a's

ed through my eyelids b

es by heart. I'd memorized every crack, every water stai

r stood

nless mask. Not a hair out of place. The D

e informed me, her voice as flat as a coroner's report.

g for my reaction.

e Soldiers are talking. The Capos are asking questions." Her eyes n

ow. My gaze landed on a smal

Aurelia powder. They'd been left there de

'd been poisoned. My mother carrying me barefoot through freezing snow to this exact wing

e'd stirred Aure

id it again at ten. And thirteen. And sixteen. And nineteen. Every ho

ty y

ing I hadn't known was sti

ld neve

as my body belonged to the Family, she would

was to annihila

y atrophied muscles shook. The IV

apsules from the metal tr

at her. Blan

here

. Then a twisted, profoundly pr

cabinet and produced a massive industrial plastic bag. Hundreds of

he bed before m

the pla

The dry plastic casings scraped against my ruined throat. I choked and kept going. My

half-turned to me. I heard her dialing.

professional calm. "She's finally consuming the product

deep into the bag. My finge

or

I shoved the bitter poison past my lips. Chewed the gritty chemica

ach con

sideways a

blood splattered across the pristine white floor. It glo

hone clattere

scre

e Donna. A raw, terrified shriek that tore

s, trying to claw the half-chewed drug

Anya,

d another fistful of powder. Shoved it past my bloody lips. Kept consuming.

ee

mattress, my body folding like wet paper, twitching in a spr

erground doctors rushed in, sho

ved hands against my ruined abdo

he tissue is liquefied-blood and fluid-nothing left to suture. We have