Poison: A Young Adult Dystopian Novel (Wind Dancer Book 1) by Lan Chan

Author:Lan Chan [Chan, Lan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-08-30T22:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Three

I wake up in my circus bed and know I’ve been drugged because I’m headachy but giddy at the same time. There is a dull ache on one side of my face like I’m recovering from a recent injury. When did they sedate me? I can’t even remember. The curtains are drawn so I have no idea what time it is. The pillows I tossed aside have been neatened. I turn over and breathe in the clean scent of fresh sheets and daphne blossoms.

Aiden used to bring me daphne when I was sick. Something about pleasant smells helping recuperation. Thinking of him brings the waves of memory crashing back. I can’t stop the tears this time. They spill from me like a torrent, and I howl like a wild thing with its heart being torn out. I want Papa and Micah and Sully. I want my mother. Everything I’ve ever known is gone, yet I’m more trapped than ever. When will I finally be free of the Seeders? When you’re dead, a voice inside me says. This realisation stops my tears as quickly as they came. I will never be free unless I’m dead. Or they are. It’s the easiest choice I’ll ever have to make.

I turn on the en suite light to splash water on my face. Just as I’m finishing up, the elevator bell rings and a set of heels click. I jump back into the bed and pull the covers up over my head.

“I know you’re awake,” Gloria calls from the lounge. I refuse to get up. She sighs audibly and enters my room, making her way to the window. I hear the click of the curtain control unit, and the room suddenly gets much brighter.

“Go away,” I say.

“Get up,” she says. This time she takes hold of the duvet and yanks. I snatch the section covering me and roll so it makes a cocoon. “This is ridiculous,” she says, giving up. “I’m a doctor, not a babysitter. Stay there if you want Harlan to wake you himself.”

I get up.

“Thought so,” she says. With the duvet off my head, I see that she’s left a small cardboard box on the floor and is holding a cream-coloured envelope in her hand.

“What’s that?” I ask, pointing to the envelope.

She hands it to me. It’s made of a thick ivory paper with my name embossed in curly gold letters. Inside is an invitation from Harlan to tour the seed manipulation lab. My jaw drops.

“Why would he invite me to this?”

“Didn’t you agree to work there in exchange for your life?” Am I imagining the catch in her voice? Come to think of it, now that I get a good look at her, she seems to have a lot more makeup on than usual. The powder is caked so heavily that false lines have appeared on her usually flawless skin. If I didn’t know better, I could swear she’s been crying.

“Why does it have to be him who shows me around?”

She shrugs and sets up her scalp-checking instruments again.

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