Page 105 of Molt

I scream.

He grabs my shoulders. “Don’t touch your eye.”

“I can’t see!”

“I know.”

“WHAT’S HAPPENING?” Something hard rolls beneath my eyelid. I feel it. A sphere. Moving. “No.” My body convulses.

I gag.

August catches me as my knees hit the floor.

My left eye pushes forward. I scream so hard my throat tears.

“Lenora!”

“GET IT OUT.”

“No.”

“GET IT THE FUCK OUT!”

Blood pours down my face. Pressure. Stretching. Then release. Something slips wetly from my socket and drops into my palm. For half a second, I can’t understand what I’m holding.

An eye. My eye–green and an optic nerve trailing from the back.

I stare at it.

August makes a sound like he’s going to be sick.

My empty socket throbs. Then something moves inside it. “No.”

“Lenora, don’t...”

I grab his shirt. “Something’s in there.”

His face goes white.

“August.”

“Don’t move.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know.”

“LOOK.”

His hand shakes as he turns on his phone flashlight. He looks into my empty socket and freezes.

“What?”

Nothing.

“August!”

“There’s another eye.”