Chapter Four: Two Su Mians

Pain cinched my chest. A crack opened in the sealed door inside my mind. I heard my mother speak but could not make out the words. My double folded over too. Our pain was still connected. “Run!” she screamed. Wenchuan lifted Xiao Qiao onto his back. I pulled the fire alarm. Water burst from the sprinklers, revealing hundreds of black threads at Bai Zhi's feet. They ran through pipes behind the laboratory wall like roots. My double seized a bundle and wound it around Bai Zhi's wrist. Bai Zhi's face split. There was no flesh behind it. A second, much older woman's face lay beneath, eyes closed as if frozen in ice. We reached the fire stairs. Before the door shut, the threads dragged my double behind the curtain. She did not call for help.