Lesson 141- Look both ways before you cross the street.

I drop to the floor, arms up, trying to avoid the shattering glass. My arm stings and there’s a sharp pain across my jaw. I clutch at my face and my hands come away bloody. Well shit. The room is chaotic and loud. Then all of a sudden I hear the front door slam shut.
“BE QUIET!” Torin yells. The room falls silent. I start to struggle to get up off the floor, using my left arm to pull myself up, leaning on the edge of the bar.
“Rina?” Torin calls out. He looks… Furious. He isn’t in his full demon horn, but his eyes are black. Totally black. As he looks around the room, I see people flinching away from him. That seems kind of unfair, he was trying to protect everyone.
“Here.” I call out to him, struggling to my feet. Torin stares. Damien rushes past me with a bucket of water which he tips on the last of the fires. Eli freezes in the doorway staring at me in horror. He rushes forward and hooks an arm around me and helps me the rest of the way up.
“Shit Rina! Are you okay?” He demands. I consider his question. Am I okay? I think I might be in shock a little bit. I’m in pain, but emotionally I feel kind of numb.
“My face hurts. I think I’m bleeding. My arm too.” I answer. Eli starts to look at my arm, but Torin storms over and knocks him out of the way. He gently but firmly puts a hand on the left side of my face that isn’t hurting and angles the painful side towards him. His furious expression doesn’t change. Damien is standing to the side, trying to see better. Kyle has miraculously appeared with a first aid kit and clears his throat loudly. Torin stares at me a moment longer before taking a step back and letting Kyle through.

Kyle cleans me up. There’s a cut running across my jaw. He uses those little butterfly bandages to hold it shut. Apparently it’s pretty deep and might scar. I’ll have to see how I feel about that later. Right now I just… Don’t know. The cuts on my right forearm are big, but not as deep. He just cleans them and wraps them up in a bandage. Laura seems to have everyone mostly settled down so she comes to report in.
“No major injuries. I think Rina took the worst of it. The bar is trashed again though. I… I don’t think we can open again for a while. Particularly not if Solem is going to keep attacking like this. It’s not safe for anyone.” She says hesitantly.
“We need to send people home. I was wondering if I could take them through the back. I don’t think we should open the front door again. The back is a little more subtle… Maybe.” Laura suggests. Torin doesn’t answer her. He’s still staring at me, that angry look on his face. His eyes are still black.
“Tori?” I say softly. I want to know what’s going through his head right now. He doesn’t usually display so much emotion, particularly not in front of other people. All of a sudden, he turns on the spot to face Laura.
“Rina can’t stay here anymore. Remove the binding spell. Now.” He orders, his tone is serious and leaves no space for argument. What does he mean I can’t stay here? Is he planning on kicking me out? I wouldn’t blame him. This is the second time his bar has been destroyed because I’m here. First flooding and now fire. I wouldn’t want me here either. I know he cares about me, but everyone has their limit and he really does look very pissed off. Laura’s eyes go wide and she glances over at the terrified customers who are still all hiding in the far side of the room against the wall.
“Right now? But I…” She trails off at the dark look on Torin’s face.
“Yep, okay. Right now. Uh… Maybe we should step into the other room? It would be a lot easier without a whole bunch of people staring at us.” Laura suggests. I nod.
“Yeah… And I should grab my inhaler too. There’s a lot of smoke in here and I’m just now realising this pain in my chest is probably because I’m not breathing so well, not just stress.” I comment mildly. Torin nods, takes me by my uninjured arm and escorts me to my room. I stumble along with him. He’s moving very fast. Laura hurries along behind us. Damien follows too while Eli and Kyle stay and keep an eye on everyone in the bar.

“You should sit.” Laura prompts me after I take my inhaler. I sit on the edge of my bed and she sits beside me. She reaches out and takes my left hand. I’m pretty sure it’s the same one she used when she cast the spell because I had a cut on my right arm. Weird how this situation feels oddly similar and yet completely different. I just had my life threatened, I hurt my arm, I’m totally freaked out and I need my inhaler. Now Laura is about to do some magic thing to me on Torin’s orders. I’m still not really safe either. I guess the biggest difference is that now instead of being surrounded by strangers, I’m surrounded by friends. Plus my brother is here. The bad news is I still have no idea what I’m doing. I actually have less of a plan than I did when I first got here. At the time, my plan was just to earn Torin’s trust and get out of here. Now I don’t know what’s happening. So I do my best to stay relaxed when Laura takes my arm. Last time, this also really hurt. I’m just now remembering that. Damn it. It burned like hell last time. I prepare myself for the pain, which is why I’m surprised when Instead of pain, I feel a sort of cooling sensation rushing through my arm. It actually feels… Nice. I sigh in relief… Until it gets colder and colder. Then it starts to get uncomfortable. Not painful exactly, I just feel weirdly shivery. Soon I’m outright shaking. Damien steps in concerned but Torin drops a hand on his shoulder and stops him from coming any closer. That’s probably for the best. The shivers get worse and worse until I feel like an icicle. Then Laura lets go of my arm and the cold sensation just immediately stops. Somehow that’s even worse. The cold was uncomfortable. But it came on slowly so I kind of got used to it. Suddenly just jumping back to a normal temperature has given me this weird pins and needles feeling. Ugh. I would complain about it except that one, I’m totally thrilled that the binding spell is finally gone and two, Laura looks like she’s going to pass out. I lunge forward and catch her, then redirect her to lie back on my bed. She goes willingly, lying back on my pillows with her eyes shut and a hand over her eyes.
“Is it gone?” Torin demands.
“Yeah.” She answers tiredly. Torin nods.
“Good. Rina, come with me. We’re leaving.” Torin steps forward, takes my good arm and pulls me up off the bed.
“Wait a second!” I pull my arm away and turn back to Laura.
“Are you okay?” I ask, concerned. She waves a hand in my general direction which I take to mean that she’s fine. I nod.
“Well.. Alright then.” I agree and turn back to Torin.
“Ready to go then… I guess?” I say, a little hesitantly. This really isn’t what I imagined when I thought about leaving this place. For starters I thought it would be during the day, and for something fun at least. Torin nods, and grabs my arm again. I disentangle myself, then grab his hand instead. Torin pulls me towards the back door. Damien follows after us.
“Hey! Wait, where are you taking my sister?” He demands.
“Somewhere safe.” Torin answers.
“But-” Damien starts.
“I’ll text you in a bit.” I promise. I think Torin is in the middle of a bit of a freak out. I trust him though, so I’ll just wait until he calms down a bit and talk to him then. Kyle steps into the hall and sees us leaving.
“Wait, what about all the people here? What are we meant to do about-” He gets interrupted.
“Figure it out.” Torin answers flatly, not even pausing. Then, for the first time in over a month. I leave the bar.