Some Thing Called Myself (Complete)

XXVII: something edible

Ch. 27: Something Edible

In the back of her mind, Mara recognized this feeling as what Mimi had described in the elevator.

Something that makes you feel heavier and heavier, sinking until your lungs fail. You'll suffer for days, being crushed like an insect until you finally just die.

This was the venom in her veins, and knowing what was happening didn't make it any less terrifying.

Desperate voices rose and died around her, echoing as if in a big room, then a narrow corridor, then a shallow, polluted river. Mara's eyes closed; every time she tried to open them, refracted rays of light painted the eyelashes framing her vision, and bubbles crossed her sight. She was underwater again, her body suspended without any weight.

"...don't have the antidote. All I can do is ensure she has a chance to fight it...."

There was no escape. She was going to die again. For real, this time.

Someone placed her body on a cold surface that soon disappeared. With her eyes closed, the river was even clearer around her.

"...can't just sit here and do nothing!" Bernardo's voice said.

The knot in her throat tightened. The memory of her last drowning was still clear in her head, the feelings imprinted inside her like ink needled into her lungs. They burnt, begging for the air she couldn't give it.

Mara kicked, trying to swim towards the surface, but everything around her was darkness—and something was there with her. Her fingers twitched, fingernails hardening like claws while a distant sense of hunger spread in her chest.

Don't despair, my sweet child, said a gentle voice in her head. You won't be able to control it if you do.

"...never saw anything like this," Doc said, thousands of kilometers away. "The venom is spreading too quickly; I don't know how to...."

Her muscles spasmed, and she coughed; something wet trickled from the corners of her mouth and got lost in the water around her. A high-pitched beeping rippled across the water, slower by the second.

"...it'll be my fault again," Mirtes said. "We need to do...."

Her conscience faded, and her hunger expanded, overwhelming most of what she recognized as herself. Her claw-like hands opened; someone held them, and Mara only wanted to take a bite of whoever stood at her side.

Learn to control it, sweet child. I know you can do it.

Mara's lips parted; she was tired of fighting, so her body sunk, and her mouth dried in desperate need of flesh. Somehow she knew that if she failed to control this, she'd become the beast that had almost bitten a piece of Uah's face off. She'd become Alessa, the zombie...and she'd probably attack everyone around her.

Including Kiki.

"...can give her a sedative and hope her lungs won't collapse...."

She refused to become a monster. She refused to give up!

Life is fleeting, the voice in her head repeated. But death lasts forever.

Tears welled in her eyes.

Be the master of your own forever, child. 'Tis my gift to you.

Her eyes widened to find the blurred, white setting of the infirmary. Dark silhouettes stood before her, racing to and fro, while one in specific approached her, holding something that looked and glimmered like a syringe. There wasn't a prickle, but something cold concentrated in her arm and spread into her veins. While her muscles relaxed, Mara understood what she needed to do.