HANNAH

In the space between losing one body and ending up back in the other, I saw something. Only for a moment, only just the briefest flicker, but I still comprehended what it was.

It was me.

Or, not. Not quite. It looked like me, almost, but it- she, was made entirely up of strands of light, twisted together to form the shape of a person, like a hologram. The strands were every color I could imagine, and some I couldn’t, of varying thicknesses and opacities. The other me hung in a void of white, one hand reached out towards me, an expression of worry on her face. Instinctively, I reached out to grasp her hand-

And I woke up.

It wasn't as violent as before, when I'd been forced. I didn't slam back into the body so much as I was dropped. My senses returned, wind and exhaust and cold and blood, and then the pain came a second later. My head throbbed incessantly, and when I tried opening my eyes, my vision was almost entirely white, and swimming around the edges. There was still some blood in my mouth, and my lungs and stomach were as raw and painful. I coughed weakly, which only made the pain worse, and another splash of blood flew up into my mouth, making me gag. Some of it dribbled out of the corner of my mouth, and I tried to reach up and wipe it away.

My arm twitched slightly from where it lay at my side, but that was it. I frowned, and tried again. This time it jerked up a little further, but it was like the energy I was using away was bleeding away before it got to my arm. I tried moving my other limbs in turn, and got the same result. Even moving my head forward took a monumental amount of effort. Standing up, or even sitting up, was out of the question. I guess the internal beating wasn't the only consequence, I thought, too drained to be anything but wry.

I wasn't breathing properly either, I realized, which might explain why my vision was so faded. I concentrated on my lungs, putting as much effort as I could into every inhalation and exhalation, and slowly my brain started to come back into focus. I hadn't even realized the effect it had been having on me until it went away. What would've happened if I hadn't? Would I have continued to lie there, slowly asphyxiating without knowing? What a way to go, especially after everything I'd already-

The memories I'd temporarily managed to forget about came rushing back, and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to banish the gory images from my mind, and failing miserably. Visions of blood, of body parts scattered across the pavement, filled my mind, and i lost control of my breathing again, devolving into short, panicked-

“Holy sh*t!”

I jerked my head up, which in my current state translated to raising it slightly. A second attempt managed to lift it far enough to see a pair of legs in front of me.

“Wisp?” a familiar voice asked. “Uh… Hannah? Are you…?”

After a couple of goes, I got my mouth moving in vaguely the right manner. “Hey Kai,” I slurred tiredly.

“Jesus,” she muttered, hunkering down into my field of view. Her face was covered in scratches, and a bruise was beginning to form on her cheekbone. One of the lenses on her sunglasses was cracked, and I could see a little bit of her eye through it. “What happened? To you, and, uh, in general.”

“Long story,” I murmured. “Really long, really awful story.”

“I’ll bet.” She rocked back a little. “Can you stand?”

I tried to laugh, but just sort of coughed instead. A little more blood trickled out of the corner of my mouth.

“...I’ll take that as a no.” She moved beside me and slipped one arm under mine and around my torso. I could barely feel it. “Come on, up.” She hauled me onto my feet, sending my head spinning, and she held me up as I recovered. “Let’s get you to a hospital.”

“No!” The force of the words surprised me as much as it did. “No,” I repeated, more calmly. “I don’t… it’s not a good idea.”

She looked me up and down, the implicit message obvious. But, thankfully, she didn’t protest. “Let’s get you to a train station, then."

"Er," I said as we began to limp off into the night. "About that."