Sighting a broken white branch on the ground, she reached for it. Her fingers curled around the hard wood. Lifting it furiously over her head, she swung with all her strength.
There was a resonantthud!as the branch connected with the shadow skin’s palm.
The creature flexed its clawed hand, seizing the branch and snapping it in two.
Emeline stumbled back.
It stood over her now, mouth gaping open, revealing blood-encrusted gums. Strings of saliva glistened between its needle-sharp teeth as its breath wafted over her, smelling like rot.
Emeline stiffened: muscles seizing, bones locking. She willed her body to move, but it wouldn’t. As if someone had taken control of her motor functions.
An unnatural cold flooded her limbs.
And that’s when she remembered that killing wasn’t the worst of what a shadow skin could do.
Grinning, the monster reached into her mind and forced her to remember her last visit home.
She and Pa were at the kitchen table as she explained where he was going: to Heath Manor, to get the care he needed. Pa’s leg bounced nervously as she spoke.
He’s scared,she realized at the time. Then took his hands in hers, wanting to soothe him.
Pa instantly pulled away. Like Emeline was a stranger and why was she touching him? He tucked his hands under the table, where she couldn’t reach.
Don’t be familiar,the doctor had told her.It will confuse him.
But Emeline didn’t know how to not be familiar. How was she supposed to pretend Pa wasn’t who he’d always been? Grandfather, guardian, friend.
Who are you?he’d asked her that day.
The words were like a swift, stinging slap. Throwing her completely off-balance.
At a loss, Emeline had blinked, staring at the man who raised her. Watching him try to recognize her. Watching him reach for memories the way one reached into a river to drink, only to find the bed dry and the reaching hand empty.
He’s not the man he used to be,Joel told her.Don’t set aside your dreams for someone who can’t remember who you are.
But Pa had raised Emeline since birth. When her mother left, he became her whole world. He’d supported every single one of her dreams; he was her number one fan.
And what had Emeline done to repay him? The moment he needed her help, she’d handed him over to strangers, then put his farm up for sale.
A wave of self-loathing swept through her.
You’ ll never see him again,a putrid voice oozed through her mind.You’ ll never hear his voice. When they find him, they’ ll put him back in that white room, and he’ ll die there. Frightened and alone.
She saw Pa then, in a room that wasn’t his, waiting for someone who was never coming. She saw him so clearly, as if he were right in front of her. She watched him stand at the windows. Watched him pace the halls. Waiting for his granddaughter. Longing for her to come. Wasting away, a little more each day.
She tried to pull herself out of these thoughts, but resistance only triggered darker, sadder visions. As if something was inside her mind, forcing her down the most heartrending paths.
It wasthisthat shadow skins were known for: finding your worst fear and using it to immobilize you.
As the monster clawed through her thoughts and memories, looking for the things she buried deepest, Emeline stared at its gaping maw. She knew that once it was done ravishing her mind, it would sink those glistening teeth into her throat.
Emeline opened her mouth to scream.
Before she could, the sharpened tip of a blade split open the monster’s face.
The shadow skin relinquished its hold on her.
Emeline’s legs buckled in shock and she dropped to her knees.
