Page 65 of Somno Slave

A broken sound tears out of me. “No.”

I lunge forward and pause the video so violently my thumb slips across the screen twice before it finally stops.

The image freezes on my own body arching shamelessly into empty air.

Alone.

My throat closes instantly.

A sob surges upward so fast I nearly choke on it. I clap a hand over my mouth hard enough to hurt, eyes burning violently as shame crashes through me in sick, relentless waves.

No one touched me. No one was there.

It was just me.

My own body.

My own voice.

My own fucking mind.

I shut the app so fast the phone almost leaves my hand. My chest heaves violently.

I don’t bother with breakfast.

I just need to get out.

Outside, the rain is already falling.

The city is grey and half-formed, as if the morning hasn’t fully committed. I throw up my hand for a taxi when I hit the main road. One black cab passes. Then another. Then a third.

The first is occupied. The second doesn’t slow. The third drives so close to the curb that it splashes cold rainwater across my legs.

I falter to a stop, breath caught, hand still half-raised.

The street keeps moving. No one looks at me.

An ugly chill crawls down my spine.

I wave again when I see headlights. The cab slows this time, enough that hope flares stupidly in my chest. But it pulls back into traffic without stopping, as though I were never there at all.

I lower my hand slowly.

Fuck.

I don’t risk another glance at my watch; I know I won’t like the answer.

I start running.

Chapter Twenty-One

Rheda

“I told you, it’s not the machine—” Sean’s voice cuts through the hallway as I walk up to the viewing room.

All three of them look up when I walk in.

Act normal.