Chapter 10

Sable took her revenge about a week after we came back. I had a match against…a really don't remember. Near the middle of the match, though, I noticed Sable coming up behind Amber. I should've warned her, but there hadn't been time. Sable came up from behind. Amber turned around at the last second to be cracked in the head with a chair. I totally forgot about the match and got out of the ring. Amber had staggered backward and caught herself on the ring apron. I turned away from her for only a moment to go after Sable. She ran backwards away from me. I didn't know what to do, but by instinct turned to Amber. She was looking up at me, eyes wide, mouth open, and had slid back to the steel steps, half sitting on them.

"Amber are you okay?" I asked her. Her mouth opened but she said nothing. She reached for me and I ran over to her as she fell into my arms. "Amber, you okay?" I asked her again. She looked up at me and with a shaking hand pushed a strand of dark hair out of the way to show a little trickle of blood running down the side of her face. She wiped it with her hand, smudging it on her cheek. Meanwhile the ref was counting me out, which I didn't care about because I was supposed to lose that match anyway. I picked her up and carried her to the back, letting her sit down in the floor area behind the curtain. The blood now was coming down into her eyes. She didn't wipe it away, and looked at me with a dazed expression. I put my hands on the sides of her head, behind her ears and moved her so that she would look at me, but her eyes seemed to go right through me.

"Amber? Amber, c'mon talk to me, honey."

She blinked a few times and looked at me, her gaze focusing. She blinked again and rubbed her forehead where there was no blood. Her voice was quiet. "Why aren't you in your match?"

I push a bit of hair out of her face, which was wet and sticking to her skin. "That doesn't matter. Are you all right?"

"I…" she rubbed at one of her eyes. "Yeah I think I'm okay, Kane. I just banged my head pretty hard…" she laughed a bit. "Can I ask you what?" I saw Shane and Vince and a few medics coming over, and then I saw Mark push through them to get to us quicker. Vince looked totally pissed, Shane concerned. Mark looked concerned also, and got to her first, kneeling down beside me.

"Jesus Amber. Are you okay, girl?"

"Yeah…I think I'm fine."

Shane and Vince just stood there, listening to her questions and answers as the medic wiped blood from her face. She said that yes, she knew where she was and what day it was and the president and who she was and how many fingers the guy was holding up, but no, she couldn't remember what happened other than she had hit her head. As they put a simple bandage on her head they brought over a monitor and showed her a replay. Vince left once he was convinced that she was okay so that he could go find Sable. After the medic was done cleaning her up he gave her some ice and gauze to hold against her head and said that she should go to the hospital. Which we did. They gave her staples, eight of them, and ran some test to check for concussions.

But Amber was strong. And so we left. By then she was fully awake, a bit dizzy but otherwise fine. I was going to go drop her off at the hotel and then go back to the arena to pick up our things, but upon arriving at the hotel I found that Mark had done so for us and was waiting in our room. The expression on his face will never leave my head. He looked worried, forehead creased and eyes soft, and he sprang up from where he sat when we opened the door to help Amber in and help her sit. When she had sat down he became more solemn and just looked very angry, but calmly so. The drugs they'd given her at the hospital had begun to take effect by then, and she was drowsy, and didn't even change her clothes before falling asleep on one of the beds. Mark took off her shoes and threw a blanket over her as I sat beside her, staring at her and holding her hand. Mark sighed.

"Vince is so pissed," he said, and let out a bit of a chuckle. "Says he wants to fire Sable."

"Good," I muttered. "That bitch should be fired. What the hell is her problem, anyway?"

"Who can say? It doesn't matter, really. Vince was already on the edge with her. This just gives him an excuse to do something about her." A distant look filled his eyes as he turned again to Amber. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply for a moment. This was something I'd seen him do before, when he was feeling things.

Mark saw things, and felt things, premonitions really, and when they were strong enough he could read thoughts. That was why he was a very dark person when he was a child, and one of the reasons that he set the house on fire. He said that it was ripping apart his brain and he couldn't breathe in it anymore. That it was evil. That something terrible would've happened if he hadn't done that. But when he felt these things they came to him all at once, and he needed time to sort them out in his head. I knew this. And I knew that in a moment he would be going into his room to sleep and see if he could sort it all. And even if it came to him and he could sort it out within minutes he said it made him exhausted and he'd sleep anyway.

"Is it sad or happy?" I asked him. He didn't open his eyes right away. And didn't answer right away, either. When he did open his eyes they were firmly set on Amber.

"Oh, it's definitely happy," he laughed and stood up, taking his coat off the dresser with one hand. He grinned at me. "And I already know what it is?"

"Well are you going to tell me?"

"No. Call it a surprise. You'll out soon enough." With that he said goodnight to me and left, laughing to himself. I crawled into bed next to Amber, my dreams strangled by Mark's taunting.