Page 77 of Immortal Sun

I stumble out of bed, suddenly dying of thirst, but my legs don’t hold me, and I slump to the hard floor. The ringing of a small bell breaks the silence.

I slowly kneel, eyes trained on the door, before slowly bringing my attention to my right foot, where a small black and red string is wrapped around my ankle and dangling off it…

A bell.

My throat goes dry. I’m afraid to touch the bell, so I reach around the string and attempt to untie it.

But nothing works.

I tug the string, hoping to loosen it. Again, nothing happens.

“This is ridiculous.” The bell moves with each step I take to the bathroom, the sound is a light jingle that reminds me of Christmas—a holiday I despise because everyone always appears so happy and I’m always so lonely.

I shake the dark thoughts away and stomp my foot only to have the bell bang against my skin. I know I have scissors or at least nail clippers packed with my makeup.

After a few minutes of tirelessly searching, I find the scissors next to some cotton swabs and jerk them out of the black bag.

Fear washes over me when I lift my foot to the sink. I know it’s stupid. This isn’t real. This is just a normal vacation. I swear I remind myself that at least a dozen times before taking a deep breath and snip the anklet off. It was all a dream, right? Cyrus saying he was going to kill me, Cyrus claiming to be a god. Then again, how did I get into bed? All I remember is walking back to the house and Cyrus taking me to the warehouse.

Did we kiss?

I touch my lips with my free hand and look down as the anklet falls to the floor with one last annoying jingle.

“That was weird,” I say to myself as Bast looks over at me from the bed. “Do you know how I got to bed last night?” Wow, I really must be losing it if I’m talking to a cat and asking him questions he can’t even answer.”

He meows at me, then stretches. His meows and pats at the blankets before he does a slow circle on the bed and sits.

He’s so ugly—naked.

I take a step toward him and freeze as the sound of a bell rings again.

Hands shaking, I look down at my right foot and stumble backwards into the wall. The anklet’s back, like it somehow attached itself to me even after being broken.

Am I dreaming?

Is this a prank?

“Hello?” I call out. “Anyone in here?”

Bast tilts his head at me like I’m the crazy one. He jumps off the bed and roams around like a little soldier searching for a stowaway.

I never thought I’d be hoping that someone was watching me sleep, but the cat comes back and sits at my feet as if he hasn’t found anything.

And I’mstillthirsty.

I want to blame Cyrus and the weird dream about the boat. He’s messing with my head.

What the hell happened yesterday?

I reach for my phone on the nightstand and notice I have a text.

Apep Kaos

You alive?

I type back right away.

Me

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