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They spill over his tongue and bounce from his lips in a wet cascade of red, black, and bone-white kernels, collecting against his chest before scattering across the ground.

His entire body convulses.

Something moves beneath the skin of his throat.

Not a swallow.

Something fucking crawling.

“Oh my God.”

I jerk away, but his hand clamps around my wrist.

“Bride.”

“No.”

His fingernails bite into my skin.

“Feed us.”

“Get the fuck off me!”

I kick him hard in the chest.

His grip breaks, and I scramble backward as the kernels around him begin to move.

Tiny white roots split through their shells. They burrow into the dirt.

Every single fucking one of them.

I gag.

Then the man’s stomach caves inward. His scream rips through the field as his entire body bows, his abdomen sinking toward the ground like something underneath him has hooked into his spine and is pulling him down from the inside.

“Help me!”

I lunge for him.

Roots explode from the Earth. They coil around his chest and arms, tightening until his back arches with a sickening crack.

“No!”

I grab both of his hands.

His fingers lock around mine. “PLEASE!”

“I’ve got you!”

The ground pulls.

Hard.

I’m dragged onto my knees, then forward through the dirt as I hold on with everything I have.

“HELP ME!”

“I’M TRYING!”