Page 134 of Molt

“I’m sorry.”

Her face softens. “I know.”

“I should have let you go.”

She cries harder.

“I was afraid.”

“So was I.”

“I thought loving you meant keeping you.”

“No.”

“I know.”

Sarah flickers through. “August.”

I nod.

Then Lenora again.

I touch the face that belongs to neither woman completely. “I loved you.”

Lenora smiles through tears. “I loved you too.”

My voice breaks. “Goodbye.”

The world stops.

Lenora screams.

Not in pain.

In release.

The sound tears through Sarah’s body.

Every light in the apartment explodes.

Glass rains down.

Sarah arches.

The dark eye turns brown. Then green.

Her jaw shifts. Her face ripples beneath the skin. Names appear across her body like bruises.

ELEANOR.

ANNA.

JUNE.

Others.

Dozens. They surface and vanish.