“Quinn, wake up!” Hands shook me, and I gasped as I opened my eyes, sitting up reflexively.

“No, let her lie still for a minute. We are so sorry Ms. Lorcan. We had no idea your grandfather had it in him to attack someone. Especially one of you girls. He talks about you all the time,” one of the male attendants said.

They laid me back down on the cool linoleum floor; I rubbed my neck, wincing. Crescent shaped cuts from his fingernails still oozed and I knew from the tenderness that I was going to be badly bruised.

I tried sitting up again, and this time the world didn’t spin.

“Quinn!” Ashling threw herself at me, and I caught her with one hand, using the other to brace myself.

“I’m okay Ash,” I whispered into her hair, the scratch of my vocal chords against my throat painful.

“I’m so sorry, it was my idea to come and see him before we go to Tofino,” she said. I let out a hoarse laugh, my throat aching with each noise I made.

“S’okay.” I patted her back.

“I’m sorry,” she said again, green eyes full of tears that trickled down her cheeks. I sat up a little better, and wiped her tears away, the motion a reflex.

“Don’t cry. Nobody got hurt right?” I asked. The attendants around us lifted eyebrows. Okay, so I had gotten hurt, but that didn’t count. They’d hustled Grandpa off to the infirmary while I was out, to “check his blood pressure,” they said. I shared a look with Ashling. We both knew it was more likely he was been sent for some hard core sedatives.

Maybe I could use this as an out. I really, really didn’t want to go to Tofino.

They helped me stand, and the attendants escorted us back through the Pavilion—right out the front doors. They suggested I go to the hospital next door. I declined. I hated hospitals and as long as I was standing and able to breathe, see and hear, I wasn’t going into one voluntarily. It was bad enough going to the institute.

Ashling took the keys from me. “I’m driving. Who knows what brain damage you have now,” she quipped. I shook my head, and instantly regretted it. Shooting pains through my neck and shoulders had me leaning against the passenger door. Ashling didn’t see me; I pulled myself together before she unlocked the doors.

“What do you think happened?” Ashling asked as she turned back on to Highway 19, heading north. Damn, it didn’t look like a near strangling would get me out of our road trip.

Leaning back in the seat I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t have to see her weave in and out of traffic. I could feel it, which was enough. “Don’t know. Who was I supposed to kill do you think?”