“Coach?” The moment the lights went out, he shot to his feet, pulling me up with him. “Is there an outage or--”
He spins me around and pins us against the nearest wall as two, brightly glowing bodies crash dramatically to the floor in a pile of roofing.
No, not now...wait.
In the flashing lights from the two things scrapping at each other on the floor, I can see Coach watching their fight with apparent alarm.
“You can see that?!?” I push him away from me, pointing wildly at the floor.
Coach looks at me now, eyes going wide, “Can you?”
Before I get the chance to answer, someone grabs hold of the fabric of my dobok in a very tight grip and says, in a very terrifyingly calm voice, “Enough of this.”
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Coach’s hand closes around my wrist as something red grabs a hold of his free arm and then…
It’s like someone squeezes on the pressure points at my temples, trying to crush my skull in. All the while, someone else has taken a suction tube to my insides, pulling them out by my belly button while something cracks very loudly -- stone, maybe? Someone’s speaking, or maybe that's the howling and ringing in my ears.
And then it stops.
I collapse to my hands and knees; the world is spinning. I’m vaguely aware that someone else is groaning beside me on the floor, hand over their face. Coach Shin.
“You alright?” I hear him groan.
“Mmhm.” I don’t trust myself to open my mouth yet. The floor beneath my fingers is blinding white. I focus upon the thin, irregular lines of gold that run through it. My stomach keeps trying to make a swift exit through my mouth; I clench my teeth even harder.
Coach’s hand flops to rest on my back and he says, “Take a deep breath.”
I do -- in through my nose...and slowly, very carefully, out through my mouth. It sounds more like a wheeze, but I’m thankful that only air comes out as opposed to the contents of my lunch. Voices argue behind us. This is too surreal, and the voices behind us only get louder, angrier…