Then I stopped.
“But . . .”
The word slipped out quietly as I reached for the pig figurines scattered between old lipsticks and powders. Ridiculous and strangely detailed, they lined the base of a golden-framed mirror. One was caught mid-twirl, holding a glass of wine. Another stood at a miniature easel, brush frozen mid-stroke.
Two of them caught my eye. One was a piglet curled in a stroller. The other was its mother, holding a bottle and smiling down at her baby.
“How is this possible?” I whispered.
I picked up the baby one. It looked just like the one from Cynthia’s office. The one on her windowsill.
Poor Cynthia.
My chest tightened as my eyes began to burn with tears.
Then it hit.
Not a memory. An ambush.
The gunshot exploded in my mind. My hands flew up to cover my ears. Cynthia’s face snapped into view. Those wide, terrified eyes. Then her face. Half of it gone. The blood. The stillness.
“Stop!” My voice cracked. I tried to push the image back, shove it away, but the ringing had already started. High-pitched and shrill, it drilled into the center of my brain.
“Please!” I begged. “Please stop!”
“Silly girl,” came a woman’s voice, loud and clear.
Then the strangest thing happened.
The ringing stopped. Just like that. From one breath to the next. Silence.
Confused, I blinked down at the figures in my hands. A strange nausea swirled in my chest. Had I lost my mind? Were they talking to me now?
“Why touch the stupid dogs if you’re allergic?”
“What?” I lifted my gaze toward the mirror.
And froze.
In the reflection, a woman stood by the door.
She was older, maybe in her fifties. Her skin had the dirty, drawn look of someone who hadn’t bathed in weeks. A worn dress clung to her frame. Her hair was long and silver-gray,hanging nearly to the floor. Deep creases ran across her face, and her icy blue eyes locked onto mine without blinking.
“Just look at your hands,” she said.
I lowered my gaze. The figures were still in my palms. And now, so were dozens of faint red bumps.
They dotted my skin like pinpricks. I hadn’t noticed them before. And they weren’t very obvious. Faint. But now they were there, plain as day, like they’d been summoned just to prove that the strange woman was right.
“Silly, silly girl!” Her voice cracked now, sharp and angry, laced with something feral. “Why do you touch the stupid dogs if you’re allergic?”
I spun around, my heart pounding, ready to face her. To see her in the flesh.
But the second I turned, the ringing came back, violent and overwhelming. The world went black in an instant.
Cold darkness crashed over me.
My body hit the floor.
