She Lies Twisted by C.M. Stunich Read Free Book Online Page B

“What are you doing?” I whispered as his talons tore through the new carpeting and reached out for my face. “Why?”
    James stepped in front of me and placed a hand on the Boyd-thing's bulging forehead. In an instant, Boyd was back to normal, grinning and thrusting a piece of paper under my nose.
    “ You are not gonna believe this, Neil.” I saw my own hand reach out and grab the paper.
    “ Hey!” I heard myself say. “You passed! I can't believe it!” I watched as a mirror image of myself ran forward and threw her arms around Boyd's neck. “I told you that you were smart. Stupidity skips a generation.” The ghost-me withdrew and planted her hands on her hips. “It's true.” Boyd ruffled my hair. “We learned that in AP Bio last week,” the other me said as she knocked his hand aside. I turned my face away and stared at the dark pool on the floor. My fingers shook as I reached for the wounds in my side. It's true, it's all true. Your life really does flash before your eyes.
    “ You must've been really important to him,” James said as he turned around and stared down at me, the corners of his eyes crinkling in concern. “If he's already gotten this far after what, a week?” There was still blood, lots of it, but when I touched my skin I met roughness instead of pain. I wiped my skin off with the edge of my shirt and sat up. There were new stitches all across my body from the new wounds to the old ones. I was right, they had grown back! This isn't happening.
    I stood up.
    James had turned back around and was watching Boyd brush hair away from my face. I hated when he'd done that. It had always made me feel guilty for not loving him like that.
    “ What the fuck is happening to me?” I asked as James continued to watch what was probably one of the most important days in my life unfold like a blurry watercolor painting right in front of what was apparently both of our eyes. “Why can you see that? What's going on?” James knew. He had to know. He had stitches, too. He glanced back at me.
    “ I was going to explain but you took off before I had a chance.” I watched my hands glide down the arms of Boyd's sweatshirt. This is why he died. You killed him. It's because of this day that he's dead. I closed my eyes and hoped that wasn't true.
    “ Can we go now?” I asked. “I think I'm going to be sick.” I stumbled towards the front door and then thought the better of it before returning back to the window I'm come through in the first place.
    “ We can't go,” James said as he glanced around. “Who's going to clean all of this up?”
    “ Who the fuck cares?” I snapped as I forced my bottom half through the narrow opening. The ghost Boyd and I were walking back towards his room. I had to get out of there. My feet hit the grass with a thump. I turned around to make sure nobody had heard the commotion. If they had, they were ignoring it. True trailer park style. James hit the ground behind me.
    “ Your blood is everywhere and there's a lot of it. Whoever finds that mess is going to think someone died in there.”
    “ Somebody already did,” I said and took off at an uncomfortably quick pace. After just a couple of minutes, my breath was growing ragged and my head was on fire. James caught up to me and stayed silent until I finally slowed.
    “ It may have healed up but that doesn't mean it won't affect you.” I ignored him. If he was going to keep speaking cryptically like that, we might as well play charades. I waited until we were deep enough into the trees that it was unlikely that anyone would stumble onto us and then proceeded to have a panic attack. My emotions dragged more wet from my tired eyes than I'd ever thought possible. I dropped my face into my hands and sobbed.
    “ Why?” I asked as James situated himself beside me. “It was already hard enough and then I had to see him again? Why?” It wasn't really directed at him but he answered anyway.
    “ It's always like that,” James