(PARASYTE X WORM) CHAPTER FIFTEEN

It had taken Amy long enough, but she finally managed to catch Victoria on one of the rare evenings when they were both home and neither of their parents were around.

Their parents had gone out for date night. They still did that, somehow. No matter how busy things got, they seemed determined to keep the habit going, and even Dad’s depression hadn’t been enough to stop them. Amy suspected there had been plenty of evenings when he would have preferred to stay home anyway.

Anyway, she’d been waiting for an opportunity like this.

With the house mostly empty, Amy had figured it would finally be easier to get Victoria alone. She’d been trying to catch her for days, after all, and somehow Victoria had still managed to slip away every time.

Tonight, though, Amy had been patient. Eventually, Victoria went upstairs to shower, and Amy waited outside her bedroom afterward. She’d been standing there for several minutes when the door opened, and Victoria stopped dead when she saw her.

Amy almost felt bad.

Almost.

Victoria was still wrapped in a towel, her clothes tucked under one arm, and her hair was damp enough that water was still running down the back of her neck.

“Amy?”

“Hey.”

Victoria stared at her for a moment before glancing toward the hallway. Amy shifted just enough to make it clear that she had no intention of letting her pass.

“You’re avoiding me.”

Victoria’s shoulders sagged. “I was going to my room.”

“You’ve been finding increasingly absurd reasons to leave a room every time I walk into it.”

“I’ve been busy.”

“Just like you’re busy now?” Amy asked, rolling her eyes.

Victoria glanced down at the clothes tucked under her arm. “Yeah.”

“Well, unless you’ve discovered some new hobby involving folding laundry in the bathroom, I don’t think that’s why you were trying to get past me.”

Victoria gave her a look that suggested she was trying very hard not to smile. “You’ve been waiting here?”

“For you.”

“That is slightly terrifying.”

“Good.”

Victoria sighed and stepped back into her room, with Amy following behind her and closing the door.

She dropped her clothes onto the bed before sitting down, still wrapped in her towel, while Amy remained near the door.

For several seconds, neither of them said anything. The awkwardness that had been hanging between them for days seemed even more obvious now that Victoria had nowhere else to go.

Amy crossed her arms over her chest.

“When are you going to stop avoiding me, Vicky?”

Victoria gave her a sheepish look. “I didn’t think you noticed.”

“Of course I noticed,” Amy snapped, the irritation coming out sharper than she intended. She immediately regretted it and exhaled. “Talk to me. What’s wrong?”

Victoria opened her mouth.

“And don’t tell me nothing’s wrong,” Amy added quickly. “We both know there’s been tension between us, and I want to know why.”

She hesitated, then lowered her voice.

“Please.”

Victoria looked away, rubbing her hands together for a moment before sighing and leaning forward, her elbows resting against her knees.

“Yeah. You’re right.”

Amy’s heart clenched.

“Something’s wrong. I just don’t know how to bring it up.”

“What topic?” Amy asked.

The question came out faster than she intended.

Victoria looked up, and Amy immediately wished she could take the question back. It was too late for that, though. Her heart had already started beating faster, and suddenly all the possibilities she’d spent the past several days trying to push out of her mind came rushing back.

Had Victoria figured out how she felt about her?

No. That couldn’t be it. Amy had been careful for years, and whatever complicated feelings she had for Victoria, nobody knew about them. She’d made sure of that, especially around people like Dean, who seemed capable of noticing things Amy would much rather keep hidden.

Besides, Victoria hadn’t been acting embarrassed or shy around her. She’d been worried. Uneasy. Like she was trying to work up the courage to say something she didn’t know how to say.

Which left one possibility Amy really didn’t want to consider.

The parasite.

Her stomach twisted.

How could Victoria possibly have found out? Amy hadn’t told anyone, and as far as she knew, there hadn’t been anyone around when she created it. There was no reason Victoria should know anything about it.

At least, there shouldn’t have been.

Victoria looked back at her.

“I know what you did, Amy.”

And everything inside Amy seemed to stop.

She didn’t move. For several seconds, she couldn’t even think of a response.

Victoria continued before Amy could find a response.

“I don’t think we can talk about it now, though.”

Amy swallowed. “Why?”

Victoria glanced toward the closed bedroom door, and Amy felt her pulse quicken again.

Why couldn’t they talk about it now? What was Victoria waiting for?

Had she told someone? Was Carol coming home? Had Victoria already contacted the PRT?

The possibilities came so quickly that Amy could barely keep up with them, each one making the knot in her stomach tighter than the last.

Victoria finally looked back at her.

“We can’t talk about it without the affected party.”

Amy stared at her.

The affected party?

For a moment, her mind went completely blank. Then the obvious possibility surfaced.

Carol.

Except that made no sense. Carol hadn’t been affected. Amy had stopped herself before she ever used the parasite on her, and as far as Amy knew, her mother was exactly the same person she’d always been.

So who was Victoria talking about?

With everything she had decided going forward, Taylor felt lighter.

She was still stuck with Kali, at least for the moment, and she still had no idea whether Panacea would actually be able to remove it. Even so, having a plan made the situation easier to live with. At least she wasn’t spending every waking moment waiting for something terrible to happen.

She watched Kali prepare a late-night snack while her father was upstairs taking a shower, although by now the distinction between watching and helping had become somewhat blurred.

The parasite had taken over most of the work, stretching parts of Taylor’s hand across the counter as it prepared the food. By now, she knew Kali could move the hand in ways that still felt deeply unnatural, but she’d gotten used to it enough that watching it cook no longer bothered her quite as much.

Humming a random tune under her breath, Taylor helped drag the egg crate closer.

Kali didn’t need the help. It could have reached it easily enough, just as it could stretch the hand much farther than Taylor was entirely comfortable thinking about. Still, she moved it closer anyway.

It had become a strangely comfortable little routine. Kali prepared the food while Taylor helped where she could, and neither of them had to say much about it.

Taylor wasn’t sure when that had started happening.

They weren’t friends. Kali was still a parasite living inside her body, and Taylor still wanted Panacea to remove it as soon as possible. Yet somewhere along the way, she’d stopped thinking of every interaction between them as a struggle.

They understood each other a little better now.

Taylor was still trying to decide what that meant when the landline rang.

She turned toward it almost immediately, leaving Kali behind as she hurried into the other room. She glanced toward the stairs before picking up the receiver. Her father was still upstairs, and she didn’t want to drag him away from whatever he was doing for a call that might turn out to be nothing.

“Hello?”

“This is Taylor, right?”

The small smile she’d been wearing disappeared.

She knew that voice.

“Yeah.” Whatever warmth had been in her voice a moment ago was gone, but she tried to recover some of it. “What’s up?”

“Do you mind meeting with us tomorrow? Around five?”

Taylor hesitated.

“By us, you mean…?”

“Yes. Amy will be there.”

Her fingers tightened around the receiver.

“Oh.”

Victoria continued speaking, explaining when and where they would meet, but Taylor only caught pieces of it. The important part was already stuck in her head.

Amy would be there.

The call ended a little while later, leaving Taylor standing there with the phone still pressed against her ear. Eventually, she lowered it and put the receiver back.

Tomorrow.

Five o’clock.

She might finally be rid of Kali.

Taylor felt a small rush of relief at the thought. This was what she had wanted, after all. She’d spent the last few days worrying about what Kali was doing to her, wondering whether her feelings were even her own. If Amy could actually fix this, then maybe she could finally stop worrying about it.

So why did she still feel uneasy?

Taylor frowned and looked toward the kitchen.

Kali was still there, busy with the food as though nothing had happened. The smell drifted through the house, warm and inviting, and when her father eventually came downstairs, he seemed happier than he had been when he went up.

Taylor smiled at him.

She was happy. At least, she thought she was.

So why did she still feel uneasy?

She sat down at the table and stared at the food in front of her, trying to figure out what was bothering her. Nothing came to mind. There was no particular thought behind it, nothing she could point to and say, That’s it.

It was just a feeling.

Her eyes drifted down to her hand. It looked completely normal.

Tomorrow, she might finally be free of it.

That should have made her feel better.

Instead, the feeling remained.

She picked up her fork and took a bite.

The food tasted fine. She barely noticed.