The boys continued to whisper. To Heather it sounded like they were speaking a foreign language.
Her brain was hot and confused. She wondered if someone’s brain could turn to mush and come out of their ears. The thought of it frightened her so much she tried to touch her ears to check, but her attempt failed. Weird. Her left hand slapped over her left eye and her right hand missed her head entirely.
Concentrating, she willed her unruly arms to the right spot. No mush coming out of her ears. A relief.
The back of her head tingled, and the more she focused on it, the worse it got. Or was it the other way around?
Wiggling. Squirming. Getting hotter.
It started in her head and quickly spread down through her body, like hot worms infecting her insides. They flopped and sloshed around in her empty gut.
She lurched forward and threw up. Crumpled to her side in the fetal position, exhausted. She shifted and focused her eyes to see what she’d just expelled, fully expecting to see worms on fire writhing on the floor. But all she saw was a puddle of bile.
Still, she grew hotter. Was it possible they were still inside her? She clawed at her stomach as ragged coughs racked her body. Her hair clung to her face in damp, disheveled curls. One curl laid across her eye, but she was too weak to do anything about it. A trail of spittle leaked from the side of her mouth, and a cold hand gently wiped it away.
“Mom?”