Your Turn to Suffer by Tim Waggoner (the ebook reader .txt) 📕

He didn’t know what she meant at first, but then it came to him. She was referring to his cancerous cells.

Melinda leaned her head close to his chest. Rainwater streamed down her face, and she blinked periodically to clear it from her eyes.

“Hello in there, little friends.” She spoke in a raised voice, as if she wanted to make sure the cancer heard her. “Ready to come out and play?”

He looked down at his chest, almost as if he expected the malignant cells to answer, their tiny voices speaking in unison from inside his lungs. He heard nothing, of course, but that didn’t mean there was no reaction to Melinda’s question. Fire erupted in his chest, and he gasped and doubled over. He tried to breathe, but he couldn’t draw in any air. It was as if his lungs had ceased working.

I’m going to die, he thought frantically. I’m going to suffocate right here because my goddamned lungs have betrayed me.

The pain intensified. Now it felt as if dozens of worms were trying to chew their way out of him, burrowing through muscle and skin. So great was his agony that he would’ve screamed and screamed…. Screamed until his vocal cords tore apart and blood bubbled past his lips. But his lungs still refused to take in air, and the only screaming he could do was in his mind.

When the pain reached its zenith, he expected his chest to explode outward in a spray of splintered bone, shredded lung tissue, and bright red blood. Sparkles danced in his vision, and his ears were filled with a roaring sound. He swayed on his feet, dizzy, and he knew he was close to passing out. But the pain stopped then, and his lungs began working once more. He drew in a deep, gasping breath. His vision cleared and his dizziness began to recede. He took several more breaths, and when he felt strong enough, he intended to pull away from Katie – to hell with the damage he’d do to his arm by yanking it free of her claws – and run back into the bar for help. But when he tried, his body refused to obey him. His chest felt strange, the skin thick and tight. Even before Melinda’s braid whipped around and lashed open the front of his shirt, he knew what he would see. His chest was covered by a mass of swollen dark-red tumors. His cancer had come out to play.

Words came out of his mouth then, but they weren’t his.

“Rain feels good. Cool. Wet. We like.”

Katie retracted her claws and removed her hand from his arm. The wounds she’d created hurt like hell, the pain made worse by the rain striking them, but these injuries were of no concern to him now.

Melinda spoke, but not to him. Her gaze was fixed on the swollen crop of tumors spread across his chest. “Would you like to go for a ride with us?” she asked.

“We’re going to see Lori,” Katie said, baring her sharp feline teeth.

“We like much,” the tumors said with his voice. “Much-much.”

“Then let’s go.”

Melinda turned and walked back to the SUV, her braid wagging like a happy puppy dog’s tail. Katie headed for the vehicle’s passenger door, and Justin’s body began following her, limbs moving stiffly, the tumors unaccustomed to operating him yet. He tried to exert control, force his body to stop moving. But when he tried, his lungs seized up and he was once more unable to draw in air. The message was clear. He did as the tumors wanted, or they would cut off his breath. And if they cut it off long enough, he would die. He stopped resisting, his lungs relaxed, and he was able to breathe normally again. His consciousness was now merely a passenger in his body, an ineffectual observer, and he was surprised by how little this alarmed him. In many ways, it wasn’t all that different from how he’d walked through the world all his life.

Once the two women were in the vehicle, Justin – or rather his body – climbed into the back seat. The tumors didn’t put a seat belt on. Perhaps they didn’t want to feel restricted by it, or maybe they didn’t know what it was. An image passed through Justin’s mind, the SUV colliding with something – another vehicle, a tree, a light pole – the force of the impact slamming him into the back of the seat in front of him.

His body reached for the seat belt, pulled it across his chest, and clicked it into place.

Maybe he and the tumors didn’t have to be enemies after all. Maybe they could work together. After all, they were part of him – and he part of them. Instead of adversaries, they could be a team.

He heard many voices in his mind then, speaking as one.

Team. Yes.

Justin smiled and settled in for the ride.

* * *

How are you doing? Let me know soon as you can.

Larry sent the text, and although he knew Lori was likely too busy with a client to text him back right away, he held his phone for several moments, hoping a message from her would appear. It didn’t, and he put the phone down on the table.

After his interpreting gig had finished, he’d decided to stop in at a funky little coffee shop called Grinders. It was too late for lunch and too early for dinner, so he just got a large latte and a blueberry muffin. Back when they’d been dating, Lori used to get after him about his irregular eating habits. He didn’t keep to a regular meal schedule. He ate whenever he was hungry, and he ate whatever he felt like at the time. He listened to what his body told him, and today it had told him blueberry muffin. It had been a long time since he’d visited a doctor, but he felt healthy and he kept