My cap slips forward, and I grin as Max pulls it back for me. “You’re very bossy in these woods, Max.”
He flicks the tip of my nose, but I can hear the laughter. “About time I got to be the bossy one.”
“Hey!” I protest, but my laughter catches in my throat as I lean forward, rubbing frantically. “There? There!”
He whoops. “That’s it. Get them into your tinder pile. Make it catch.”
The shredded tree bark begins to glow beneath the embers, a low flickering amber springing up.
“Good girl,” he murmurs behind me. It makes it a little hard to focus when I can feel him so close behind me, his heat warming my back. “Now build your frame. Don’t let it go out.”
He waits until the small fire has fully caught before I feel his hands around my waist. Max pulls me back, spinning me. His smile is a flash of white. “You’re a natural.”
My breath catches as he looks up at me. “These woods – they feel natural. Like home, I guess.”
I’m comfortable here. Running between the trees, climbing the bigger ones. Wading into the stream.
His smile widens. “Yeah? I like that. They give me the same feeling. Especially today.”
I roll my eyes at him. “Does that work on all the girls?”
“Never tried it.” I shriek as he flips me, tucking me against his side with my feet dangling off the floor. “As if I’d ever look at another girl when I knew you were coming.”
My giggles ring out. “You didn’t know I was coming.”
“Sure I did, Ken.” He strolls straight into the stream, his feet kicking up cold droplets of water that feel like ice against my burning skin. “And I knew you were gonna be special.”
***
Something is wrong.
Coughing, I roll over onto my side. Spiky, sharp agony tears through my shoulder, making me retch onto the ground.
How did I get here?
My eyes struggle to focus, my vision flickering and blurring in a way that feels all too familiar.
It shifts as I try to focus on the trees, trying to pinpoint my location. The trunks around me change from brown, tored, and back.
Red again. Dark, muddy red, like old blood. And my nose fills with rust, as my other shoulder begins to burn.
Everywhere. I’m on fire everywhere, my fingers curling into the damp mud beneath my cheek.
And my vision doesn’t stop, flickering in and out as I curl up. The burning agony spreads over my body, creeping from my shoulders down to my wrists. My stomach. My hands. My legs. Feet. It leaves nothing untouched, and my back arches, mouth opening on a silent cry as panic wars with the torment in my body.
It’s too soon.
I still had time. Not much, but enough to walk away with my head high. The Center is coming this morning—
But I’m not there to meet them. I’m here, laying on the floor in the middle of the forest in nothing but my bandages and a pair of sleep shorts. I see nothing I recognize around me. No landmarks. And every time I try to focus, that buzzing in my head grows louder.
Goose pimples spring up along my skin as my breathing deepens to harsh pants. I run my dry tongue over my teeth, praying.
I should know better than to rely on anyone else by now, even if it’s some deity in the sky. My tongue jabs into sharp ends, my canines elongated.
My teeth have changed.
I close my eyes. A broken sob tears from my chest.
