of a painful rattle, catching and choking. But I do it and instantly my head starts to clear a little. I take another breath and the lights in front of my eyes start to fade, although the entire room still seems way too bright. Still, I can finally see Torin’s face. He looks… Different. For starters, his eyes are black. Like not just the pupil and iris like usual, the whole eye. It should be creepy, but he looks so concerned that it barely registers in my pain numbed brain.
“Tori?” I try to speak but I’m not sure I actually succeed. My voice is a hoarse croak and so slurred that I sound like I’ve downed a bottle of tequila.
“Rina?” Torin says gently. He pushes a piece of wet hair off of my face and I flinch. The touch is painful. Actually everything hurts. He immediately pulls back.
“Sorry. Laura should be here soon, maybe she can help.” he says desperately.
“Mhmm.” I respond. A random groan of general agreement is the best he’s going to get right now.

A few more minutes pass and I start to regain control of myself. I still hurt, like everywhere. I feel kind of like I have a really, really nasty sunburn. Also my head hurts, my eyes sting and my throat is super scratchy. Still, I think I might be able to move. I’m lying on the floor with Torin kneeling next to me, watching anxiously. He’s being careful not to touch me again though since it hurt me so much the first time. I tentatively try to sit up. It takes me a couple attempts, but I manage to get myself mostly upright. I’m using the back of the bar to prop myself up. Idly, I take in the room. The entire place is absolutely trashed. There are puddles of water everywhere, several of the chairs are broken and the rest are knocked over or scattered. Surprisingly, only a few of the bottles of alcohol are actually broken. The rest seem to have avoided the worst of it. Probably because they’re behind the bar and it blocked the more violent waves of water from them somewhat. I continue to focus on breathing. I suddenly panic.
“Jane?” I call out, as loudly as I can manage. There’s a creaking sound behind the bar and a moment later one of her limbs comes into sight and waves at me. I sigh in relief. She’s okay. Apparently with that guy knocked out, all the water that was flooding her area is gone now too.

I’m so distracted checking on Jane that I don’t notice Torin is sort of creeping away from me until I spot him halfway across the room.
“Where are you going?” I ask, weirdly paranoid. I don’t want to be left alone, particularly since I don’t think I could get up off the floor if I tried. At least my words make it out this time. Torin freezes like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“Uh… I was just… I thought I should give you space.” He answers uncomfortably. He’s hunched over and looks like he’s trying to make himself smaller the way he does when he’s worried about upsetting me. I frown and ugh, it hurts.
“I really don’t want space right now.” I tell him bluntly. Torin looks confused.
“But… I’m…” He gestures to himself awkwardly. I shrug and immediately regret the movement.
“Ow. Sorry. I meant to say you’re you. Actually, I’ve been wanting to see what you look like when you’re all demony.” I comment curiously. Torin reluctantly takes a few steps closer and kneels on the ground in front of me. He still looks like himself, sort of. Like his base features are the same. But his skin is kind of greyish. His eyes are black like I noticed earlier and he has the three sets of horns. Looking at him closer, it also looks like he has black claws on each of his fingers. His clothes are still wet and I can see the outline of some kind of dark tattoos through his shirt. I want to ask to see them but I’m fairly sure he would die of embarrassment or run away. He already looks supremely uncomfortable as it is.
“I like your horns.” I comment, trying to break the tension a little bit. Torin blinks at me and I see the barest hint of a smile.
“You would be the first.” He answers and I choke out a painful laugh, it’s more of a breathy huff than anything else.
“Tori? Please don’t leave me alone.” I say quietly. He nods seriously and I relax a little bit.
“You seem uncomfortable.” I add. He nods.
“I don’t like to be seen like this. It frightens people.” He explains.
“Oh, well I don’t think you’re scary. But if you don’t like it, why are you still looking that way?” I ask curiously. He sighs.
“I tend to end up stuck this way when I’m really upset.” He answers slowly.
“Oh.” I respond dully. I want to say something reassuring, but I’m kind of exhausted. I just want to lie down and cuddle Crash. Crash!
“Tori, Crash!” I say, alarmed. Torin nods, understanding my concern. He gets to his feet and goes to look for Crash. A minute later he returns and drops a wet but totally healthy and uninjured ball of fur in my lap. Crash meows at me a couple times and tries to claw at my lap to make himself comfortable. Torin immediately scoops him up. Crash doesn’t seem to mind Torin’s different form. He just clings onto his shoulder and stays there. Crash looks kind of freaked out. I don’t blame him, I’m freaked out too. There’s a ringing from Torin’s pocket. It lasts about half a second then kind of fizzles out. Torin pulls his phone out and water drips from it.
“I think it’s dead.” He remarks and I nod.
“Yeah… It was probably Laura calling about the binding spell.” I remind him and he nods. A knock on the front door makes me jump. Torin checks through the window, then relaxes.
“It’s Laura.” He opens the door and she stops in place, staring at Torin in absolute horror. SHE certainly looks freaked out. If this is how people normally react to seeing Torin in this form, then I’m not surprised he’s uncomfortable with it.

Laura is caught up staring at Torin, so it’s not until he steps aside and returns to kneel next to me that she even notices me.
“Rina! Oh no. I felt the binding spell going off. What the hell happened here?” She demands, rushing to my side and checking me for injuries. I’m too tired to explain. I leave it to Torin who answers as well as he can.
“Someone got in? But how? The wards aren’t broken.” Laura insists. I go to answer, but a wave of dizziness rushes over me and I nearly topple over.
“You need to go to bed.” Torin insists and I nod tiredly. In one movement, Torin sweeps me up off the floor and starts to carry me towards my room.
“Wait!” Laura rushes after us and Torin pauses, he looks a little annoyed and she takes a step back.
“I just wanted to say… She’s all wet. She will get sick if she goes to sleep like that. I… I can help.” She explains. Torin nods and at Laura’s direction, he places me on the recliner instead of my bed. Laura shoos him out of the room and in what is an embarrassing, painful and exhausting process, Laura helps me change into clean, dry pyjamas and twists my hair into a loose braid. Then she calls Torin back in and he carefully lowers me into my bed. I don’t point out that his wet clothes left damp spots on my pyjamas. I don’t want to make him feel bad. Laura excuses herself to go start trying to deal with the mess that is the bar. Torin gets up to follow her.
“Wait.” I call out, in a sudden panic. He stops and turns back to me.
“Please stay? At least for a bit?” I ask anxiously. Torin nods and without a word, sits down in the recliner. I breathe a sigh of relief. Crash comes and curls up on my chest and it takes only a couple minutes for me to fall fast asleep.