City of Halves by Lucy Inglis Read Free Book Online Page B

as she read a rambling, disjointed post full of accusations against the government. Accusations that the government knew there were non-humans living in society and that they were being monitored. Why? asked the rant. And what was the agenda? Lily got to the end of it, then, just as she was about to screenshot it, it disappeared.
    What?!
    For a second she thought the original poster must have deleted it. But then the responses began to disappear, quickly, one after the other. Lily grabbed a screenshot of everything that was left, just in time before the whole thread was eaten from the inside.
    Dammit . She refreshed the browser, but the thread was gone. Rubbing her face, she rested her chin on her hand and glanced towards the window. Full dark had descended. Lily turned herattention back to the screenshots, her focus sharp.
    She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting there when she finally looked away from the screen. It was past seven. She sent the last lot of screenshots to the wireless printer in her father’s study and checked her email. It was rare she printed anything out, but if things were to continue disappearing in front of her eyes, it seemed sensible to have a hard copy. Putting the laptop on the coffee table, she got up and went through to the bathroom, stripping out of her bloody things and looking at them. In her rush to find out as much as she could about the Eldritche, she’d almost forgotten the huge rips in her clothes, the blood matting everything together. She stood in front of the bathroom mirror, examining her unbroken white skin, still covered in flaking patches of now-black blood. On the right side of her neck, her hair was even stuck to her throat in places. It crackled as she pulled it away. She eyed the pile of clothes on the floor. And I walked around all day like that and no one even noticed . She breathed a sigh of relief that she would be changed before her father arrived home.

    After her shower, her hair hanging in damp rat-tails around her face, Lily picked up her jeans and went to put them in the machine in the kitchen, then bagged and binned the ruined T-shirts. The towel she had wrapped around herself felt unusually harsh against her skin. Her stomach growled and she realised she was starving.
    She ran the tap for a glass of water, finding herself somehow fascinated by the sparkling stream, then shook her head. What’s happening to me? Today is getting weirder and weirder . Quenching her thirst and throwing the rest of the water down the sink, sheput the glass on the side and walked back to the bedroom, almost bumping into Regan as he walked into the room from the hall.
    She jumped back with a squeak. He stood, frozen, staring at her. Then he spun round so his back was to her, putting his hands on his head like a police suspect.
    â€˜When you said I’d see you again, this wasn’t what I had in mind,’ she said.
    â€˜I just came to ask you something else about your mother,’ he said over his shoulder.
    Recovered from the surprise, Lily folded her arms. ‘Ask, then.’
    â€˜It can wait until you put some clothes on.’
    She tutted. ‘I’m wearing a bath towel with more coverage than ninety per cent of prom dresses. What do you want to know about my mother?’
    He linked his fingers behind his head. ‘The circumstances.’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜Please get dressed.’
    â€˜Oh I am sorry,’ Lily said archly. ‘I didn’t realise people who tore hearts out for a living were so sensitive.’
    He said nothing, his back still to her.
    She rolled her eyes. ‘Well, if it won’t offend you too much, I have to get past you.’
    He sidestepped into the hall. Lily strode past, shaking her head. She glanced over her shoulder at him. His eyes were closed, his hands still on the back of his head.
    In her room, she dressed quickly, pulling on more black jeans, a tight long-sleeved T-shirt and a looser