Page 118 of Grave Matter

Holy shit, what do I do?

I go behind the ventilator and crouch down. With the deep shadows away from the light, there’s just enough coverage from it and the cloth-covered operating tray beside it.

I’m barely in position when the door beeps, and I have to freeze. I suck in my breath as I hear it open. Quick footsteps follow.

“And how are we doing, Clayton?” asks Everly as she steps closer to the table. Too close. Oh god, what if she can see me? She’s only a foot away!

“Are we feeling more up for discussion?” Everly goes on. “Hmmm? Have you learned how to talk again?”

Clayton makes a rumbling noise, his breath wheezing.

“That’s it. You can try. It will make things a lot easier for you if we can converse.”

“Everly,” Clayton whispers, his voice hoarse and faint.

“That’s a good boy,” she says cheerfully. “Do you know why you’re back here, Clayton?”

“No.”

“Do you know why we had to shoot you?”

He doesn’t say anything but takes in a ragged breath. My brain is filled with thewoosh wooshof my heart as I strain to hear him.

“Because you were a bad boy,” Everly says. “You knew what would happen if you tried to escape. This is only your fault and no one else’s.”

Speaking of gaslighting.

“You can make it up to me though,” she goes on. “You can speed up the process. I just want to ask you a few questions, and I want you to be truthful with me. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Clayton says after a moment.

“You died a second time,” she says. “When you were shot out of that tree. Do you remember?”

“Yes.”

“Do you remember dying this time?”

Silence.

So much silence that I fear she can hear my heart. I can barely breathe, and my muscles are starting to shake from holding the crouched position.

“Yes,” he says.

“Tell me about it. Tell me what you saw. Tell me about death.”

“She knows,” he says.

I stiffen.

“Who knows?” Everly says sharply.

Please don’t say me, please don’t say me.

“Sydney,” Clayton hisses. “She knows.”

“What does she know? Do you know where she is? I was just in her room. I couldn’t find her.”

Oh my fucking god.

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