Jess’s Reviews > Releasing 10 > Status Update

"Lizzie!" Mam shouted, demanding my attention.
"What?" I snapped, suddenly furious. "I was doing something!"
Mam glanced over at me, and her eyes were full of concern. "Dr. Priestly thinks you're experiencing rapid cycling."
"He's talking shit," I laughed, reaching over to pat her knee. "I’ve never felt better, Mam."

Pressing the button on my door, I shivered in delight when a sudden blast of air attacked my senses.
The smell.
The taste.
The sight.
Holy fuck, I'd never felt more alive.
Like I could take on the world.
Like I could take down my enemies.

When I playfully snuck up on Liz in the library, something we often did to each other, and pulled her back to my chest, she lost it. Releasing a feral scream, Liz thrashed, kicked, and scratched the shit out of my arms.

The last time I'd seen her this out of control, shed tried to hang herself with a fucking horse rein. That wasn't a period in my life I cared to think about because I was still traumatized by it. I had vivid memories of her wild, black eyes staring through me as she balanced on the edge of the loft in one of her family's barns and asked me to watch her fly.

No, no, no! It's not real! Don't you ever think about that again!
A hoarse sob ripped from my throat, and I quickly smacked the photos away from my body, desperate to get clean.

Teeth chattering, I continued to rock back and forth, while glancing at the instant photos I had found in the waistband of my skirt.
A little girl that looked just like me.
No!
Lying on her bed.
Stop it!
Without any clothes on.
It's not real!
Taking her medicine.
It was never real!
Being a good girl for the monster.

We were so very similar, this deer and me.
We were both prey.
An owl hooting high in the trees broke our trancelike stare down and the deer quickly skittered away.
"Run, I whispered, watching it disappear from my view. "As fast as you can"

The deer watched me with me with wide, unblinking, brown eyes.
I didn't move a muscle, momentarily captivated by the raw beauty of this ethereal creature, while a swell of sympathy washed over me.

My body grew limp beneath his, and I quietly prayed for one of two things to happen: either to die right then or wake up, because I honestly couldn't take another second of this.