Page 271

I fight against the roots holding me, trying to reach him, when my abdomen suddenly contracts.

Hard.

A scream rips out of me.

Every muscle across my stomach locks at once, crushing inward with enough force to steal my breath. The swelling beneath my shirt pulls tight, harder and harder until I’m sure something inside me is about to fucking tear.

Then it releases.

All at once.

My abdomen flattens beneath my clothes.

I stare down at myself.

“What the fuck?”

The pressure is gone.

For half a second, relief nearly buckles me.

Then something moves.

Not in my stomach.

Higher.

A slow pressure slides beneath my ribs.

I stop breathing.

“No.”

It climbs.

My hand claws at my shirt as something travels beneath the skin of my abdomen and into my chest.

Not a kick.

Not a muscle.

Something fucking crawling.

“No. No, no, no.”

I drag my shirt up.

A thin black line appears beneath my skin.

Then another.

They spread across my ribs in branching veins, dark enough to see clearly as they crawl higher.

Roots.

They aren’t growing around me anymore.

They’re growing inside me.