Gravity Read Online Free PDF Page B

through his finely hairy skin.  His waist seemed thinner than ever, his neck thicker.
    Before I could think better of it, I gasped, drawing Trace’s eyes to me.  Though they were smaller and sharper, they were still the color of sparkling amber, the color I’d always associated with Trace.  And they watched me.  Steadily.
    I took another step away from Trace, then another until I was standing between the two creatures, looking from one to the other in utter disbelief.  It was surreal, more so than I could fully process.  I struggled to wrap my head around the truth of what I was seeing.  In the back of my mind, I kept waiting for the laughter to start, for one of them to deliver the punch line, to tear off their elaborate masks like the pranksters they were.  Only none of that ever came.  I watched the two people I loved most in the world face off against one another like mortal enemies, both trapped inside bodies that I barely recognized.
    As I stood between them, praying that they wouldn’t come to blows, something I would have no idea how to stop or prevent, I felt a wrinkling, bubbling, churning sensation erupt on the back of each of my hands.  It spread quickly up my arms.  As the feeling ascended toward my trunk, I felt a tearing work its way through my chest, as if something was literally pulling me apart. 
    At first it wasn’t very painful, but the longer it went on, the more painful it became.  And it was more than a simple physical pain.  It was like the pain of a thousand heartaches breaking my soul apart and rending my skull in two.  And then I saw what it was doing to me physically.
    My left arm had turned a sickly gray color, my flesh feeling cold and tingly.  My right arm felt hot and flushed and looked slightly more muscular and hairy.  I held both limbs out in front of me to examine them.  I was both horrified and fascinated, because, as I brought them together, the changes became less obvious.  But then, as I spread them wide, reaching toward Trace at my right and Brady at my left, the changes became more pronounced.  It was as if the close proximity to each of them magnified the struggle that was taking place inside me.
    As I stood in stunned silence, the tension between Brady and Trace escalated to a level far beyond dangerous.  It was Brady’s movement that shook me from my internal struggles and thrust me back into the moment with alarming clarity.
    Brady took one enormous step toward me and, with it, unwittingly tipped the scales in his favor.  Immediately, I felt the impact of his nearness in a visceral way as it ripped through my body and threatened to overtake my appearance.  I felt the cold, tingling sensation permeate my chest, my neck and face, and begin to work its way down my right arm, cooling the warm flush of Trace’s influence. 
    Although I had no idea what was going on, wouldn’t have believed what was happening if someone had told me about it, I knew instinctively that eventually there would be tough choices to make.  Painful choices that would forever change my life and the lives of those I loved most.
    It seemed that we all became aware of Brady’s influence at the same time. It was then that I felt thetethers that stretched between Trace and me reach out to draw him close.  Responding immediately, Trace stepped toward me. 
    Even though his body was only a foot or two closer to me, I instantly felt an increased calm at his nearness.  I barely heard Brady’s warning hiss, but when I did, I looked up to smile at Trace so that he wouldn’t feel compelled to draw any closer to me.
    “Sorry.  I’m okay,” I said reassuringly, genuinely feeling better with him a bit nearer to me.
    At this, Brady’s anger seemed to spiral upward, increasing his influence on my body.  In response, Trace took steps to bring himself even closer to me, his chest nearly touching my shoulder.  Instantly, I felt the shift as warm became hot and the flush of Trace’s