Don't Say a Word by Rita Herron Read Free Book Online Page B

two words to describe her. A hideous, faceless monster sentenced to live in the shadows.
    A scream tore from her throat as the outer skin of her new forehead begin to peel away. One by one like the layers of an onion, the layers slid down her cheek, cracking and breaking into a thousand black pieces that scattered over the white bedsheet like charred ashes of a fire. The muscle of the right side of her face drooped, causing her lip to sag downward, and the bones in her face shifted, cracked and turned jagged, splinters of bone jutting out as if toothpicks had been jammed into her cheeks. Her right eye settled over the place where her cheekbone lay, while the left one inched upward, the eye milky-white.
    Nausea gripped her stomach as her eye sockets curled, and her eyelids fell away. Her eyebrows disappeared into the folds of dead skin on the bed, and she felt her lips swelling, then bursting open. Blood dripped down her chin and trickled into a red river, the scarlet droplets splashing against her scarred breastbone.
    No…
    Her sob wrenched the air, and she balled her hand into a fist and slammed it into the mirror. Glass shattered and slivers pelted her, yet she hit the glass again and again. Blood cascaded down her wrist and fingers, and she picked up a fragment of jagged glass and held it to her wrist. Slice the main artery and she could end the pain and suffering. Never have to face the monster again.
    It was so tempting.
    She lifted the shard, jammed the point to the curve of her wrist, but suddenly a scream ripped through the air.
    No…Don’t die. Please don’t die.
    She whipped her head around. Was someone there? Calling to her? Someone who wanted her to live? Someone who cared…
    Maybe a family, a man, husband, lover, child who wanted her.
    And more children…the ones who needed her.
    * * *
    S HE JERKED AWAKE, HER breathing heavy and labored, her body sweating as she twisted and clenched the sheets. Memories of the nightmare and the past few months crashed like a tidal wave through her mind. The agony of the burn marks that had scalded the layers of skin and turned her face into a monster. The baths she’d been forced to endure had helped, but even then, mind-numbing pain had thrummed through her every cell. Endless surgeries and bandages to repair her disfigurement had added to the agony.
    And now…
    She lifted her hand to the bandages and felt them still covering her face.
    â€œIt’s all right, Crystal.”
    Lex. His low voice soothed her in the darkness.
    He pressed his scaly hand over hers, then brought their joined hands down to his chest. She felt the strong beating of his heart, and knew he’d heard her cries from his room.
    Or had he already slipped in to watch her sleep like a ghost in the night, as he did sometimes?
    At first that realization had frightened her. But he’d assured her he’d only come to protect her while she slept. To chase away the demons taunting her.
    And she’d felt a small measure of relief that she hadn’t been totally alone.
    â€œYou’re nervous about having your bandages removed tomorrow?” he asked quietly.
    She nodded as a tear escaped and shimmied down her cheek to dampen her bandage. “What if…”
    â€œShh, go back to sleep now.” He stroked her hand with his thumb, gentle, comforting. “I will care for you and watch over you no matter how you look.”
    Blessed words to hear. Yet she didn’t want to have to remain in the shadows. Or frighten the children who needed her.
    That voice that had called her back from the nightmare echoed in her head. The sense that there was someone out there who loved her, who wanted her to fight for her survival, a reason why her sanity had kept her alive all these months. She wouldn’t give up that hope now.
    She closed her eyes, and tried to doze back to sleep. Tomorrow her face would be unveiled.
    She prayed she would recognize the image in the