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“It’s okay,” Cara said “I got him back”
HerCara up and aith a violence that hurt her neck Cara was back behind the counter, her feet off the floor, herthe air out of her al Her father pushed them both behind him She didn’t understand why he had a knife in his hand
“Gary?” her mother said “What the fuck is that?”
“I see it,” her father said “It’s real”
Cara couldn’t speak She didn’t have the air She wriggled against heron This wasn’t hoas supposed to happen
“I want a hug too,” Xan said
Xan took another aard step forward, still and then the flicker of ed sound too big for thein his fist, and terror flooded Cara’s blood She kicked at her rip around her released a little
“Stop it!” Cara screa?”
Xan blocked the knife with his hand, the gray skin opening and black blood pouring from his palm Xan’s eyes ith shock Her father barreled forward, still shouting wordlessly He grabbed Xan’s funeral whites and lifted the little boy off the floor Cara pushed against her mother’s neck hard, and stuht sound of panic Her father had the pantry door open He threw Xan into it and sla There ords in it now He was shouting, Leave my family alone
“What is the matter with you?” Cara shouted She punched her father’s back and then froze She’d never hit him before She’d never hit anyone before He didn’t even notice He grabbed one of the kitchen stools and used it to jaainst the door harder than Cara would have thought he could Herfast and low, al
Tears were strea down Cara’s cheeks, but she wasn’t sad All she felt was a powerful, growing outrage
“I brought his, and they fixed him!”
“Dogs?” her father said “What dogs?”
“The dogs that came after the stick moons turned on,” Cara said There was soto drink through too thin a straw Thewouldn’t all fit “They fixed Momma bird and the drone and they fixed Xan because I asked theht him back and you hurt him!”
She heard herinto her handheld I need the e and impatience felt like venoet the pantry door open again Her father grabbed her shoulders, pulled her close until his face was the whole world