Only Mostly Dead by Alli Temple

Author:Alli Temple
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allison Temple

chapter seventeen

I wake up being suffocated by sixteen pounds of orange cat. Carrot Stick is spread out across my entire face. Surprising how uncomfortable that is even when you don’t actually need to breathe.

Still, I gasp at the memories of a ballroom and fire and twisting fingers trying to rip my very essence to pieces.

I reach out, trying to fight Lilah off. Carrot Stick moans a protest, but he hops off my face, and I find myself staring at a plain white ceiling. The pot light over my head is burned out, but the rest glow a mundane yellow-white light over an unremarkable living room. No chandeliers. No smoking carpets.

“Are you awake?” A deep voice asks. I roll to the side. X is sitting in an armchair. We’re in Jupiter and Kelly’s living room.

“I thought we were in Quebec City,” I say. My voice is a croak.

“Did she wake up?” Jupiter calls from the kitchen.

“She thinks she’s in Quebec City,” X says over his shoulder. At least he has more clothes on than last time. Pretty sure they’re all Jupiter’s, though. The T-shirt comes well short of his waist, exposing a hairy belly button, and the cuffs of his sweatpants barely come to the middle of his shins.

“Ember?” Jupiter comes around the corner. She’s got a tray of food. Chicken noodle soup from a packet by the looks of it, as she sets the nearly overflowing bowl of yellowy green something paired with a sleeve of soda crackers down on the coffee table.

“I don’t eat anymore, remember?” I say, barely speaking above a whisper.

“Oh, that’s for me.” X takes the bowl and a spoon, slurping in a big mouthful of noodles. “Thanks, babe.”

“Are you okay?” Jupiter asks me. At least I assume she’s asking me. Her gaze is still somewhere to my right, so she might be talking to the sofa, but let’s assume it’s me.

“How am I supposed to know?” I push upright, closing my eyes again when the world shifts too, so the whole thing is still sideways, even though I’m not lying down anymore. When I open them again, everything is situated as it should be. Two humans, one cat, and me.

“Where’s Kelly?” I ask. “Lilah?”

“Kelly’s out,” Jupiter says. “Who’s Lilah?”

“She’s . . .” I have to swallow as the tattered pieces of my consciousness unravel for a moment before recongealing into something like memory. She’s who? A girl who thought she was on her way to prom? A ghost? A wraith? What happened to her? I close my eyes again and focus on things I understand better. “What do you mean Kelly’s out? Out where?”

“She went to Afterlife.”

I leap to my feet. It’s so fast I even manage to rattle the coffee table when I bump against it. “Why? Why didn’t they wait for me?”

X and Jupiter glance at each other. X shrugs and eats more soup. Jupiter sits down, hands clasped between her knees. It’s the posture doctors adopt when they’re about to tell you bad news.

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.