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The shakes Bad Dervish and Juni keepsweat fro calhtest difference

Friday The night before the full moon The sickness struck at school, in the middle of physics I had to rush for the toilet Didn’t ainst the classrooust froirls Didn’t stop to catch an earful from Mr Clifford Bolted for the toilet and spent the next tena hard plastic seat

Juni drovethe way I’ve had the dry heaves since then, though Juni makes me drink lots of water, so sometioing to be OK," Dervish lies, grasping my shoulders as I cry out in pain It feels as if there’s a second body groithinits way out

"I could try a sleeping spell," Juni says

"Don’t be stupid," Dervish barks "The only reason he hasn’t turned is because he’s fighting so daht if he’s asleep"

"Sorry I wasn’t thinking I just hate to see hiony"

I scream hoarsely, sure my head is about to split down the ical heat which was there lastthe demands of the beast Unable to tell Dervish and Juni about it Incapable of speech Only screa to dip Moments of quiet after hours of madness The sheets of the bed are ripped in many places Dervish is cut above his left eye and both his cheeks are bruised

"Did I do that?" I groan

"No," he deadpans, carefully pouring water down ht we’d lost you," Juni says, squeezing my hand I’ve scratched her forehead but it’s not a deep cut

"The asp Both of them pause "Did you feel it?"

"No," Dervish says

"It was there That’s how I fought Would have turned otherwise"

"Juni?" Dervish asks

"I sensed so," she says hesitantly "I wasn’t sure if it was enerated by the the alteration"

"The olf," I grin weakly "Go on, say it, just once"

"There’s no such creature," Juni huffs

I start to reply but pain strikes again, deep in ut I double over The water comes up almost as quickly as it went down Hits Dervish hot in the face He ignores it and pinsto comfort me, his words only a dim murmur above my endless, wretched screams

The beast snarls and claws at my skin from the inside It can’t speak-it’s a wild anis and translate them into words Release me, it would demand if it could End the pain Set me free Becoht

"No!" I howl back, clubbing it doith fists of a ic I don’t understand

You can’t deny me

"Get stuffed!" is es on but I have the sense that I’ The creature has lost the fight But there’s another night to co

You can’t deny ain from somewhere deep inside me, deeper than it should be This is e are It’s our fate

"I’ll choose ain if it launches a last- Theits lustre I’ve won-for now

Wearily sitting up Dervish and Juni regard me suspiciously Both exhausted Cut, bruised and scratched in many places

"What happened to you two?" I quip

"Now he gets cocky," Dervish growls "For the last eight or nine hours it’s been screa, you feel like you can joke, regardless of the agony you’ve put us through"

We regard each other coolly-then laugh

"We survived!" I shout

"You beat it!" Dervish chortles, huggingus

When Dervish releases

"How do you feel?" Dervish asks "Or is that a stupid question?"

"No," I sigh "I don’t feel so bad Tired, but not as beat as you or Juni look To tell the truth, I’ breakfast in bed, you’re in for a nasty surprise," Juni snaps Dervish and I giggle

"It was strange," I ined the beast speaking to -insideLike it was there physically My body was a ring and there were two of us inside the ropes It was the hardest fight of my life"

"No piece of cake for us on the outside either," Dervish says, touching his bruised cheeks "You put us through the wringer I know you’re a colossus in the , but I wouldn’t have credited you with that th"

"It would have been worse if the beast had won," I tell hiic, it would have walked all over ht when the moon’s full"

"Don’t think about that We’ll take this one fight at a time Focus on the victory now Deal with the next bout e’re faced with it" He stands, stretches and groans

"Go to bed" Juni smiles "You worked hard and took et a lot of sleep today, but you more than me"

"I’ll be fine," Dervish says, then wobbles on his feet and almost falls

Juni steadies him, then says firhs "You co?"

"Soon I want to sit with Grubbs a while longer"

Dervish leaves, rubbing the so, then exaers over the light cuts on her arhtest lines of red giving away the fact that she’d been scratched at all

"Neat trick"

"A useful spell" She works on her neck and face "It’s no good on deep gashes but it’s perfect for little rips like these Better than plasters or bandages I’ll tidy Dervish up later"

Finishing, she turns her attention to me Wipes hair back from my eyes Heals the scratch on my forehead Rubs the flesh to make sure it’s OK, then says softly, "He was terrified I was too, but not as much as Dervish He really loves you"

"I know"

"He’d give his life for you if it would change anything"

I stare at her silently There are tears in her eyes I instinctively knohy she’s saying this, defending him when there’s no apparent need "He called the Laot him to admit it He didn’t want to involve them But if you turn, you have to be killed He can’t do that, not kill his own nephew So, as much as he hates the a weak smile "He didn’t have a choice"

"I suppose" She sighs, lowering her gaze "I had a son once" I blink, not sure how to respond to this startling, unexpected confession "A darling boy He was my world Died in his sleep a few months before his second birthday A brain defect There were no warning signs Nothing anybody could have done about it"

She breaks down in tears I pat her back clu as useless as I’ve ever felt Finally she regains control and wipes her cheeks dry

"It almost destroyed me," she croaks "I survived, but only just Becaist so I could be close to other children, ease hs hoarsely "I once said you were psychologically plain Well, I’ in my life, I hide behind work, use it to haul myself out of whatever dark hole I’ve fallen into"

She takes hold of both ined "When Dervish asked hted, not just because I love him, but because it o ofwarmly "I’ve alanted another son to mother but it never quite worked out until now"

The so of my other hand and stands "I won’t abandon you," she says, her voice throbbing with surprising ive you over to the Lambs, not unless there’s no hope at all I’ll stand by you until the very, very end Even if Dervish doesn’t"

Then she’s gone, leaving , not quite sure what to make of her fiercely supportive vow

A day of rest We all sleep until early afternoon and lounge around after that Juni’s oddly distant, withdrawn and quiet Doesn’t look at ht Or Dervish Al so The shakes again Throwing up everything I’ve eaten I fightthe warht be my final sunset Dervish and Juni are close by Dervish asks if I want to go in I shake my head Don’t want to abandon the outside world Afraid that once I do, that’s it, ga earlier Wanted to coht a nasty bug Told Bill-E to stay away in case it was contagious Bill-E wasn’t suspicious Why should he be?

Thinking about ht-I waited too long I wanted to spare him the e to stall If I change tonight and the Lambs exterminate me, he’ll only think he lost a friend He’ll never kno close we really were

I consider phoning hi him the truth while I’m still capable of speech But that would be lunacy If I survive, beat this thing or at least delaynoould be pointless Worse-dangerous He ht come over Get in the way Fall victie have becoe?" I ask suddenly Dervish stops talking to Juni and stares at e in the secret cellar Is it still there?"