She shut her eyes. It was a ridiculous thing to do. She couldn’twillthe malfeasance away. It was inside her. She’d been four years old when it happened—when she’d toppled headlong into a gorge like Alice down the rabbit hole and come face-to-face with something sinister waiting at the bottom.
When it gave her comfort, she’d taken it. When it offered to help, she’d accepted. She hadn’t known there’d be a cost. How could she have? She’d been a child, lost and afraid, the night closing in. She would have trusted a wolf had it promised her deliverance.
She didn’t know she’d carried it home. Didn’t know that it spent the next several years quietly seeding itself along her veins. Putting down roots. She didn’t suspect a thing until, one day—shortly after her twelfth birthday—it bloomed.
It started with her voice, turning even the faintest whisper to a poison. The first time she killed someone, she’d still been in braces. Philip came upon her in the entryway, standing in horror over their driver, her hands around her own throat. The nightmare hadn’t stopped there. Insatiable as a weed, it continued to consume her. Year after year. Little by little. It bound itself to her bones, the way green bittersweet could swallow a tree entire.
This morning, she’d woken on a tile floor.
One day, she might not wake up at all.
“I am making us better,” said the creature, as though she’d spoken all this aloud. Its voice was a percussion. It beat inside her skull. “Stronger. Thatiswhat you asked of me.”
Her right leg began to throb, the way old injuries did in the cold. Instinctively, she rubbed at her thigh, massaging away the pain. She hadn’t taken the time to properly stretch. If it got any worse, she’d be limping all afternoon.
“You’re keeping secrets from me,” sang the creature. “I don’t like that. We shouldn’t have secrets, you and I.”
Its horrible voice was punctuated by the chime of an incoming text. Still gripping her thigh, she made her way to her dance bag and tugged out her cell. A single message greeted her when she unlocked the screen.
Jesse
Are you out of your mind? I’m at work.
So, the courier had made it, after all. Right on schedule. Her heart thudded dully against her ribs as she composed a response.
Vivienne
Did you look through what I sent?
Jesse
Unfortunately, yes.
Vivienne
And?
It was a long time before he replied. In the mirror, the creature began to pace, dragging one long nail against the glass. When the phone chimed in her hand, it was a relief.
Jesse
What you’re asking me to do is impossible.
Vivienne
Where’s your sense of adventure?
She thought it over, and then added:
Vivienne
If you pull this off, you’ll be a god.
This time, no reply came at all. She waited, growing increasingly agitated. Disappointment ate away at her like rust. It didn’t matter. If he refused, she’d find a way to make him submit.
Everyone had a breaking point.
Out in the vestibule, the front door swung open and then shut.
