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“Promise?”
“Yes, I promise. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.” I brought the glass to my lips, pinched my nose, and drank.
Without breathing in through my nose, it wasn’t bad. I drank half the glass in one gulp, breathed deeply, then drank the rest. I didn’t even notice the taste, just the slimy texture of the mixture going down my throat, and the petals I had to chew.
Do not think about throwing up, do not think about throwing up.
There. It was done. The thing was inside me now, and the taste on my tongue…
“Can I brush my teeth now?”
“Sure, honey. You can—hey!” I took off running to the bathroom, desperate to feel the toothpaste in my mouth. My God, that was awful. It was worse than anything I’d ever tasted in my life. My own body was in protest against it, and even as I brushed my teeth and tongue furiously, it still wanted me to throw it all up, right there in the toilet.
And it wouldn’t go away. Even when my tongue was raw and red, and my teeth squeaky clean, I still tasted it. I still smelled that scent. It still made me want to throw it all up as fast as possible.
“Damn it, Mom,” I said with a groan, drinking water straight from the faucet, hoping it would cleanse my throat, too.
My mom said something. I could hear her voice, but I couldn’t make out her words at all. Strange. The bathroom door was barely five feet away from the dining table, and the door was wide open. I should have been able to hear her, but…
Something was wrong. Something wasmovinginside me, inside my gut, twisting and slithering like a damned snake. I tried to swallow, tried to touch my stomach, half of me expecting to find my skin rising and falling as that thing moved inside me.
“Teddy!”I thought I heard my mom call, but I couldn’t be sure.
And why was my cheek so cold so suddenly? I tried to blink, but it was useless. I tried to move, only to find that I wasn’t standing anymore. I was on the bathroom floor, cheek pressed to the cold tiles. And no matter how hard I tried to focus, everything was slipping around me. The darkness grew thicker and thicker, like shadows around a wraith, consuming my surroundings, even the thoughts in my head. I no longer felt like something was moving inside me—I didn’t feel my body at all. There was no time for panic or fear or wondering. Seconds later, my mind shut down completely.
ChapterTwenty-One
My eyes openedto white bathroom tiles, the toilet right at the edge of my vision. I blinked, confused. I moved, but my body was heavy, my limbs numb. My mind was overcrowded, and very little of it made sense. The Chief. Dominic. Agnes. The machine gun shooting syringes at the soldiers…my mom.
I pushed myself up, panic ringing all the alarms in my head. I’d been on the phone with my mom, and I’d drunk that vile thing she’d made me prepare. I’d run to the bathroom to brush my teeth, and…
I slammed against the doorframe, my knees too weak to hold me still. She must have been worried sick. Had she seen me fall? How long ago was that?Oh, God, please let her be okay.
Holding onto the wall, I somehow managed to reach the chair of my dining table. My body was so weak, it was ridiculous. The screen of my phone was black, and when I touched it, it was cool. I pulled the charger off and tried to unlock it with shaking fingers. Only two p.m. What time had it been when I was still awake?
I pressed on my mom’s number and closed my eyes tightly, forcing myself to breathe. She would be okay. She would be—
“Teddy!”
She screamed my name so loud, my ears whistled. I opened my eyes to see both her and Dad on the screen, looking as terrified as I probably was.
“I’m okay. I’m okay. I’m fine,” I kept on saying breathlessly, over and over again.
My mom had been crying, and my dad was pale as a ghost—so pale his purple hair looked a few shades darker than normal in comparison. They laughed and cried some more, and asked me if I was okay, and I told them that I was, at least ten times.
“My God, baby,” Dad said, running his hands through his hair. “It worked.”
“I was—”
My breath caught in my throat. Everything suddenly came to a halt.
“It worked, honey,” my mom said, smiling while big tears slid down her cheeks. “Itworked!”
I dropped the phone and made my way to the bathroom again. By some miracle, my legs held me, and I was in front of the mirror over the sink in a heartbeat.
Pink eyes. Pink hair. Pink skin.
I was pink again. I wasmeagain—not all the way because the pink was still paler than normal, but it waspink. I grinned at my reflection. It had worked. It had actually worked.
