The Almost Girl – ebook edition by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Published: 2013-12-30T16:00:00+00:00

PART TWO

NEOSPES

OVER THERE

We’re on a training ground, running back to back, the wind in our hair and glee on our faces. Our enemies fall gracefully to our weapons, because together we are invincible. I turn to Shae, the wind lifting her braids off her face, and laugh out loud. We are breathless with victory. But suddenly, something in her face shifts, and she backs away, her hands outstretched, warding off something horrible.

I call her name over and over, but my feet are leaden and stuck to the ground, and she doesn’t stop moving. In a few seconds, I am alone and the orange sunshine has disappeared behind a dark, ominous cloud. The ground crumbles beneath my feet, and I’m lying in a desert with a mouth full of sand. Something crawls into my eye and I can feel it moving inside me, feeding off me. I can’t stop screaming, but no one hears me.

My mouth tastes like metal, dirty, sour metal. I spit and it’s an odd blue color, dead Vector’s blood. The caked, parched ground sucks it up greedily, like it’s something precious. There’s some kind of creature crawling toward me. It looks like a black scorpion, only it’s shiny and metallic, and its eyes are glowing white orbs. It crawls up onto my arm and then digs its sharp forward claws deep into my flesh and starts to feed on me. I am disappearing into this thing’s mouth until it’s gigantic and sated on my flesh, and I am nothing but a speck.

It has eaten me, absorbed me. I have become the monster. And I feel drunk with it, exhilarated. Alive.

And that’s when I see Shae, running toward me and throwing herself into my arms as if she hadn’t seen me in weeks. She smells so good that I can’t help myself. She is sunlight in a world of darkness. My mouth opens and I take her into me without a second thought. She must die to feed the monstrosity I have become.

I can’t stop screaming.

“Shae, no. I’m sorry.” The words feel like knives, tearing into the roof of my mouth, and I gag reflexively. Everything hurts. I don’t know if I’m awake or asleep, or if I’m dead or alive. Wetness soaks my cheeks.

“Riven, wake up.” A hand is shaking me. “It’s OK, it’s OK. We’re OK.”

I pry open my sticky eyelids, and Caden’s worried face swims into focus. I’m shivering so hard I can almost feel my bones rattling. “Whererewe?” I mumble unintelligently.

“Neospes, I think,” Caden says. “But it’s so desolate. I can’t see a city. There’s nothing for miles.”

“How long have we been here?” I try to sit up. I’ve never blacked out during eversion before. I don’t even want to think about what that means. My blood feels hot, like it’s on fire, but when I touch my skin it’s icy cold. I rub my hands up and down my arms. The movement hurts.

“I don’t know. A half hour, maybe more. I tried to wake you, but you weren’t even blinking.

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