Page 49 of SummerTime Madness
Through bodies grinding and blooming and breaking behind us.
I can hear snarls. Rabid sounds as footsteps thud against the wet ground.
And still, “All Night" played.
Up ahead there’s some sort of double door hidden between trees. I pump my legs, holding on to her ass as she claws at my back. Smacking her jiggly ass.
“Calm the fuck down,” I hiss running straight to the door. Chase opens it for us and closes it just in time for the crowd to run into the door.
Their chase coming to an end.
“What the fuck is happening?” I ask Chase who looks like he’s just seen a ghost, and breathes heavily as he presses into the door, slides onto the ground, and buries his hands into his chestnut waves.
“I fucked up, Tate” he groans.
Cordelia continues to claw my back, twisting in my arms.
Hot.
Veins glowing.
What the fuck?
She begins to laugh, and then Chase mimics her laugh as his head bangs against the metal door.
The lights cut on from the screen in the room. Placing Cordelia down, I try to look at the video playing before us. Her hand wraps around my throat–too strong– and– painfully, her nails dig into my flesh.
“Cordy,” Chase whines, watching as Cordelia snarls.
A clicking sound leaves her mouth as her jaw clicks back and forth.
“Cordelia, baby,” I say as she forces me back into the wall.
My eyes move to the screen as I watch a man with roots spilling from his eyes and ears tear through the stomach of another man who’s dressed in a labcoat. Pushing her off me, I grab her arm, twisting it, and pinning her against the wall.
Chase growls.
“What the fuck is going on, Chase?” I bark out at him as he circles me like I’m prey, and Cordelia snaps her teeth,fishing for a bite. From behind me, another video feed begins to play.
“Subject 5 has fallen under control of the cordycep. No connection established. Another failure,” the man says as he lets out a sigh. My eyes widened from the shock–the realization–as I thought of my conversations with Professor Johnson. Cordelia’s experiments.
“Fuck.”
But before I know it, Chase's arm wraps around my neck, grabbing me from behind, holding me still for his Queen. She looks at me with a wide, bloody grin, translucent filamentsescaping her lips.
Cordelia
I see Tate’s throat, the way his pulse flutters beneath his skin. My mouth waters. My jaw clicks.
My screams.
“Take him,” a voice in my mind says. “He’s yours. Infect him.”
I lean in, feeling the tendrils claw their way up my throat, and my mouth falls open as I fall to my knees. Each movement causes a clicking noise. Filaments slide between my teeth, and his scentinvades my system.
Fear, trust, and everything I ever wanted fill my lungs.
Chase's eyes soften as he falls back, still holding onto Tate to allow me to crawl over them. Straddling them both, my hand moves to his throat but I don’t bite.
