Page 158 of Once Upon a Fable
My new life was full of turbulence.
“Take these too.” She tossed a packet of pills into my lap. “They’re high strength anti-inflammatories. You need to take down the swelling on your brain...or at least, I think that’s what’s causing the hallucinations. Plus, they’ll help with your headache.”
Swelling on my brain?
Hallucinations?
What the hell is happening to me?
I snatched up the pills, popping them from the packet with tingling fingers thanks to being tightly bound. “How do you know I have a headache?” I decided against telling her about the ringing in my ears, the odd taste in my mouth, the weakness in my left side, and the constant nausea. I also suspected my left arm was broken, made worse with her rope tying me tight. I knew the dull ache of a bone injury and recognized the symptoms.
How I’d broken my arm was yet another mystery.
One I needed to figure out before any other shit could happen to me.
Ignoring my pain, I glared at the woman.
I wouldn’t let on that I hurt.
No way.
The least pathetic I looked, the better. If she still feared me, even with my hands in ropes, then I might stand a chance of getting free. Of scaring her enough that she didn’t hurt me further.
“I watched you fall.” She ducked her head, biting her lip before admitting with a wince. “Imadeyou fall.”
“Fall?” I scowled and tossed back the pills with the entire bottle ofwater, blindly trusting and not caring if they were poison. I was suddenly thirsty. Epically thirsty. Once the bottle was empty, I threw it back toward her, then grabbed the plate of random food. It wasn’t roast beef, but it would patch up some of the gnawing hunger inside me. “Where’s the chef? You give him a night off?”
She blinked. “There was a chef?”
I rolled my eyes but stopped with a hiss, cursing the rock and roll of the room and the spearing pain in my head. “How else do you think Storymaker entertains in style?”
“Storymaker?”
Honestly? Who the fuck was this woman? She wasn’t a member of my family. Therefore, she had to be a guest. I’d never met her, but she couldn’t be here if she hadn’t been given exclusive membership.
Ignoring her, I chewed on a strawberry.
My stomach roiled.
My body rejected it.
I barely made it in time to twist to the side before I wretched.
All the water came up.
The room turned upside down.
My nervous system chose that exact moment to turn me into a furnace, blur my eyes, and turn up the screeching in my ears until I couldn’t breathe.
I convulsed.
I screamed.
It went dark.
CHAPTER EIGHT
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