Rupture Read Online Free PDF Page B

impossible for a human to make, waiting for her entities to respond. Where are they, she thought? I’ve been at this long enough, and nothing’s happened. I bet they sense the fact I was near Joss. He tainted me with his Rogue sickness, and now my lords are refusing to come.
    She eventually stopped the bucky, crawled out, and let it shrink on its own, where it settled on the floor like a normal fullerene model for chemistry class. She was tired, but she knew she wouldn’t sleep now. She didn’t summon often because, well, when the entities she called her lords answered she sometimes came out looking ... very different.
    Simone checked herself in the mirror, still hoping to see eyes that were larger and slanted up at the corners, hoping to see her face slightly elongated, the back of her skull rounded. Her body should be fuller. She always wore baggy clothes so they wouldn’t tug at her after a session. But there was no change. She glanced at her hands. Even her fingers usually morphed, as if they had more joints. And the texture of her skin changed. But today, nothing. And it’s all my fault, she thought, for going to visit Joss after he’d been branded.  
    “You become what you summon ,” she once heard her mother explain. “ So, be careful.”
    A knock on her door startled her.
    “What?” she called, a little too abruptly.
    “It’s Kimberlee. What’re you doing back over here? You rushed out so fast. What’s up?”
    “I don’t feel so well.”
    Both of them stood on opposite sides of the door and could have embraced if it weren’t closed.
    “Open up.”
    Simone placed one normal-looking hand on the door, still expecting it to change.
    “I got my period.”
    “You need a tampon?”
    “Cramps.”
    “Whatever. Wus.”
    Simone cringed. Stupid excuse . She struggled with what to say to get Kimberlee to leave. Her first thought was that they didn’t know each other well enough for Simone to share the fact she was confused because her time spinning in the middle of the room like some witch with a topsy-turvy levitation fetish hadn’t worked out. Talking about your problem was one thing—trying to explain it, another. She would share the truth with the entire school, when the time was right. But not yet.
    Simone cracked the door. “Sorry. What’s up?”
    Kimberlee checked her watch. “You tell me. Why the emergency exit?”
    Simone picked up the now compact bucky and put it on her desk as Kimberlee pushed in.
    Kimberlee sat on the bed, leaned back, and began kicking her legs back and forth. “My room’s just down the hall.”
    Simone moved to the chair at her desk. Kimberlee had interrupted the pouting session she’d planned. She didn’t want to tell Kimberlee about her usual conversations in the bucky or the fact they failed today. She didn’t want to tell her what she believed was gestating in Joss Beckwith. She didn’t want to tell her Sterling school was probably in major trouble.
    “You know,” she said instead. “I’ve never seen a Succubus.”
    Kimberlee stiffened, as if she’d just been filled with concrete. “What?”
    “Your thing, your issue. What happens?”
    “It’s not like that.”
    “Like what?”
    “I can’t just turn it on.”
    “How does it happen? Can you show me?”
    Kimberlee looked around like she needed to catch a cab, or maybe as if a train might come bearing down on them. She moved to the door. “Maybe it’s best if I go.” She cast one more odd glance, then left.
    Simone sat alone, unsure what had just happened. She realized her new friend was offended. She’d pushed too hard, too fast. Kimberlee Newkirk hadn’t dealt with her issues, and those issues appeared to still be a big mystery to her. Simone didn’t feel offended. In fact, she admitted to herself she wasn’t that different from Kimberlee, even though she pretended to be. For all her bravado, she was as frustrated and confused as Kimberlee about what she was.
    She looked at her bucky like she