Everything hurt. My body felt like I’d gone twelve rounds against a heavyweight boxer and then gotten jumped in the parking lot for good measure. It had been a while since I’d felt this banged up, and I’d been hoping to keep that streak alive. But here it died, reset to zero.
I peeled my arm away from my eyes and blinked again, slowly this time.
The air smelled faintly of furniture polish, musty old wood, and the vague disappointment you only get in motels that rent by the week. My head throbbed in sync with my heartbeat, and the taste in my mouth was similar to aluminum foil. Not that I’d actually tasted aluminum foil, but I felt like the smell of it was a good preview of how that would be.
I blinked several more times, struggling to get my bearings. This definitely wasn’t a hospital.
