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"Mo out at the effort It hurts to even speak "I want to go toher to listen, to drop it, to take me away from these men It doesn’t really matter anymore It’s done

Her wild eyes scanto do As cal to me has pushed her over her limit

If I wasn’t so weary, so beaten, I’d lash out at her Why is she angry now? What happened to the afternoon Pollock first showed up with the head? Take me away, run off with me to some remote cabin in the mountains where I would have been safe from the world?

Now it’s too late for me

Mom htens her aret you inside"

We’re on the porch when Pollock calls back, "She can stay home tomorrow, but I’ll expect her back in school the day after And I expect no more incidents from her in the future"

Mom stiffens beside me I hear her inhale and she starts to turn I know she’s about to respond

"Don’t," I hiss, understanding how this game needs to be played Maybe I didn’t understand before, but I do now Fighting back-- openly fighting back--isn’t the way

I urge Mom ahead into the house When the door shuts behind us, I want to ith relief I feel safe inside these walls Finally able to drop uard However false the perception,Mo her ar h es to slow my descent The floor rises up to h and pressthe chill into my body My neck burns like fire

Mom’s voice is frantic above s at ?" I turn my face at the sound of Mitchell’s voice He clears the foyer and hurries toward us "Davy? What happened?" His fingers gently brush the gauze coveringiven her soet her to her room"

Mitchell picks me up and carries me up the stairs and into my room Mom pulls back the covers He sets aze riveted to my neck as Mom slips off my shoes

"They imprinted her," he spits the words out Not a question A statement His hands open and shut at his sides like he wants to punch so a word

"Why?"

"I don’t know"

I find my voice "I slapped Zacat a party"

"You slapped Zac?" Mole at this

"This is because of Zac?" Mitchell growls "I’h harder "That would be funny You ending upkiller"

"Momhow could you let them do this?" There are tears in his eyes, and this sobers ets to hi in trouble at school--not getting kicked out of school Not flunking out of college and uesthouse

It’s not that he was indifferent to all that happening I know he cared I know he hated being the "disappoint for me

"I didn’t have a choice They just took her I didn’t know until it was done"

"You should have stopped them!" He whirls from my bed and faces Mom "They can’t do this to our Dav!"

"I know!" she explodes, waving her arh the air at her sides "But she’s not our Davy anys on the air

Mitchell doesn’t react, and I’id, his spine raone is the chronic slouch that is so very hiht now, I just want to pull a pillow over h I can’t The Agency won’t let h school Not just for them but for me

And yet there’s some co onat me Dot is faded to a dull yello, the polka dots beneath its wings no longer identifiable

I blink burning eyes The days of ht and shiny--when I had been bright and shiny--are like a drea dimmer and dimmer with each day The bed sucks me in deeper and I never want to leave it

A door slams downstairs

"Caitlyn!"