Chapter Twenty-One: Recovering
Pain.
That was the first thing that Christine was aware of as she slowly drifted back into consciousness.
Every bone in her body ached.
Her head felt like it had been cleaved in two with a butcher's knife.
She could feel something cool and wet lying across her forehead.
She tried to open her eyes, but they seemed to be glued shut.
After what seemed like forever, she managed to squint one eye open the tiniest crack and immediately wished she hadn't.
Groaning weakly, she slumped further down into the sheets as the lights assaulted her sensitive eyes and made her sore head pound worse.
Trying desperately to keep from passing out again, the redhead was startled to feel a gloved hand against her forehead.
Opening her eyes again, she saw her masked savior sitting in a chair by her bed, his yellow eyes filled with some strange emotion that she couldn't identify.
Confused, Christine opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, the man had pulled an unknown vial out of the pocket of his waistcoat and was holding it to her lips.
Swallowing obediently, she was pleasantly surprised to find that it tasted of lavender and chamomile, a herbal combination she had used many times as a girl when she couldn't sleep or after suffering from nightmares.
And yet, there was something else too, something that she couldn't place...
The effects were immediate, and Christine quickly found herself drifting off, falling into a haze of feverish dreams.
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