...

[badstar]

And then from the doorway shadows, bow still in hand, stepped the unseen archer who had just shot me- Apollo himself. Only then did it start to hurt. I wanted to scream in pain but again I couldn't. I wanted to fall down, but the grapevines held me fast, upright. He came to me and pulled out the arrow. It started to bleed, but not badly, but I thought I would die of the pain alone. "You will understand," he said softly, "not now but before too long I think." My head dropped to one side, I squinted up at him, my eyes losing and regaining focus. Still in pain, I basked in his golden light. He touched the arrow wound. It stopped bleeding and then was gone altogether. It didn't stop hurting, the agonizing pain remained.

Fuck. This is going to hurt, isn't it?