Snippet #2394145

Ryan glanced at Angelo as he handed her the lemon. Looking back at the masked man, she felt sorry for him and for what she was about to do. While she had no problem walking up to complete strangers and engaging them in conversation, she did have a problem with touching people or their things without permission. But right now it was either move his mask and stuff the lemon in his mouth or have him screaming bloody murder.

"I'm sorry about this," she told him quickly while Angelo was trying to find some sort of gauze. She fumbled a bit with the edge of the mask before lifting the lower half out enough for her to put the lemon in his mouth. But first she needed to locate his mouth. Holding the lemon in her left hand and lifting the mask with her right, Ryan tried not to touch the stranger for both her and his comfort. Unfortunately that was easier said than done.

As she moved to put the lemon in his mouth her fingers brushed against the corners of his lips, which felt scarred and jagged. Blood, so much pain, my mouth is aching... She opened his mouth wider to accommodate the lemon, finding that his lips were slightly dry. Not lemons... Ryan had just placed the lemon in his mouth when he started to scream. Panicked, she froze and mumbled incoherently. Had she done something wrong?

The stranger peered at her and then looked down at his hands, still screaming before the sound slowly died along with his breath. Ryan moved her hands from his head to his bleeding palms and held the undersides of his hands, trying to keep them steady. "Angelo!" she managed to get out before being pulled into a mix of the man's thoughts and memories.

There were bright lights everywhere, calling him to them. Lucky him, he would win it all- What the he-? A knife, a knife, pain, Sarah! Where was Sarah? The ball goes, the roulette wheel spins. His eyes follow it precisely, he can see everything clearly without a mask on. The ball stops. Darn it, not again. Where's the luck now? Please no, please not the knife. The face of a smiling woman, young and beautiful. She laughs before kissing him on the cheek. Why is it dark? Why is there blood in my mouth?

Ryan snapped out of it and looked around frantically. She needed Angelo to get the glass out his hands before he bled too much and before she got pulled back into the memories and panicked thoughts. It was unlike anything that she had dealt with before. Usually it was only thoughts or only memories, never a mix of both. It made her dizzy and she looked back at Zachary, wondering who he was and what had happened to him. She had pieces, but she couldn't even begin to imagine what had left the scars on his lips and caused him to wear this mask.