Chapter 22

I dug what was left of my fingernails into the dirt, desperate to cling onto something as the pain stormed through my body, my muscles twitching in violent spasms and my stomach cramping even though I knew there was nothing left in it. No matter how many times I had tried to prepare myself for the pain that I knew was going to overwhelm me, each wave of agony left me more broken than the last. And every time I thought I had expelled every last ounce of putrid fluid that was inside me, each contraction saw something else spill forth onto the floor, until I was lying in my own filth, urine and vomit and sobbing helplessly as I waited for the next spasms to start. I wasn't sure how long I had been like this. Since I had awoken in the darkness, I had not lost consciousness once but the pain had felt eternal, as if it had always been this way. Only I knew it hadn't always been this way, because I remembered. I remembered everything. When Harper returned, I felt him crawl up my