Free Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi Page B

into the
     sea of blue in his eyes, dive right in and drown. I feel like someone’s punched a
     fist into my lungs and snatched up all my oxygen.
    “Please, have a seat, Ms. Ferrars.” Castle gestures to Sonya’s bottom bunk, the bed
     right across from where Adam is sitting. I make my way over slowly, trying not to
     betray the dizziness, the nausea I’m feeling. My chest is rising and falling too quickly.
    I drop my hands into my lap.
    I feel Adam’s presence in this room like a real weight against my chest but I choose
     to study the careful wrapping of my new bandage—the gauze stretched tight across the
     knuckles of my right hand—because I’m too much of a coward to look up. I want nothing
     more than to go to him, to have him hold me, to transport me back to the few moments
     of bliss I’ve ever known in my life but there’s something gnawing at my core, scraping
     at my insides, telling me that something is wrong and it’s probably best if I stay
     exactly where I am.
    Castle is standing in the space between the beds, between me and Adam. He’s staring
     at the wall, hands clasped behind his back. His voice is quiet when he says, “I am
     very, very disappointed in your behavior, Ms. Ferrars.”
    Hot, terrible shame creeps up my neck and forces my head down again.
    “I’m sorry,” I whisper.
    Castle takes a deep breath. Exhales very slowly. “I have to be frank with you,” he
     says, “and admit that I’m not ready to discuss what happened just yet. I am still
     too upset to be able to speak about the matter calmly. Your actions,” he says, “were
     childish. Selfish. Thoughtless! The damage you caused—the years of work that went into building and planning that
     room, I can’t even begin to tell you—”
    He catches himself, swallows hard.
    “That will be a subject,” he says steadily, “for another time. Perhaps just between
     the two of us. But I am here today because Mr. Kent asked me to be here.”
    I look up. Look at Castle. Look at Adam.
    Adam looks like he wants to run.
    I decide I can’t wait any longer. “You’ve learned something about him,” I say, and
     it’s less of a question than it is a fact. It’s so obvious. There’s no other reason
     why Adam would bring Castle here to talk to me.
    Something terrible has already happened. Something terrible is about to happen.
    I can feel it.
    Adam is staring at me now, unblinking, his hands in fists pressed into his thighs.
     He looks nervous; scared. I don’t know what to do except to stare back at him. I don’t
     know how to offer him comfort. I don’t even know how to smile right now. I feel like
     I’m trapped in someone else’s story.
    Castle nods, once, slowly.
    Says, “Yes. Yes, we’ve discovered the very intriguing nature of Mr. Kent’s ability.”
     He walks toward the wall and leans against it, allowing me a clearer view of Adam.
     “We believe we now understand why he’s able to touch you, Ms. Ferrars.”
    Adam turns away, presses one of his fists to his mouth. His hand looks like it might
     be shaking but he, at least, seems to be doing better than I am. Because my insides
     are screaming and my head is on fire and panic is stepping on my throat, suffocating
     me to death. Bad news offers no returns once received.
    “What is it?” I fix my eyes on the floor and count stones and sounds and cracks and
     nothing.
    1
    2, 3, 4
    1
    2, 3, 4
    1
    2, 3, 4
    “He … can disable things,” Castle says to me.
    5, 6, 7, 8 million times I blink, confused. All my numbers crash to the floor, adding
     and subtracting and multiplying and dividing. “What?” I ask him.
    This news is wrong. This news doesn’t sound horrible at all.
    “The discovery was quite accidental, actually,” Castle explains. “We weren’t having
     much luck with any of the tests we’d been running. But then one day I was in the middle
     of a training exercise, and Mr. Kent was trying to get my attention. He touched my
     shoulder.”
    Wait for