Page 34 of Vicious
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Ihurledmyself into the far corner of the dining room, great big sobs wracking my body and stealing the air from mylungs.
Pop wasn’t dead he wasn’t there was something wrong with me oh Feozva it hurt to see him but it wasn’t him itwasn’t.
I folded into myself, unable to sort it out in my mind because it was toomuch.
The hallway door opened. I pressed my face into the cold titanium wall and squeezed my eyes shut. It had come for me. Not he. Not Pop.It.
Footsteps circled around the other side of the table and strode into the kitchen at high speed. I turned my head in time to see a figure dressed in a smock and a long brown, frizzybraid.
“Ellison,” I whispered, scrambling to my feet. I had to tell her what I saw even though I wasn’t so suremyself.
The sound of drawers opening and slamming shut sped my movements. No one should be in the kitchenalone.
She barged out again, her lips flattened together, her gray eyes wide. And a large knife gripped tight in her hand, her gaze snapping tomine.
A shiver skated up my spine. The consumectalon cylinder slipped from my hand and rolled underneath the table. On instinct, I slid around the table to put it between us, searching her eyes for a trace of green. Like mine, there was only gray, but they were tinged with a lack of emotion that didn't fit Ellison atall.
"What are you doing?" I demanded, my voice as shaky as the rest ofme.
She started around the table. I matched her step by step to keep the table betweenus.
"Answer me, Ellison," I barked, hoping to snap her out of it, whateveritwas, with the sound of myvoice.
“She’s beenfound.”
“She? As in the drug?” I asked. “Ellison, what the hell? Put the knifedown.”
Her lips twisted into a snarl. "You know toomuch."
"Too much aboutwhat?"
"You’ll tell thehumans."
The humans, as in separate fromher.
“Listen to me,” I bit out with a wobble. “You must have a Mind-I inside of you. We’ll get it out. The Saelis are controlling you.” Oh, Feozva, help me.Wasthat what was happening, or was this something completely different? "Just put the knifedown."
“You need to be silenced,” shespat.
She was on the same side of the table as Mase's gun he’d hidden underneath. Not that I could ever shoot my own sister, but I could threaten her with it. That might be more effective than flinging my ice picks at her from across thetable.
"Fill in my blanks first and tell me what’s happening here,” I said. “Afteryou put the knifedown."
Loud, hysterical cries sounded from the hallway, then the door burst open and my world ripped into two literal halves. The half with me and a knife-wielding Ellison. The other half held a gray-scaled, yellow-eyed engineer propping up Ellison.AnotherEllison. No knife. Only tears tracking down her pale face, her shoulders hitching, her entire body shivering, her clothes torn and ragged, and spots of blood in too manyplaces.
The two halves stared at each other, soaking in this impossible sight, for the length of time it took for invisible thread to sew the halves together into an impossible reality. Two Ellisons.Two.
Ellison, the one who had just entered, lifted her arm and pointed at the other, her eyes shining fiercely. "That thing is notme."
I blinked, my brain sputtering to keep up. Out of the corner of my eye, Esmerelda the Space Vixen took in this impossible scene with me. There were multiple actresses who played herpart.
Copies. Two Ellisons. Like the paid copies of those who looked like me who’d been dropped all over the galaxy. Copies. Clones.Doppelgangers.
The other Ellison, the one with a knife, let out an inhuman screech that clamped my teeth together. Without bending her knees to gain height, she leaped onto the table. Breakfast dishes jumped at her feet. The knife in her hand gleamed in the light as she sprinted towardme.
My brain hadn't had time to process, but I did know one thing—thiswasn't mysister.
