Page 124 of Tell Me Why
She watched him to be sure that he meant it, but she couldn’t tell, either way.
They pulled into a very old, abandoned drive-in theater, the posts sticking up out of the ground like skeletons struggling to rise, and she saw Tony leaning against his car.
“Stop here,” she said through gritted teeth. “Stop now.”
Tell sighed and braked sharply, glancing at her once.
He looked like he had something to say, but he couldn’t figure out what it was, and then he got out and left her.
Tina pulled down the visor and opened the mirror, finding a pale and skeletal version of herself there. Her eyes were sunken and her eyelids gaping from them, and her lips were colorless.
She was the walking dead, already.
And she was feelingbetterthan she had been.
She was almost certain that everything that was happening around her was real, and everything.
She looked at her arms, finding an interesting if morbid incoherency, there. Her skin was slack and pale, but she hadn’t lost muscle tone.
They had sucked the vitality out of her, but they’d preserved her meat.
She lifted her face to look out at Tony.
And she didn’t see her friend.
A man who had saved her life, who had been friendly to her amongst all of the others who had just wanted her for her appeal and her wealth.
Someone whose mind she respected and whose company she enjoyed.
No.
All she saw was a heartbeat with pink skin.
And suddenly her fingers were working and she was prepared and ready to dive out the door of the car and charge over to him.
And she knew, she knew without even looking at it too closely, that it would have been on all fours.
She held herself in check, but it was only just barely. If she thought for a moment that she could smell him, she was going to lose it.
Tell was pointing at her as he spoke to Tony, and Tina held herself in tight check, trying to listen, trying not to listen. Her hearing was poor, even for normal, and she couldn’t make out Tony’s voice.
For the best.
If she could hear him…
Her hands were gripping her knees.
And she was leaning out over them, just… watching.
It was unlike her and uncomfortable to find thatthingthere inside of her, but she’d known.
Tell was going to have to rip her off of him if she lost control, and… knowing it didn’t make it any easier to feel.
Tell walked back quietly to the car and opened her door.
“He understands,” he said. She looked up at him, and he nodded. “I give you my word.”
She eased herself up out of the car, letting Tell offer her a hand to get onto her feet, then she turned to face Tony where he was still standing next to his car.
