Page 123 of No One’s Daughter

​My heart began to race, each beat louder than the last, drowning out the music, the movements, everything.

​Something was wrong.

​The music crescendoed.

​Then faded into almost nothing.

​The silence that followed was deafening.

​A single spotlight flared overhead.

​My breath hitched as it cut through the dimness, slicing upward toward the rafters.

​Toward the trapeze.

​At first I didn’t understand what I was looking at.

​My mind tried to make sense of it, to shape it into something harmless, something explainable.

​But it couldn’t.

​Because they were… they were hanging there.

​Five figures.

​Perfectly still.

​Suspended from silks that had once looked so elegant, now twisted tight around their limbs, their torsos, holding them aloft like grotesque marionettes.

​Their bodies were dressed in the same shimmering fabric as the performers below—pristine, untouched, impossibly beautiful.

​Masks covered their faces, delicate and ornate, hiding everything but… their… their hair.

​It fell freely.

​Identical.

​The same shade.

​The same length.

​The same—

​My stomach dropped.

​No.

​No, no, no.

​No.

​My eyes darted between them, my chest tightening with every second, every breath becoming harder to pull in.

​Same height.

​Same build.

​Same everything.