They Think I’m Easy Prey—but My Words Manifest into Reality Chapter 05

They Think I’m Easy Prey—but My Words Manifest into Reality Chapter 05

But his words had barely left his mouth.

Vanessa, who had been milking her victim act for the cameras just seconds before, suddenly let out

a horrible shriek.

The clean white bandage wrapped around her right forearm began to darken with a sickly,

yellow-green ooze that dripped onto the rug.

“Vanessa!”

My mother screamed and lunged toward her.

Vanessa was clutching her arm and howling. The entire limb was swelling up, turning an angry

shade of purple, and emitting a foul stench of rotting meat.

Within fifteen seconds, she went into violent, full-body convulsions. Her eyes rolled back into her

head and she collapsed, unconscious.

The ambulance came screaming back up the driveway, sirens blaring. They blew through a few red lights on the way to Crestwood General.

Two guards had my arms twisted behind my back as they dragged me through the corridors of the ER like a piece of luggage.

Vanessa had been in the trauma bay for less than fifteen minutes when the Chief of Emergency Medicine burst through the double doors. His face was pale and slick with sweat.

He was clutching a consent form in his trembling hand.

“Who is Vanessa Harrington’s next of kin?”

My mother stumbled forward and grabbed the lapels of his white coat. “Doctor! How is she?!”

The Chief’s expression was grim. His voice was urgent.

“The situation is critical. The cut itself wasn’t deep, but our lab has identified an extremely rare and aggressive strain of flesh-eating bacteria in the wound.”

“It’s replicating fast. The muscle tissue in her right arm is dying. Necrosis. It’s already spread to

the bone.”

“Conservative treatment is no longer an option. If you don’t sign this consent form for an

immediate amputation, the infection will go systemic. Sepsis. She won’t survive.”

The doctor’s words hit the Harrington family like a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky.

My mother’s legs buckled and she collapsed onto the cold tile floor of the waiting room. A wail of

pure animal anguish tore from her throat.

Ryan, still stuck in his wheelchair, looked like he’d been slapped in the face with a brick. His face

was completely white.

He whipped his head around and glared at me. His eyes were bloodshot and filled with a murderous

rage.

He grabbed a metal trash can from beside the wall and hurled it at me with all the strength he could

muster.

“It was you! I know it was you!”

The sharp edge of the trash can slammed into my shoulder and tore through my shirt. I felt the

warm trickle of blood.

I didn’t even flinch. I just stared back at him.

Ryan was screaming now, his voice cracking.

“You’re the one! You’re the only filthy piece of trash that could’ve brought this here! You crawled out of a ditch somewhere! You’re poison! You did this on purpose! You put it on that blade! You

infected her!”

My father was shaking with rage. He strode over and slapped me across the face. Hard. My head

snapped sideways.

“You’re a monster! We brought you home and you try to kill us?!”

“I swear to God. She loses one hair. One. I’ll make sure you rot for this. You’ll die in a cell. You hear

me?!”

I stared at their absurd accusations and just laughed.

They couldn’t find this kind of bacteria in their pristine suburb, so obviously it had to come from

the dirty country girl. Their logic was a perfect, impenetrable circle of bullshit.

Just as they were about to pile every ounce of blame onto my shoulders, a commotion erupted at the

end of the hall.

A team of nurses was wheeling a gurney toward the trauma unit at a dead run. On it lay Penny. Her face was covered in dried blood and fresh bruises.

One of the nurses was holding up a cell phone with a shattered screen. She was shouting.

“Does anyone know this woman?”

“She coded in the ambulance on the way over, but she had a death grip on this phone. We literally couldn’t pry it out of her hand. She kept saying we had to give it to the cops. She said it was proof.”