Penumbrae: The origin

CHAPTER 7: IN THE GRASPS OF GRIMM

I wasn’t there anymore. I was back in university. I looked around frantically unable to make sense of what just happened.

“NOOOOOOO! OH MY GOD! NOOOOOOO!” I screamed out loud grasping for air as a feeling of being suffocated wrapped around me. I whole body trembling with fear and my legs unable to hold me upright resulting in my drop. Carter’s instinct saved me from dropping on road and injuring myself

“Izzy what happened? Why were you suddenly speaking in Latin? Your eyes were glowing green. There was mist coming out of your mouth and it surrounded your whole body. If I wouldn’t have caught you, you would have hit your head again. When I was dragging you away from the middle of the road you were shaking so bad and you were saying things in Latin. I tried everything to wake you from your trance, but it was impossible. I even slapped your head hard.” Carter quickly explained and the quietened down when he saw my tears stream down my face.

“Iz what happened?”

“He…he…He d..died...in…f….f…front of my eyes.” My words were barely heard over my sobs and crying. I couldn’t say one word without sobbing. My lips were trembling which made it hard for me to say anything. The tears were streaming from my eyes and ending on my lips. Carter held me tight and calmed me down, he ran to get water from his car and made me drink it forcefully.

Minutes later I wasn’t sobbing anymore but I still had no control over my tear dam. Tears were still rolling down my cheeks silently while I held Carter’s hand tight to remind me, I am safe and that I am not dreaming. Cater was my anchor right now. I lowered my head and rested it upon Carter’s shoulder and my sight unknowingly glanced towards the once stirring shadows I saw before my soul decided to take a stroll and witnessed murder. The shadows were still but they felt different to me. They were some intelligent super creatures maybe. When I was out of shock, I described what I saw to Carter who was really grossed out about the type of death the boy got.

“What time is it?” I asked Carter as I was craving a bed right now badly. I wanted to sleep. I was beyond my limit now and couldn’t function at all.

“It’s half past 4. Why? Sleepy?” Carter smiled my way and waited for my answer.

“4:30? No, it’s supposed to be 5:45 right now.” I removed my head from Carter’s shoulder and looked at him.

“No Izzy. Who said that? My watch never lies to me. Look.” Carter extended his left arm so I can see the time and it was 4:30. I hurriedly pulled my phone from the backpack and saw it was 4:30 there too.

“What does that mean?” I questioned looking at my cat eyes in the blank screen of my phone.

“What does what mean?” Carter ran his hands through his hair clearly showing confusion. “don’t tell me something crazy happened again. God help me cause with this rate I would lose my mind.”

“You know how I said that the boy died in front of my eyes? Well he died in front of my eyes on 5:45 pm of 16th June.” I informed and then heard Carter gasped loudly.

“Don’t tell me you can see future! Oh my god! What sorcery did Ophelia do to you? Never mind. I bet at this it should get comfortable with this. The stupid magic is the norm. If you say that you can create fire out of nothing or start flying that be normal right now too. The main question is if you can see the future that means… the boy is alive?”

“I hope so, but even if he is alive, he won’t be for a long time. I am scared Carter. He is probably someone’s child. I want to help.” I said looking at Carter.

“I don’t think you should play hero in this situation. You aren’t that well, and you also look tired right now. Also, didn’t you say that the creature was quite deadly?”

“Carter, I think I know where that big house was. Help me this one time and I will owe you my entire life and no, I am not letting you come with me when I go for answer hunting.”

“If you die right now saving that kid, you wouldn’t be able to do me a favor ever AND I will never forgive myself for letting you go into that house. Although if you had some advantage in the situation, I would think about it.”

“Carter, I do have the advantage. I know the creatures starting moves! I will inform the kid that his dagger works better than his sword! And I can do some research on the creature on internet while you are driving me there. Please let me do this. Then I promise I will rest. Actually, who are you to stop me?” I picked up my bag and started walking towards the cab stand waiting for the cab but then Carter brought his car to me.

“I am going to regret this so much aren’t I?” Carter said offering me the ride. I sit in his car and write description of the creature in the google bar, but nothing showed up instead of names of books.

“Nothing is coming up on internet.”

“Of course, they won’t make your magical life easy. I mean it’s your first day! You will have some obstacle. Number one rule to magic is nothing is there on internet. There are always books that help you; books that live in deeper and darker parts of old libraries. Oh, and enlighten me with the location, will you? I can’t just keep driving to the ‘rich part’ of town.” Carter said all this looking at the road and then looked at my phone to see the books name.

“Remember when Harper invited us to that fancy ball thing her father’s friend had? Well I saw their fancy house outside the window in my…… vision. Which means this boy is going to die opposite of- “

“Richie rich mason’s house. Not a bad place to die though.” Carter said shrugging and driving a little faster as it was already 5:05.

“By the way, the title in your phone is the same book in your backpack. Walter rushed in the library to get that book and threw it in the pile of your other stuff.”

I looked at Carter with wide eyes and hurriedly got the book out. It was big and black in color. The front cover was a hardcover and, in the middle, it read ‘the book of the chaos’ and underneath in a smaller font it read ‘in Libro de chao’. Those words were surrounded by beautiful embroidered work. I opened the first page which read: if you are faint at heart or if you don’t know Ophelia than please close the book and put it back. Firstly, you will get hurt if you are not the valid person and don’t have authentication and secondly this book offers you no knowledge. Thank you.

“So, we know Ophelia. Let’s open it! First, we don’t have time and second, we are probably going to die anyway.” Carter said glancing at the book. I didn’t know carter was this brave to actually risk getting killed by a book.

Imagine the cause of death written on our tombstone, here lies Isabelle and Carter. Best friend to the very end. Died cause of a book.

That will be hilarious to an extent.

“Izzy we are on time limit. Can you not read everything right now? Just see the picture of creature and move on if that’s not the one you saw.” Carter is driving really fast by now. He probably wants us to reach early so we can plan something and don’t end up dying.

I started scanning for the creature I saw in my vision in the book. I would see the picture and move on. The numbers of creatures I saw in the book were terrifying. There were creatures of all sizes, from dwarfs to kraken. It was scary to even think about the fact that these creatures existed in this world all at the same time and I probably had to face all of them. I kept that thought aside and started scanning faster.

“This is in alphabetical order and I am already in W I don’t think my creature is in this book Carter.” Carter stopped his car suddenly and I saw up to see the problem but there was no problem at all. We had reached our destination and it was 5:17. I scanned the area to see that the backside of the houses was surrounded by dense forest. My vision was coming true.

“Izzy quit glancing around you have a task to do!” Carter screamed at me which made me jump in my seat and do the work I was appointed to do firsthand.

As I was looking for the creature in the book my mind kept drifting to the fact that usually I am so focused and finish the work at hand but right now I am hesitating a lot. It’s like I don’t really want to do this. Maybe Ophelia is messing with me. I left all my thought in the back of my mind, locked it and threw the imaginary key away. I focused harder and scanned faster and then I stopped as soon as I saw the creature in my book.

“Wentiko.”

“What?” Carter asked looking in the book.

“Don’t you mean wendigo?” Carter asked me still looking at the horrifying creature in the book.

“I think they are same thing just different names I guess.” I said looking at its weakness. Fire. As soon as we were going to discuss more about the plan that will keep me alive, I heard shattering of the window from the house that was in my vision.

“The creature has entered the house. I got to go Carter.”

“What will you even do with no fighting experience? That creature is deadly Iz. At least let me come. I will distract the creature while you tell the guy about your vision.” Carter held my hand which prevented me from getting out of the car.

“Carter I can’t risk losing you. I have already lost my adoptive family. Whoever they were, they were still my family and I lost them because of my past. I don’t want you getting hurt right now. I will die if something happens to you. Beside I know its weakness. Fire. Maybe I can make fire out of thin air.” I said smiling and after each point I presented Carter’s hold on my hand loosed and eventually he let me go. As soon as he let go of my hand I threw the book in the back of his car and rushed outside to get inside the house and in doing so I didn’t see the banana peel on the driveway and slipped on it. Let’s just ignore my clumsy butt here and move on to me trying to get inside.

I stood on the front porch trying to open the door, but it won’t budge. Guessing that it was locked I beelined to the back side of the house to see a sliding door open, just like in my vision. I rushed inside but tried to do that in a stealth manner, so I catch the creature off guard. I don’t know anything about wentiko, but I knew little about wendigos. Wendigos feared fire. They won’t even go near a prey if they were near fire.

I went inside the house to see that the boy was using his sword to fight the wentiko. I wanted to distract wentiko so that I can tell the boy. I dashed into the kitchen which was luckily opposite to the living room where the fight was going on and grabbed lighter from the top drawer. With the lighter in my hand I ran to the nearest couch and set it on fire. I rushed to pair of curtains and set those on fire too. Too much fire led to the alarms to ring and distracted the creature. Creature left the boy alone to look at the fire and eventually me. Well phase one: distraction was a complete success.

“Who the hell are you?” The boy exclaimed. He was out of breath and I could tell he wouldn’t be able to fight more.

Before I could reply the creature ran towards me, but I used its height to my advantage by sliding between its legs. Thank god for being petite. As I slid between its legs, I karate chopped its calf making its footing unbalanced and the creature fell giving me perfect opportunity to run to the boy.

“Where is your dagger?” I asked hurriedly.

“What? How? Wait! Who are you?” He looked so confused and I bet I would be too if I was in his situation.

“I know that you have one. Use that. Someway that creature- “

“You mean wentiko?”

“Yes, boy wentiko, wendigo whatever its name is. It can be wounded with your dagger more than that sword of yours. So, use it AND one more thing. Do not get cornered in that corner. Horrible things happen.” I said pointing at the corner he dies in, still feeling nauseous how the creature eats his flesh and shuddering at the thought of that happening again.

“Who the hell are you though? Why should I even listen to you?” The kid asked holding onto his sword more tightly.

I turned around to see the creature try to get up but as it’s very tall it was having problem doing that. “There is no time to explain the whole thing. I saw that you die at 5:45 and I couldn’t let that happen. Hence, here I am.” I said warily looking at the creature who finally got up.

“Why my dagger…… Oh my god! Of course!” The boy threw his sword away and rushed up the stairs while I struggled to dodge the elongated monster in front of me. Right now, Wentiko have all the advantages. I thought because it had claws and fangs, it’s attack will be close range but it’s elongated limps gave him the opportunity to increase the range of his attacks. For a girl who have never fought a human being this was quite hard and along with that I was very clumsy.

“Bring wentiko near the staircase now!” The boy screamed at me from the top of the staircase. For a second, I looked up at him sharpening his dagger on top of the stairs and I knew what he was about to do. He was smart. Unfortunately, I wasn’t smart enough and got distracted again. While I was looking at the boy thinking how smart he is, I forgot about the creature that is thrice my size and that I was dodging his attacks. As soon as I turned around to catch it’s attention and run towards the stairs the creature used his elongated arms and hurled me to a right side and I literally flew into the wall with mirror and slid down the wall onto the ground. I closed my eyes on impact and winced as my left side started to burn.

When the creature was hurling me, his claws caught my left side of waist which was now searing and along with that the mirror my flying body broke, shattered and all the glasses pieces fell on top of me. Groaning, I tried to get up using hands to pull myself up from the ground and in the process, I ended up injuring my palms by some glass shards that were laying on the floor. I turned to see the creature was rushing towards the staircase to get to the boy who jumped from the top stairs raising his dagger to attack the creature with a strong impact however I think the monster have fought too many brats like him.

The monster swatted the boy down with its big hands. The boy groaned as his head hit the stairs and I heard something c***k. I didn’t want my vision to repeat. I wanted this boy to live. I don’t know who he was or why I cared about one human being life so much that I was endangering mine. I just couldn’t live with the fact that I was present in the place and I couldn’t do anything to help the kid. I was shown the vision for a reason and I want to take advantage of that. All that was replaying in my head was the vision about the monster ripping a whole in the boy chest and I just stared and did nothing. I am already injured, unable to move properly and I don’t think I can alone defeat this monster, but I must do something to get him away from the boy.

I looked towards the burning curtains that was now laying on the floor. I hobbled towards it making sure to keep looking at the kid to assure myself that he was still alive. Even when he was severely injured, he was doing a better job than me at protecting himself. I got the curtains that were on fire and hobbled faster towards the monster and draped the fire curtain on it. Wentiko growled in pain while I helped the boy up moving him away making sure the monster doesn’t squash him under its feet. I held the boy by his waist while he wrapped his arms around my shoulder supporting himself up and I started to walk away from the house thinking the monster will die or something but he threw the fire curtain towards us and the kid dodged it using his sword.

“That’s a wentiko! It can’t die! Fire may be its weakness, but it can regenerate itself!” The boy screamed at me. We stopped walking and I realized looking up that our freedom was only few meters away.

“Why are you screaming at me? I didn’t know this world even existed till yesterday. And I am not the one who pissed of an immortal creature!  Couldn’t you go and piss off a dwarf or something?” I exclaimed at him, judging our odds against wentiko. So far not good. I was barely able to stand up because of the searing side and I am sure the boy’s head probably required stitches already as it was bleeding way too much.

“We need silver.” That’s all the boy said charging at the wentiko. I stood there dumbfounded at the boy’s courage and looked around the house to find silver. The boy knew how to fight so he was distracting this time while I was planning what to do. I looked around frantically to find anything silver. In this house it should be easy to find silver as it’s a rich household. I rushed into the kitchen to look for cutlery in the drawers, but I found nothing. I smashed it shut and looked for any framed weapons on the walls like in the movies they have silver swords just hanging on the walls but nothing! I was so frustrated that I kicked one of the drawers in the kitchen which fell open revealing bunch of books along with a knife. I chanced it and took it. I ran back to the living room to find the boy being cornered in the corner where he dies.

For a second, I froze. I could still hear the c***k from my vision, and I couldn’t get the picture of wentiko eating him out of my mind. I screamed and rushed towards them with tears blurring my vision and as I got near them I jumped high and stabbed the creature with the knife on the back and dragged the knife down making sure it have a nice big scar on his back to show his friends. I hope he doesn’t have any friends here though.

I left the knife in his back and found myself looking at the growling monsters trying to get the knife out. The cut I was able to give the creature was glowing as if it was baking its guts. I fell on all four and looked up at the guy.

“What did I say about getting cornered?” I screamed at the boy who was out of breath.

“I thought you will save me, and you did.” He said retrieving his sword with one hand while his other hand was pressing on the fresher wound on his side.

For a teenager he was very cocky, and I didn’t like it. Why did I save him again? I thought everything was over because the last attack I did was quite harsh, but I was wrong. I was again thrown away but this time the creature picked the boy from his ankles and threw him at me, sending both of us tumbling. I landed on my chest, facing down while the boy landed on top of me. Groaning I looked up to observe the location of Wentiko who was surprisingly limping towards us quickly. Before we could retreat or defend ourselves the Wentiko took the boy with his hand and spun him away from me. I tried to hold the boy, but I was too weak to fight against a healthy Wentiko. I tried to look for the boy but wentiko made me forget about that.

“You are the chosen one, aren’t you?” The wentiko was limping towards me as if I just caught its attention.

OH.MY.GOD! IT TALKS!

“Y…..you c…..c….can speak?” I exclaimed trying to use this break to get up and face him.

“Yes of course. All creatures speak. I specifically don’t like to talk as it takes a lot of energy. Why should I use this much energy talking when I use the exact energy chewing someone?” Wentiko said looking towards the door as if waiting for someone to come inside. I started looking for the knife that made the wentiko to limp.

“I realized you were special when you used silver and added your specialty to it. Heat. That made me catch a whiff of a stronger opponent. An opponent worthy of eating.” Wentiko smiled my way and walked back towards the entrance of the house.

I looked around for that boy praying that he didn’t die, and I was relieved as soon as I heard someone groaning from the top of the stairs. Let’s just hope that it was the boy groaning and not one of Mr. wentiko’s friend.

I noticed that whenever the wentiko spoke his voice came out hoarse indicating that he hasn’t spoken for decades. The voice made him scarier than he looked. Such voice would make any adult cry in their sleep. I saw the knife in the corner of my eyes and slid towards it and grabbed it in my hands. I turned to see the wentiko who was standing beside the door and waiting for something.

I should attack it again while it was distracted. I was surprised to see that a wentiko that was so hell bent on killing me and the boy, got so distracted. I advanced towards it, but I stopped when I heard another person’s voice.

“Are you okay? I heard you screaming and calling me out. Woah Izzy you are bleeding from everywhere! Where is that creature? Did you kill him.” At first Carter was standing outside the entrance, but as soon as he saw my wounds, he ran towards me.

“Carter! No! GET OUT! THE CREATURE IS RIGHT THERE!” I screamed at Carter who turned to look at the place I pointed at and was immediately caught by the wentiko.

Wentiko held Carter by his neck and raised him high so that Carter’s feet weren’t touching the ground and threw him outside the house. The wentiko’s throw was so powerful that Carter limply fell in front of one of the trees inside the forest. The knife dropped from my hand and fell to the ground with a clank sound. Wentiko ran after Carter God knows for what reason. I scrambled after them after I blindly picked up the knife without tearing my eyes away from Carter and saw that the wentiko was on top of Carter. He is going to eat him alive.

“I am not leaving until I have eaten at least one of you. Anyone.” Wentiko said as he clawed at Carter’s arms.

In that moment I felt as my life was tied with Carter’s because I felt the searing shot up from my arms making them weak and frozen. I gathered all my courage and ran up to them and stabbed wentiko in the back, but the Wentiko just pushed me away like a ragdoll. I had no energy to fight. I now laid far away from Carter with no strength to lend to protect my dearest friend. I came here to protect an unknown boy and I might leave this place with a dead friend.

I tried getting on my feet, but my legs buckled refusing to comply with my command. I sat on the ground not able to move, seeing my best friend laying there being a feast for a monster. I couldn’t see anything because of the tears. I screamed with agony and pounded the ground with my fists until I scraped them.

“yeah hurt yourself that will save your friend.”  I heard Ophelia in my mind after so long. Instead of thinking it as a bad omen I said one thing that I didn’t want to say.

Help me.

“What is happening?” the boy said from behind me.

After all the beating I took, I finally felt the adrenaline rush through my body, and I struggled getting up but once I was up, I ran towards the wentiko and punched him hard on the back of his head. At first, I thought: ‘did I really punch a creature trice my size’ but then I looked down to see my hands glowing. I didn’t know what was happening, but I was completely going on instincts. Or maybe Ophelia did something again. It felt like my body wanted to do something, but my brain was prohibiting me to do it and eventually I let my body take over.

I saw through my eyes my body do things that I would never even think about doing. My hands touched the ground like Ophelia did when she encountered me and to my surprise the ground became very much alive. The ground became my weapon as I moved it with my hands, but it wasn’t me. It was the deeper, darker part of me which I didn’t know I had. The ground obeyed my mind and released tendrils, which struck wentiko in his back and pulled it away from Carter by throwing it far away from Carter. As the creature laid on the ground trying to get up the tendril rose near the wentiko and captured its feet and hands preventing the creature to move. The ground spew out a metallic object near my foot which I held in my hand without questioning but I bet if you saw my eyes you will know that I was confused and didn’t know what was happening. I watched my feet walk towards the creature.

“I am the one with cat eyes, the bearer of the curse. I wouldn’t underestimate myself and you shouldn’t either. I have been blessed by the mother of chaos; Éris and the mother of earth; Gaia. Ophelia have held my hand and have decided to walk beside me, guiding me. Fear me wentiko. As I would too.” My mouth spoke against my will and my voice was not really my voice. Its octave was lower than normal, and it felt like my voice was layered thrice or more time. It was like three of me were talking at the same time. I would be scared to be on the other hand of me when my voice turns like this.

I didn’t need Ophelia for the next bit. The metallic object in my hand was silver without any doubt and it was burning hot now. I punched the wentiko hard, but I didn’t know it would be so powerful that my fist would pass through his skin. The wentiko’s eyes widen more and I heard whimpering sound coming from him. I left the hot silver metal piece inside his body and brought my fist out of his body. The wentiko started screaming and groaning. He was begging me to let him go but I was not stupid enough.

I turned around to see the guy help carter up and take him inside. He gestured me to come in and I ran inside before the wentiko decided that he didn’t feel like dying. As soon as we reached the house the boy gave Carter to me and went to the kitchen. He brought out the book which was there with the knife that I lost somewhere and started chanting something from the book. As soon as he started chanting there were streaks of purple light flying around the room and placing themselves at all the entrances and exits.

I laid Carter on the huge sofa and ran to get a bowl of water and some napkins I saw on the counter in the kitchen to remove all the blood from Cater’s skin. I was cleaning his wounds when the boy came beside me and handed me first aid kit. I grabbed it and started disinfecting his wounds. God knows who else that monster have clawed. Fortunately, Carter hadn’t broken any bones. I removed his shirt to see him wearing purple bruises everywhere. At that sight, my eyes started to get watery, but I didn’t stop working. I used my knowledge from internet to stitch Carter’s deep wounds and put ointment on his abdomen and his neck.

“That’s all I can do medically. I don’t know what else to do. If something happened to him, I don’t know what I will do. Why did he even come inside when I told him to stay put?” I exclaimed furiously only to realize that the boy was staring at me.

“What are you looking at boy?”

“You. Duh”

“Leave me alone will you kid? My friend here is dying, and you are eye-r****g me?” I screamed at him to which he flinched.

“stop calling me boy or kid! I have a name and I like it a lot and I bet you are my age okay. Don’t scream at me in my own house.” The boy said folding his arms. To be honest the amount of beating he took I thought he would be dead, but he looks so much better than me.

I looked down at my attire to see my clothes have charred up from some places and because of being thrown here and there my shirt and my jeans had holes in them now. I saw my hand and my nails were again digging inside my palm. I undid them and saw a new mark. It was a burned mark on my right palm. I didn’t remember having that I or when I got one.

I was eyeing the scar when the boy came in front of me and saw what I was looking at.

“The silver was immensely hot, so you probably burned your hand.”

“Don’t school me kid! I am regretting saving your ass.” I said looking back at Carter. I am so sorry Carter.

“QUIT IT! I am 17 okay! Stop calling me kid!” The kid screamed while his face was red. From embarrassment maybe.

“And I am 22 so beat it kid.” I said remembering that Walter gave me two books from his library. One was about creature; what if I find something important in the second one that can help Carter.

“Will those purple things incinerate me if I leave the house?” I ask the kid who doesn’t say anything. I look his way to see him shaking his head and staring at his feet with clinched fist. I ignored him and ran to the car to grab the second book.

I returned to the house and entered the living room to see the kid touching Carter and saying something.

“NO! DON’T YOU GO NEAR HIM! I SWEAR I WILL KILL YOU! PLEASE GET BACK! I beg you he is all I have.” I screamed at the kid who didn’t listen to me once and as I saw Carter’s hand limply fall from his side, I knew what happened. He died. After all I did, he still died.

I fell to the floor and as I did, I felt the whole energy from my body pulse out of me and hit everyone around me. The kid goes flying away from carter and everything stops; anything that made sound or moved just stopped in their tracks. Even living creatures and I realized this cause the howling from the forest stopped and so did the chirping of the birds and cicadas.

I started bawling and I couldn’t stop. So much happened in just 3 days and I was not ready for my friend to die in these three days. Nothing is going my way and I hate it. I was still going through what Ophelia did to me and then my parents, adoptive or not, kicked me out and now Carter.

“Hey stop it! I healed him! I swear that’s a process! You are too strong your energy will kill your friend and you will regret that!”

“STOP TALKING KID. I WILL KILL YOU!” I started advancing towards him, getting up. I took menacing steps towards the kid with vengeance filled in my eyes and I could see it was hard for him to breath now as he was grasping for air. I tilted my head and forced more energy towards the kid to hurt him and then I froze as I heard a cough from behind me.

“Izzy stop.” I heard Carter from behind me and he sounded really weak I closed my eyes and calmed down thinking that he is still alive. I turned around leaving the boy alone.

“How? I saw your hand. It fell limply.” I asked Carter while inspecting his injuries from afar which were almost healed.

“I felt like dying too. For once I actually thought I was gone. I was seeing the white light and I wanted to follow it.” Carter chuckled. “But look at me now. I am healed. Thanks to that guy I guess.” Carter said rubbing his neck. Then he started inspecting my injuries.

“Hey look at you! You are bleeding from mostly everywhere.” Carter said looking at my arms and my side where wentiko's claws caught on. Now that I looked at it, it started burning again.

“I am okay. Really.” I jinxed myself by saying that cause as soon as I said it my side started burning and I winced. My vision started swirling and I couldn’t stand up straight. The world i see everyday was swaying in my sight and I blinked my eyes few times trying to get rid of the blurry vision but that only made me drowsier.

“Hey you okay?” I heard someone say but I couldn’t make out who did. I just nodded and suddenly my whole body gave up. I felt pulsing pain travel from my head to my toes and I couldn’t suppress my scream as I fell on the ground, hitting my head in process. Last thing I remember is someone scream in a lot of pain and my whole world darkened again.