Refraction by Naomi Hughes

Author:Naomi Hughes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Page Street Publishing
Published: 2019-09-28T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

I RAISE MY EYES AND STARE AT ELLIOTT. THE YELLOW glow of the flashlight turns his face to a skull, all sharp shadows. “Marty,” he says again, and then the pain hits me.

It’s an inferno. The whole world is a burning building and I’m trapped inside. The agony intensifies, going from an unbearable burning to an ice-cold acid. My body bows in on itself and I drop to my knees. The flashlight clatters to the ground. I curl around my injured hand, my breathing jagged like I’m going to scream.

I do.

Elliott is on his knees in front of me. He grabs me by my good arm. He shakes me, and the scream cuts off, but the silence is almost as bad. The night seems to twist around me.

He searches his pockets frantically, pulls everything out. Aspirin, bandages, gauze. None of which will help a Being sting. He searches through my pockets next. There’s nothing except my key and that stupid stuffed fox, which only reminds me of that first Being back in the garage, the one with the foxlike muzzle. The one that felt like my fears brought to life.

Elliott looks down at me. He knows what neither of us are saying: that I’m as dead as the spider-bit girl, whether I die right here or hours from now.

The pain ebbs, retreating until it’s a throbbing coldness in my left hand. It’ll be hours, then. There’s a part of me that wants it over now, but my well-honed survival instinct rears up and overshadows it. It pulls me, staggering, to my feet. It orders me to move. Move. Don’t think about what other fears could come true. Don’t think about—

That crackling noise from a moment ago ripples out around us again, loud even in the storm. The sound reminds me of a chandelier: a thousand pieces of glass clinking against each other.

Gingerly, slow with the echoes of pain, I pick up my flashlight and hold it out. I turn in a circle. I take a step—and yank my foot back with a hiss. Something sharp is sticking up from the ground. I aim the flashlight downward. The fog is thicker than ever, and I have to bend low to make out what’s stabbed me.

I blink. It’s a blade of wire grass. This plant isn’t too tall, maybe three inches, but each thin blade that arcs up and out from it looks as hard and sharp as a knife. And it’s difficult to tell through the fog and the night, but the grass is a strange color—a sort of yellow-white, and almost metallic. I reach out to touch it with a fingertip. Something like static electricity crackles off it, buzzing beneath my skin, and I pull my hand back before touching it.

Lightning flashes. The fog catches its light more brightly than ever, sparkling like blue magic, and the blades of grass sparkle blue too. Almost like they’re …

Reflective.

My inhale freezes somewhere in my throat. Veins of frost reach into my lungs, wrap in icy bands around my chest.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.