CHAPTER 2: WHAT FELL FROM THE CAST
The tiny creature hit the white hospital floor with a wet thud.
Then it moved.
A nurse screamed.
Another jumped backward, knocking over a tray of surgical tools.
My father stared in disbelief as a fat black centipede twisted across the tiles, its dozens of legs scrambling wildly under the fluorescent lights.
"No..." he whispered.
The babysitter covered her mouth.
"There were... there were bugs inside his cast."
The emergency physician dropped to one knee beside me.
"Get the cast off. Right now!"
A cast saw screamed to life.
Within seconds, chunks of hardened plaster fell away.
The smell hit everyone first.
Rotting flesh.
Sweat.
Infection.
The doctor pulled back the final layer of padding.
Everyone gasped.
My arm wasn't just swollen.
It was covered in bite marks.
Hundreds of them.
Tiny wounds stretched from my fingertips to my elbow.
Some were fresh.
Others had already turned dark purple.
"They've been feeding on him for days," the doctor said grimly.
My father looked at my stepmother.
She had gone pale.
"What did you do?" he asked.
"I... I don't know what you're talking about."
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But for the first time...
She stopped smiling.
