No way to survive, but perhaps a way to win No,...
No way to survive, but
perhaps a way to win
No, no, no!This thought was all mine, and I fought to pull myself away from her, but we were
togetherAnd we sprinted for the edge of death
“Please!” The shouts are more desperate
I feel like laughing when I know that I am fast enoughI imagine their hands clutching for me
just inches behind my backBut I am as fast as I need to beI don't even pause at the end of the
floorThe hole rises up to meet me midstride
The emptiness swallows meMy legs flail, uselessMy hands grip the air, claw through it,
searching for anything solidCold blows past me like tornado winds
I hear the thud before I feel it
And then pain is louis cartier everywhere
Not high enough,I whisper to myself through the pain
When will the pain end? When… ?
The blackness swallowed up the agony, and I was weak with gratitude that the memory had
come to this most final of conclusionsThe blackness took all, and I was freeI took a breath to
steady myself, as was this body's habit
But then the color rushed back, the memory reared up and engulfed me again
No!I panicked, fearing the cold and the pain and the very fear itself
But this was not the same memoryThis was a memory within a memory–a final memory, like a
last gasp of air–yet, somehow, even stronger than the first
The blackness took all but this: a face
The face was as alien to me as the fake fendi spy bag faceless serpentine tentacles of my last host body would be
to this new bodyI'd seen this kind of face in the images I had been given to prepare for this
worldIt was hard to tell them apart, to see the tiny variations in color and shape that were the
only markers of the individualSo much the same, all of themNoses centered in the middle of
the sphere, eyes above and mouths below, ears around the sidesA collection of senses, all but
touch, concentrated in one placeSkin over bones, hair growing on the crown and in strange
furry lines above the eyesSome had more fur lower down on the jaw; those were always males
The colors ranged through the brown scale from pale louis vuitton denim cream to a deep almost-blackAside from
that, how to know one from the other?
This face I would have known among millions
This face was a hard rectangle, the shape of the bones strong under the skinIn color it was a
light golden brownThe hair was just a few shades darker than the skin, except where flaxen
streaks lightened it, and it covered only the head and the odd fur stripes above the eyesThe
circular irises in the white eyeballs were darker than the hair but, like the hair, flecked with light
There were small lines around the eyes, and her memories told me the lines were from smiling
and squinting into sunlight
I knew nothing of what passed for beauty among prada fairy bag these strangers, and yet I knew that this face
was beautifulI wanted to keep looking at itAs soon as I realized this, it disappeared
Mine,spoke the alien thought that should not have existed
Again, I was frozen, stunnedThere should have been no one here but meAnd yet this thought
was so strong and so aware!
ImpossibleHow was she still here? This was me now
Mine,I rebuked her, the power and authority that belonged to me alone flowing through the
word
So why am I talking back to her?I wondered as the voices interrupted my thoughts
CHAPTER 2
Overheard
The voices were soft and close and, though I was only now aware of them, apparently in the
middle of a murmured vintage chanel jewelry conversat