Page 49 of Mortala
Chapter eighteen
Sunshine
Ittooktenminutesfor that fucker to stop talking.He finally told me he’d change my dose again, hopefully to a stronger one.
Maybe it will help tell the shadows hanging onto the fringe of my shorts to detach like the leeches they are and flop on the ground.Some other unsuspecting victim can have them—they can leap onto their coattails and hang on for dear life like I have been.Give them a taste of their own medicine.
You are getting too close to the edge, girl.Telling that man about us is going to put you in the same hole you threw those men.
Liz chides, with her nose tilted into the air.Empty eyes stare down the curve of her bridge with all her pompous righteousness.
Stuck-up vulture.
Ignoring her, they follow me into my room before I can get the door closed, like a pair of pets crying for treats I do not have to give.Bobbing and weaving between my legs, their wails becoming louder until I finally cave and let them have my last slice of bologna.
Frantic for an anchor, I look around my room for something to tie myself to before I’m sucked violently into the darkness.It never works, but I keep trying; at least when I wake up I’m somewhere in the apartment away from innocent people.
My medication won’t be ready fast enough.I’ll end up losing my shit before I get the chance to go to the pharmacy—they never fill it in time anyway.Always takes a day or so before they send me a text to let me know they’re—
“GET OUT!”I scream, startling Liz who looks over her shoulder from where she has my pajama shorts hanging by a hooked finger—disgust on her flawless face.Of course she’d judge undergarments; sorry they’re not pantaloons, your grace.After a moment, she drops them to the floor and wipes her hands down the front of her floor-length skirt.Scowling at her, I don’t see where Kate is but she lets me know immediately when her tongue slides through the gaps of my fishnets.
Turning, I swing at her, which makes the thready diamonds rip and tangle around her rough muscle.Fucking wonderful, another pair I have to buy.
Twisting to find her again, cold dead hands grab my ankles and yank, sending me falling backward onto my bed as she launches.Kicking at her, I scurry across the crumpled bedding where Elias and I were for days—I’ve yet to tidy up.Misjudging the distance to the edge, my hand misses the side and gravity takes me with it.Plummeting off the edge, I hit the floor with a grunt before Kate is on top of me again.
“STOP!”I screech at her, but she’s as deaf as a doornail.
In, in, in, in, in, in,she growls, biting at me.
I swat at her again and she catches my hand between her gnarly teeth an chomps through the skin to the bones.
“Ahhhh!”I shriek when pain explodes across my fingers.Wrenching my hand free, it snaps back missing three digits.
Blood squirts over the both of us as it pours down my arm.Tears burst from my eyes from the agony pulsing up and down my bones.I kick and scream, shoving at the witch with my other arm as I cry for help that’s never coming.
She’s never hurt me like this, tormented me and broke me, yeah, but never this—she’s supposed to protect me.Not use me as a fucking chew toy!
This is what happens, girl.Take your punishment!Liz hisses from the chair Elias sits in when he’s watching me sleep.
“Fo…for what!What’d I do!”Grabbing my hand, it steadily bleeds, soaking into my shirt with heat and a sugary-stickiness.
Kate comes for me again.Her fingers dig into my cheeks to pry my jaw down.When the anguish won’t allow me to keep it shut any longer, I open.She pins it nearly to my chest and force feeds her hand behind my teeth—reaching for my soul.
Retching, I tense and lurch under her when she makes it to my throat—her fist bulging in my neck.
Speaking about us—silence is a virtue, girl.He will never believe you, no one will.It’s time you stopped resisting and trying to poison us.It only makes things worse for you.
Spluttering around Kate’s wrist, saliva and rancid taste of her flesh makes me want to hurl—sickness begins building low in my stomach as it tightens and forces bile up my esophagus.
Howling, Kate rips her hand from my mouth when the burning acid makes it to her raw skin.Slinging her arm around, she snarls at me, jagged teeth bared in warning that I do not heed.
Sadie!
She bellows—speaking with an unearthly rumble that sends the fear of death racing up my spine when she comes for me again.Liz does nothing to help.I swing my other arm, keeping the damaged fingers cradled to my chest while trying to fight her off.
“Sadie… fuck, stop!”her voice deepens.
Kate fists my hair with both hands and pulls me away from the bed.My heels beat the floor as I kick, friction from the carpet tugs at my clothes, but fuck ‘em.They don’t matter when I’m fighting for my fucking life, and this deranged wraith is five feet away from hauling me into the bathroom to butcher me.
