Both of us turned to Kara as she murmured in her sleep.
Get away. Get away from . . .
You don’t know . . . you don’t understand . . .
Poppy brushed her hair back from her forehead, the hair still damp from the night before. “Ssh, Kara, you’re having a bad dream.” She raised her eyes to me. “Poor thing.”
“Wish I could help her,” I said. “She’s seemed really troubled the whole time she’s been here.”
Poppy eased herself back onto the seat Cormack had vacated. “We’re all troubled, here. It’s the house of trouble.”
I jerked my head around at the sound of whispers—indistinct male voices. One thing they said was clear: Kill them.
“Hear that?” I said urgently.
Poppy’s fingers tightened on the armrests as she nodded.
Rushing to the door, I scanned each length of hallway.
No one was there. Everything still and silent. I headed back in and through the door that led to a storeroom—the sick room was a small annex of a larger space that held boxes, crates and medical supplies.
I looked back in at Poppy’s wide, questioning eyes.
“I don’t see anyone,” I told her.
“Someone’s playing a prank on us,” she said. Raising her voice a notch, she added, “And it’s not funny.”
I stood listening for more, but there was only silence. I had a sudden, strange vision of Poppy, Kara and myself from far above the island—the three of us in this tiny room, hemmed in on all sides by hexagonal shapes, surrounded by high walls and the wide, restless ocean.
Threads of panic grew inside me. I felt unanchored, adrift in a strange, hostile world.
Go home now, I told myself. Two challenges means twenty thousand dollars. It’s enough. It’s enough.
No, it’s not enough to pay off my debts. Certainly not enough to rent or buy a better house.
My thoughts must have been wild on my face, because Poppy was staring at me intently, shaking her head. “Don’t weird out on me, Evie. Too many weird people here. Go get one of the mentors and tell them what we heard. I’ll stay here with Kara.”
25. Gray
A SOFT, CROAKY GROAN CAME FROM deep within Lilly’s chest. She was covered in sweat. Opening her eyes, she looked at me with a frightened gaze.
Grabbing the bedside alert button, I pressed it.
A doctor came rushing into the room to check Lilly.
“How long has she been like this?” She stooped over my daughter, listening to her breathing with a stethoscope, checking her pulse.
“Just now.” I exhaled. “I’m not sure. Could have been a few minutes. I dozed off.” That wasn’t true. I’d been awake but distracted, sending my wife stupid messages. Guilty, I swept Lilly’s dark hair back from her cheeks. “What’s wrong with her?”
I wanted the doctor to give Lilly something to make her stop grimacing and sweating and crying out in pain. But instead, she called for backup. Whatever was wrong with Lilly, more doctors were needed to fix the problem.
For the second time today, Lilly was taken away from me. They mentioned spinal taps and other things that I didn’t catch.
A day passed before the doctors were prepared to give me any answers.
They wanted to talk to me alone, without Willow being there. A nurse was arranged to sit with Willow.
I didn’t like the look on the doctors’ faces as I walked into the hospital office.
Grim. Serious. Expressions that set the mood before they spoke so that you’d be primed for their awful news.
And when the news came, it was awful.
The head doctor threaded her fingers together on her lap. “Mr Harlow, we’ve been conducting a series of tests, as you know, to try to better understand what’s happening with Lilly. We have some results, and while we’re not completely certain, things are pointing to a certain condition.”
“What’s she got?” My words tumbled out.
“At the moment, some things are pointing us towards a condition called cystic fibrosis.”
“I’ve heard of that. It’s people with bad lungs, right?”
“Yes, you could say that. It’s a genetic disease. It affects the systems of the body that produce saliva, sweat and mucus. Even tears. People with CF develop excessive amounts of mucus, which leads to frequent infections—including lung and sinus infections.”
My mind spun. “If Lilly’s got this thing, why wasn’t it picked up before? Evie—my wife—always had her down at the doctor’s. She’s had lots of tests.”