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Chapter 19

I worry for the rest of the evening Deirdre triesmy shoulders, but she seeI can do?" she asks

I think for a moment, and then I say, "Could you send up someone to do my nails? And maybe an eyebroax, too? Maybe I’ll feel better if I can do so about my appearance"

Deirdre assures es, and a fewfirst generations e conditioner into my hair and strip my eyebrow line of both hair and a layer of skin They’re the sa day, and it’s a relief that they’re so absorbed in their gossip that they don’t notice my distress It makes what I’m about to do that much easier

"The day we met, you asked if my eyes were natural," I say "Can irises be dyed?" It sounds painful and absurd, but I’ve seen stranger things in h "Of course not!" one says "Only hair can be dyed You change your eye color with contact lenses"

"Little pieces of plastic that go right into your eye," the other says

I think it sounds as absurd as the dye, but I say, "Is it painful?"

"Oh, no!"

"Not at all!"

"Do we have any contact lenses?" I ask "I’d really love to see how I’d look with green eyes Or hted to grant this request One of them disappears and returns with little circular containers that house contact lenses They look disturbing, like irises peeled from eyeballs, and h it, because if I can survive that van full of girls, I can do this, too

It takes several tries to get the lenses into , or my eyes water and that flushes theives up and says, "Your eyes are so pretty, honey, I’e theether ork it out, and I’reen eyes in the mirror

Impressive, I have to say

The attendants cheer at their success Before they go, they leave me a bottle of contact solution and some blue and brown lenses to practice with They warn me not to fall asleep with them in my eyes because they’ll stick to the iris and I’ll have a hard tione, I practice putting the green lenses on and taking them off I think about what Rose said that afternoon when she caught h the elevator She said that, for hn probably paid extra And earlier this afternoon Jenna said she orried about what he’d do to s related? And if they are, what does that mean--that he’ll pluck my eyes from my head and run some experiment on heterochromia? Heterochromia for the antidote? I can just see the party he’ll hold; Linden could draw up the layout

I leave the contacts to soak in the solution, and I fall into a deep, drea Jenna and I conspire over breakfast

We sit onin low voices, and we finally think we’ve worked out a plan to distract Vaughn and get me into the basement, e hear Cecily screa on the floor in a watery puddle of blood, with her face pressed against the asps and sobs

My heart is pounding in le to help her to her feet It’s difficult just getting her onto the bed, because her body is so tightly locked, so bizarrely heavy, and she’s so hysterical with pain "It’s happening," she cries "It’s happening and it’s too soon I couldn’t stop it"

Weand white The sheets between her legs bloo Governor Linden," Jenna says, and I rabsinto my skin, and she says, "Stay! Don’t leave s to her, but she doesn’t seem to hear them Her eyes flutter wildly back toward her skull, and horrible groans spill fro her back to me I don’t knohat else to do; she’s the one who read all those books on childbirth

She’s the expert, and I’ht It’s too early There’s supposed to be another s writhe in her anguish, and the blood is getting everywhere Her nightgown Her lacy white socks

"Cecily" I grab her face Her eyes stare at ly Her pupils are wide and unreal "Cecily, stay here with me"

She reaches up, touches my cheek with her cold little hand, and says, "You can’t just leave e about the way she says it, soent There’s a fear in her brown eyes I’ve never seen

Vaughn coasping Linden in tow, and they take over I ht-ful place beside her, holding her hand The attendants have brought carts of ood girl," he coos, and jabs an enorht of it, but for some reason an eerie calm washes over Cecily’s face as the fluid is injected I back away and back away until I’m in the doorway

"Now’s your chance," Jenna whispers She’s right In this frenzy I could probably set the house on fire and it would go unnoticed It’s the perfect tio to the basement and find Gabriel