Snow ✓

Bathtubs

Her abductor crashed through the front door; the belly of the beast looked nothing like she had imagined.

"What's happened now?"

"I don't know."

The man swung her around and sat her on a table. The room looked oddly familiar, and she grew dizzy trying to see all its corners.

"We went for a swim. Something's wrong. I think she's sick."

Their words came at her sluggish and distant, like she was listening to everything with a bubble around her head that kept tilting as her neck disobeyed her.

The man gripped the back of her head, forcing her to look at him. She pushed feebly against his arm.

"I'm not sure she knows who I am."

"Let's have a look."

A grumpy-looking old woman ambled into view.

"Hey," she said loudly. "Do you know where you are?"

She wasn't going to tell them if they didn't know. "Aren't you the captain?"

"Didn't bump her head, did she?"

"No. I don't think so."

"By the faeries, look at her skin!"

The old woman traced the webs on the girl's arms, then tilted her head, turning it this way and that, scrutinizing her face.

"Her skin, it's all dried out. You said you went swimming."

"Yes, look at her. Look at me," he said, voice rising as he gestured wildly at his own dripping body.

"The salt."

"What?"

The old woman tugged at the girl's skin. "See how her skin puckers? She's severely dehydrated.

"She doesn't bleed, well, not blood, and she doesn't burn in the sun—who knows how her body reacts to," the woman broadly waved her warm, "everything else out there! Maybe salt dries her out quicker than hu—everyone else."

Looking ill, the man shook his head.

Gran grasped at her scalp. "By the foundings, if I wake to another one of those cocoons under my roof—"

"Where's my brother?"

They both started, gaping at her.

"Take me to him. I have to tell him."

The old woman asked: "Tell him what?"

"That they're coming. I have to warn him," she said, her panic building, tears welling up in her eyes. "Please—"

"Who--Who's coming?"

"She's delusional," the old woman said. "We need to flush her system. Grab water, buckets and a cup, and bring 'em to the washroom. I'm putting her in the tub."

"No," the girl said forcibly, her tears spilling over.

"Should I warm the water?"

"No, let's not waste time," she urged her dawdling companion. "Let's go, girl." The woman pulled her by the arm.

Suddenly, the girl was back in her house, being dragged into her brother's room as yelling erupted downstairs. Eli went to his knees, yanked the chest out from under the bed and motioned for her to get in.