A trail of blood
disappeared beyond the door of the small foyer. The man Nori rescued lay
face-up, the knot near his temple swelling fast. His leg oozed blood, the
scarlet pool closing in on the tiny corner of space Nori occupied. When she found
the wound—and the gaping tear in his leather riding pants—dread settled in her
gut. The bleeding would have to be stopped if he was going to survive, which
meant she had to do it.
Nori groaned and scrubbed
her eyes, then set to work. She sifted through her backpack for something to
tie around his wound, finding both a pocketknife and the thick, sun-blocking
canvas she always kept nearby. She ripped a long strip of the fabric and
wrapped it several times around the man’s injured thigh.
“Probably a good thing
you can’t feel this,” she said to his unconscious form and, catching another
look at the knot on his head, grimaced. “You’re gonna have a pretty bad
headache, too.”
After tying the two ends
together, Nori sat back to admire her work. Blood had soaked through most of
the bandage, but it wasn’t seeping onto the floor anymore, at least.
Mom and Dad are probably
freaking out by now, Nori thought. Curled in the corner of the foyer farthest
from the man, she sat with arms wrapped around bent knees. The man outside
hadn’t made a sound. Maybe he hadn’t seen her. Maybe he’d left. Or maybe he was
waiting just outside the door.
Nori rocked back and
forth, forehead pressed to her knees. Finally, she let out a long breath and
stretched her legs. She was leaving. She’d saved the stranger. Twice. He was
hidden in the foyer, and when he came to, he could find his own way back to
safety.
Bracing herself on the
wall to stand, she kept as far as possible from the unconscious body between
her and the door. Stretching over him to reach the door, she extended one leg,
straddling him only a moment until she lifted the other to join it. But as she
raised her back foot, the front one was knocked from under her, sending her
roughly down onto her butt. She yelped and looked wildly around, scurrying back
to the foyer wall. Hands in front of her face, she prepared to defend herself
as best she could.
“I’m not going to hurt
you,” he said. His voice was deep, but not threatening. “Where are we?”
Nori flattened her palms
to the wall, pushing herself against it to stand again. She didn’t
answer.
The steely eyes from the
alley focused on her face. He surveyed her hair, her shoes, and her clothes
before finding her eyes.
“What did you throw?” he
asked.
The question caught her
off guard. “Wh-what?”
“What did you throw? To
distract him?”
“A book.”
“A book?”
Nori nodded as she edged
toward the door—and the street.
“What were you doing with
a book?” he asked.
“Reading,” she said,
pinning him with a look that seriously doubted his intelligence.
Dark eyebrows lowered
over narrowed eyes. “In the dark?”
Nori bit the inside of
her cheek. “Of course not,” she said. She’d been running in the dark, not
reading, though she often did. But he didn’t have to know that. “It was in my
backpack from earlier today.”
He squinted, as if he
didn’t quite believe her. “What happened to your face?”
She reflexively touched
the pink patches, a fresh new layer where sun-damaged skin had peeled away. The
pink was fading, but not entirely healed.
“Sunburn,” she said.
“Stayed out too long.”
“That happen a lot?”
“What business is it of
yours?” she snapped. “And you can say ‘thanks for saving me’ anytime.”
His eyes shot down for a
moment before he lifted them to meet her gaze. “Thank you.” His voice was
quieter, sincere. “I know you put your own life at risk. Thank you for saving
me.”
“Twice,” she said. “I
saved you twice. Once with the book, and the other by hauling you in here when
you were unconscious to bandage your leg. Technically, I guess that’s three
times.”
“All right.” His lips
twitched. “I owe you one. Or three.” As if he hadn’t noticed it before, he
looked down at his thigh and then back to Nori. “First time to make a
tourniquet?”
She lifted her head. “You
were bleeding all over the floor. I did the best I could with what I had. What
happened to you, anyway? You must’ve lost a lot of blood to pass out like
that.”
“I tried to clear a
chain-link fence, but my leg caught.”
Nori looked at the
bandage again, but quickly averted her eyes from the exposed skin of his thigh.
She cleared her throat. “Why was he chasing you?”
He shrugged.
“You’re not going to tell
me?” she asked.
He shook his head, all
nonchalance.
“Fine.” Nori huffed a
breath. “What’s your name?”
“Cooper.”
“That your first name?”
She asked and extended her arm toward the door handle, making sure she could
escape if necessary.
“It’s what people call
me,” he said. “What’s yours?”
She didn’t answer as
manners battled with self-preservation in her brain.
“Oh, come on,” he goaded.
“You can’t ask to see mine and not show me yours.”
“Nori,” she said quick
and low. The concession pained her.
“That your first name?”
he shot back.
She scowled, and he threw
up his hands in defense. “Okay, okay. I’m just messing with you. Anyway, thanks
again for the help, Dory.”
“It’s Nori.”
Cooper nodded, an amused
smirk tightening his lips. “Thanks, Nori.” He rose slowly, hopping on one foot
at first, and reached for his backpack in the corner. As he slipped it over a
shoulder, he stopped and caught her gaze again. “Why’d you help me—three times?
You didn’t have to.”
“I did have to,” she
said. The answer came easily. “You were in trouble, and I could help. No
brainer.”
“Kindness is not so
common as you think,” he said lifting his chin and narrowing his eyes as if
trying to get a better read on her. “How long have you been like this?”
“Like what?”
“You burn easy. And you
can see well in the dark, right?”
“I’ve been this way my
whole life.” The answer was smooth, and without thought. Nori gasped and balled
her fists when she realized what she’d revealed. Her condition wasn’t a secret,
though it was a mystery. But she didn’t like a stranger knowing so much about
her. And she hated that he’d gotten her to talk so easily. Her teeth creaked
under the pressure of her jaws.
“Anyone else up here like
you?” Cooper closed the distance between them and searched her eyes for an
answer. “You know anyone else who burns like you do? Who can see better in the
dark?”
She shook her head,
blinking in incomprehension. “How do you… What do you mean? What do you know
about it?”
“You should go,” he said
and pushed open the door.
“No.” Nori pulled the
door shut, her heart thundering in her chest. “Tell me how you knew to ask
those questions. Do you know someone else like me?”
Cooper let out a long breath,
his wary gaze never leaving hers. “It’ll be light soon,” he finally said. “If
you want to make it home in time, you’ll already have to run like ----.”
He turned to open the
door again, but Nori stopped him. “Wait.” She fumbled for something to say. “Do
you live around here?” She threw on her own backpack, wishing to know something
about the man who knew so much about her.
“Right under your nose,”
he said, and with one last nod, ran from the foyer, into the dark alley, and
out of sight with no noticeable limp.
As Nori watched him go the shadows changed, and her heart
seized. The sun was on the rise. “Stupid,” she told herself, racing home on
shaky legs. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”
