Page 198 of Everdoll

At the thought, I buried my face even deeper into her. My nose was touching her roots now. My dry lips pressed against her skin, craving her touch like a desert craving rain. My lids longed to close from the overwhelming relief, but I also wanted to live every single moment with total clarity.

Still, I let my head rest to the side, squirming as I tried to fit my whole body onto the bed. Mina shifted to make room for me.

She was making space for me. To sleep beside her.

I knew I shouldn’t react like a foolish teenager, but I was helpless. It felt as though the world stopped flowing the moment she left me at nineteen. It only flowed when she was in it; otherwise, I was merely on a theater stage. A theater where I was forced onto the stage just to earn the right to breathe.

At last, I had reached the home where I could finally rest.

Hard as I tried to stay awake, I saw that Mina was struggling against sleep too. Her lids grew heavy.

“I wonder why…” she murmured. “I’m so excited. I want to talk to you for hours. I had planned so many things, but now…” She rested her temple against mine, brushed her nose against mine.

“Now I only want this.”

In response, I pulled us just a little closer.

☾

When I opened my eyes, I was back in my own home.

I was sitting upright in the living room. I couldn’t understand how I had drifted off so deeply, or how I hadn’t felt anyone touching my body. My sleep was normally light; back at the lab, even the faint clink of glass would awaken me. How had I fallen into such a profound slumber?

The answer lay in the figure resting on the opposite sofa. The bedsheet was gone now, exposing torn clothes warped by electric currents.

“You’re finally awake.”

My brows furrowed as my mother—or her clone I didn’t care—sat on one of the armchairs in front of me, a cup of coffee in hand. I moved on the sofa. Well, that was good news. The pain no longer accompanied every muscle movement. I felt more rested, re-energized.

Dr. Aneta walked in behind Eleanor. The disheveled state of their clothes made it clear what they had been up to while we were asleep.

“Why are we here?” I asked.

“I managed to convince the White Soldiers to place you under house arrest,” Aneta said, taking a sip from her coffee. “And they wanted us to vacate the facility immediately. Never to use it again. So we came to fetch you two, but no matter what we did, neither of you would wake up.”

“Like two mischievous children who passed out after running around the yard for too long,” Eleanor added.

My face contorted in disgust.

“Don’t do that again.”

“Do what?”

“Your mother act.”

She rolled her eyes, and Aneta burst into laughter, laughing so hard that she was wiping away tears a moment later. Personally, I saw nothing humorous about it.

In my eyes, Eleanor Kern was nothing more than the killer of countless innocent people. The only reason I still tolerated anything about her or her clone was because she had helped Mina.

“Still, it doesn’t end here,” Aneta continued. “You must stand trial. Otherwise, your citizenship will be revoked, and you will be exiled.”

A brief silence fell over the room. Aneta crossed her legs and looked straight at me. “You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

I swallowed hard as she gestured toward the still-sleeping Mina. I had only averted my gaze for a fraction of a second, but now my eyes were locked on her again. Then, my glassy eyes drifted down to my pinky finger. A part of it was missing now, but to me, it was precious. It was proof of my humanity. Proof that the curse upon me had lifted.

“No, I wouldn’t,” I agreed. “I have a lot to take care of. It’s all so sudden, but… I’ll handle it. What about Mina? Did the White Soldiers find her guilty, too?”

“On the contrary, since she saved the planet from a cosmic explosion, her customer satisfaction rating has skyrocketed. We only had to bring her along because the two of you are practically joined at the hip.”