I woke with a start, my head throbbing, a dull weight pressing down on my skull. For a moment, I lay there, still tangled in the sheets, blinking at the unfamiliar ceiling, trying to make sense of everything.
( What the hell happened last night?)
My chest tightened, and I could feel a strange chill in the air. The events were hazy, like a half-remembered dream that slipped through my fingers the moment I tried to grasp it. The last thing I remembered clearly was
—oh.
I sat up too quickly, the room spinning around me. Mud. I could feel the remnants of it clinging to my clothes, and I winced as I lifted my sleeve, a patch of it smeared across the fine fabric. It was still damp, and the smell of dirt mixed with something else—blood, maybe?
( No, no. It couldn't be. What had happened? I can't clearly remember.)
My heart raced as I tried to recall the details, but everything came back in fragments within a few moments.