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Phoenix takes a step towardto pry my head from my body Nikolai stops him and shakes his head

“What the hell did you do?” Phoenix asks

“What I had to,” I answer “And Nikolai was only operating out of necessity I mean, at least I didn’t have a nervous breakdown, yay me”

“No, you’re just fucking dying!” Phoenix yells “Do you have any idea what this is going to do to everyone?”

“It’s not like I’ on purpose,” I offer

“Technically, he’s being murdered,” Nikolai says so not helpfully

I shoot hilare

He just shrugs “He won’t be himself, and the sickness will kill hih the process”

“Twelve hours,” I repeat, ignoring the horrible news he has for me “And I won’t be… able to…” I don’t finish my sentence

“Dissociation is a scary thing,” Nikolai says

Phoenix groans “This is so?”

Nikolai stares me down “I wish I knew His body chemistry was already… different from the other test subjects Most of them are able to control the sickness with theit”

Phoenix seems to think about this “Why would his brain reject it?”

“Good question” Nikolai stares me down “One only he can answer”

“Look” I s hard “If I knew, I’d tell you All I know is being able to black out—” I stoptoo much and repeat “Twelve hours Okay On a scale of one to ten, how pissed do you think Chase would be if I went and kissed his daughter one last time?”

Phoenix curses and starts to walk away, then yells into the night rain

Nikolai squeezes his eyes shut like he can’t bear to look at me

“So, is that a ten?” I ask

Rain is co all three of us I can’t make out if Phoenix is pissed or just sad Nikolai continues to stare down at the ground, his dark hair plastered across his face and neck