Page 11 of Artifacts

That was the voice belonging to the guy who wasn’t ‘T’.

Aldric blinked away the spots dancing in front of his eyes. He had trouble focusing for a few seconds. A kid who had to be in his mid-teens was leaning over him, one hand pressed to Aldric’s chest. “Glasses?” Aldric gritted out.

“Oh. Hold on…here! Lucky I didn’t step on ’em.” The kid held them out. “Lucky as well they’re not broken.” When Aldric just blinked at him, he carefully placed his glasses on for him.

“You’ll be okay. I’m Dave. That’s T, on the phone over there.” Dave tipped his head to the left and Aldric, moving slowly so as not to hurt himself more, managed to cut his gaze in that direction.

The dark-haired boy named T was talking so fast into the phone that Aldric had trouble following what he was saying.Spanish. He’s speaking Spanish.Aldric only knew the basics of it, which explained why he was confused about what was being said.

“We should hear sirens any minute now. You remember what happened? Like, how you fell?” Dave asked, a falsely cheerful, reassuring note in his tone.

Aldric moved his gaze back to Dave. Dave also had dark hair. Other than that, Aldric didn’t think the two boys looked alike. “No, but…I’m…f-fine,” he forced out.

Dave rolled his eyes. “I don’t think so, dude. You were out cold. We—”

“Thought I was dead,” Aldric cut in. He started to sit up and immediately regretted it. “Oh, God.”

“Uh, yeah, man. Stay down there. You’re kinda green.” Dave winced. “Listen—sirens. Told ya.”

“Sirens.” Aldric groaned again, thinking of the cost he could incur even if his health insurance was active. “Tell them to go back.”

“No can do. You kinda made a mess of yourself when you tripped, or whatever.”

“He didn’t fall,” T said with authority. “Look at the mess. Not him. The other mess, I mean.”

Aldric winced at having been called a mess three times in a minute.

“T!” Dave’s gesture at his friend seemed to be asking for politeness.

If so, it didn’t work. “Shit’s all over.” T took a couple of steps, kicking at things.

“Careful!” the more cautious Dave urged. “That’s an antiques store back there, man!”

Under other circumstances, Aldric might have smiled at that. Now, though, he doubted he could make his facial muscles obey his bidding.

“So, unless he fell and ripped open that box, then stomped on everything in it—”

“Everything?” Aldric struggled to remember what happened but couldn’t. “I don’t understand. I guess I dropped the box, when… No. I put it down.” He thought he recalled leaving the store. “Maybe I fell on top of it?”

“What, like a few times, up and down again? And that was after a knife sticking out of your pocket ripped the cardboard open?” T said scornfully.

“Aldric!”

He recognized that voice before he saw Elliot running over to him, a panicked expression on his boss’ face.

“Aldric, what happened? I get an alert when the alarm goes off and—” Elliot clapped a hand to his mouth, blanched and swayed.

“Shoot, help him!” Dave instructed to T, who grabbed Elliot by the biceps and encouraged him to sit, making him take a few steps first to a cleaner bit of the ground.

“Don’t worry. He’s okay,” T said to Elliot. “Does the blood make you want to pass out? My brother’s like that. He’s a badass until he sees blood, then bam! He’s down. Real handicap when you wanna be an MMA fighter, huh?”

“Blood?” Aldric reached for his head. That was what hurt the most.

“Maybe you hit it when you fell?” Dave suggested as Aldric’s fingers encountered a wet, sticky fluid at the back of his head. He brought his hand slowly around to his face and tried to focus on the substance coating his skin.

“I bet whoever robbed him hit him first,” T countered, as blunt as ever.

“Robbed him? What do you mean?” Elliot’s voice shook and sounded weak. “Aldric, what happened? Damn, I shouldn’t have left you here all by yourself. I should have insisted—”

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