Page 197 of Everdoll
“You don’t remember anything?” Mina whispered. Her voice was soft and gentle, dulling and softening my frayed nerves. I shook my head.
She cast a glance at Eleanor. In shock, I tracked the silent exchange between them.
“What…” Weak as I was, I tried to look as menacing as possible, though I knew I came across as no more threatening than a teenager. How pathetic. “What did you do to Mina?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie!”
“Raymond! She really didn’t do anything.” The moment she smoothed her fingers over my hand, my mouth, which had opened to yell again, snapped shut. The tension drained from my body all at once. She took a deep breath and began explaining everything, starting from the moment she woke up on that ship and headed back to Mars…
“And the test results show that the extraction was successful,” Dr. Aneta said. “There is no Umbra left in Mina’s body either.”
“Nor in yours,” Eleanor’s clone added.
“What does that mean?”
It was too good to be true. Everything I’d heard so far sounded like a dream, and I knew better than anyone how dreams ended.
“I’m telling you that you can no longer regenerate cells without developing cancer. If you cut off a finger, it won’t grow back. Normally, you were supposed to die before reaching twenty-three, but thanks to the catalyst, you’ve flushed most of the toxin from your system. Of course, in the coming days, you might vomit up bits of skin or flesh, or pass them through your bowels…”
“What?” It sounded so insane that within seconds I found myself searching for something sharp. If I remembered correctly, there was a small saw somewhere in this room.
I yanked open one of the drawers beside Mina. There it was. I brought the small blade toward my fingers, ignored the chorus of stop-yells rising from everyone around me. I had to see it with my own eyes. I needed to taste this relief.
Then, feeling the warmth against my wrist, I turned to my right. Mina was watching me. Her fingers intertwined with mine; the curve of her touch against my skin was enough to wash away all the exhaustion in my body.
“This one is better.”
She guided the blade away from my middle finger and toward my pinky. My mouth hung open as I stared at her, spellbound. Should I lose my mind over the fact that she wasn’t stopping me, or because she didn’t want my middle finger cut off?
Fuck, did I even have the right to think about any of this?
I set the blade directly against the phalanx and swung it without a moment’s hesitation. The top third of my finger fell to the floor. We all waited for a few seconds. I waited for the cells to swarm like ants and immediately begin repairing the damage, as they usually did. But nothing happened. My blood just kept dripping. Like a normal human’s finger… it flowed, forming rivers, turning into the stream leading to my paradise.
“I told you, I was serious,” Aneta grumbled, while Penelope jumped happily beside me.
Finally, I tore my eyes away from that captivating red and fixed them on the ginger who was more beautiful than any dream. Mina’s face was pale, but her amber eyes carried compassion. Tears had gathered, and her lips formed a faint smile.
“Are you free now?”
With her trembling whisper, everything I had been holding back surged to the surface. I lunged forward to wrap my arms around her again.
Mina awkwardly wrapped her arms around me in return. I sensed footsteps leaving the room. The fabric of our clothes rustled, her breath warm against my neck… She was this close. No longer distant. In body… and in spirit.
Could I finally deserve her now?
“You’re here,” I whispered near her ear, burying my nose in her curly hair. “You’re alive.”
“I am alive.”
“I’m alive, too.”
“You are.”
She didn’t break the embrace, her gentle fingers tracing through my hair. Her touch made me realize: most of my hair had been burnt away. Short enough that I could feel her fingertips directly against my scalp… Overwhelmed with shame, I pulled back abruptly and averted my eyes.
I hadn’t looked in a mirror. Damn, maybe my face was burned too. If I was ugly now, Mina wouldn’t love me.
