The Isle Of Sin And Shadows - Keri Lake Page 0,115

times?

Why?

The question echoes inside my mind. I slip my head beneath the pillow, to drown its incessant sound. The answer is a dark shadow with a white glowing face. Watching me. Mocking me from the corner of the room.

I won’t look. I can’t.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Stop it! Stop!

Limbs weak with exhaustion, I stumble out of bed and hobble my way toward the bathroom. The room around me shifts with the movement, my knees buckling under the weight of my body. Before I can reach the faucet, I collapse to the floor. A hard crack against my skull sends pain shooting into my sinuses, and on reflex, I let out a cough. Blood trickles from my nose, down onto my cheek, and when I touch my finger to the warm, sticky fluid, the fringes pull tighter. Closing me in.

Clawing pain tears at my stomach like a beast desperate for escape. A throb in my head and nose sends a pulsing pressure up into my eyes, while a cavernous ache expands beneath my ribs, as if my insides have been carved out with a spade.

“Help me! Please!” The words echo and bounce off the tiles, in a voice that’s both raspy and hoarse. Curling into myself brings me to the awareness that I’m not on the floor, as I thought, but lying in bed, as the blankets shift with me. The blood on my hands is gone, but the incessant pounding in my skull remains.

The walls shiver loose, long, translucent, serpentine objects that move in and out of the wood like snakes. A tingling in my arm has me staring down at those same translucent worms crawling in and across my skin. With a scream, I scratch at my arms, digging my nail into one of the worms that attempts to burrow in my wrist.

“Get out of me! Get out of me!”

Shaking and scratching doesn’t seem to deter it from its path, and when it wriggles into me, I shoot upright on another scream.

A sob rips from my chest, as the blanket shifts like a thousand snakes are slithering across my legs. A monotonous hissing sound follows, a warning that they’ve crawled inside my ears.

Hands clasped over the noise, I screw my eyes shut and scream. Loud, drawn out screams that fail to drown the hissing. “Stop! Stop it!”

Sweat dribbles down my temples, in spite of the shivers that wrack my body. Sickness twists and burbles in my stomach at the same time that acids shoot up my throat. I turn my head in time to expel the contents, and warm fluids slide across my cheek, as I lie on my side, watching the wall blur and sharpen.

I’ve blacked out so many times, I’ve lost count. I’ve no idea how many hours, or days, have passed. Or perhaps it’s only been minutes. Last I looked at the clock, it was two, but I can’t be sure if it was in the afternoon, or middle of the night. My nostrils burn with the acids, and I heave again. And again.

I open my eyes to darkness again. Perpetual darkness. Bloating and urgency in my gut warns of the need to use the bathroom, but I’ll never make it. The pressure builds and builds, pressing against my belly. A deep cramping has me grunting and curling into myself, breathing through my nose. A sobbing outcry is all I can muster, as a needling pain, like knives twisting in my gut, sends a shock of agony spiraling through me. “Please!”

Blackness swallows me.

27

Céleste

“Minou, minou, I see you!” The voice rips me out of the blackness, and I open my eyes to a blinding light that has me lifting my arm as a shield. Water trickles over my skin, and soft cotton, smelling of clean lemon, drags over my temple. In spite of the warm spray against my chest, my body shivers and trembles, and the heat of warm skin and strong arms swallows me from behind. It’s then I realize I’m lying naked against Thierry, on the shower floor, while he washes me clean.

His bent knees at either side of me have me mindlessly running my hands down powerful thighs, to the boxer briefs he didn’t bother to remove. His arms envelope me, pulling me against him, and the weight across my chest is comforting. Settling. The misty edges fizzle into another dream.

Silk sheets glide over my skin.

The savory scent of food has my stomach twisting with nausea. Warm liquids fill my mouth. I turn to