Free Split Infinity by Thalia Kalkipsakis Page A

dose? Other subject is non-responsive.’
    ‘Okay. Let’s try a half dose.’
    ‘No!’ I’m thrashing with all I have. It’s the biggest syringe I’ve ever seen. Subject is non-responsive …
    But he’s okay. Please , he has to be okay.
    I’m grabbed from all sides, a straightjacket of hands. A deep voice hisses in my ear, a woman with a low husky voice: ‘Stop struggling. You’re going to be okay.’
    I’m trapped, suffocating as stars creep in from my vision. Can’t pass out now. I jerk my arms free, and strain to see Mason lying on the ground. A hand removing the medical mask is all I catch before the hands tighten around me once more.
    It’s killing me that I can’t get to him, can’t do anything to hold them back. Pressure at the base of my neck is followed by the ache of the needle going in. The husky voice hisses again. ‘I can only help you if trust me. Don’t disappear and you’ll be okay.’
    But it’s not okay. Nothing about this is okay.
    Coolness begins to spread, a strange fug creeping in from the edges of my mind. This is my last chance to escape. It’s not really a decision; I’ve only ever had one choice.
    Survive.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    I ’M STILL HERE; a failed attempt. I’ve forgotten how to skip. The ache from the needle spreads into my mind. Ice shoots down my spine. Hands grip me hard as my knees give way. The fug grows thick, stopping me from disappearing.
    But I won’t let them keep me, can’t let the police lock me away. With all that I have, I focus each thought, wrenching my mind out of now. Tearing my soul free.
    All time stops.
    The tunnel sucks me deep.

CHAPTER NINE
    I ’M NOT SURE how long I’ve been here. No idea who I am. More is out there somewhere, I think, beyond the horizon of no time, but I don’t know the way.
    Here, there is no future and no past. Every moment exists at once. But every now and then I catch a glimmer of time, a spark of memory. Staring into a sky that never ends. Arms around me, holding me tight. Sharing pancakes.
    Home. It’s like the faintest breath of cool against your cheek on a summer evening after a heatwave, a promise that relief exists just over the horizon.
    So now, with all that I have left, I follow: an idea so faint that it’s almost out of reach. But it is something. And that is so much more than nothing.
    Even as I turn towards its breath, I feel it strengthen. The pulse quickens, calling to me. I know it’s there, this shoreline that will take me back. And with this certainty comes hope; my memories form into fragments of the people I once knew. Mason. Alistair. Kessa.
    Their pull grows clearer until I’m accelerating towards them, a single point in time. A place. A home.
    It’s familiar, and layered with possibility. I’ve been here before.
    Mum.

CHAPTER TEN
    W ITH A LURCH , I’m sucked up to the surface, recoiling as my lungs expand. A wave of reality washes over me as I open my eyes.
    It’s night. I’m breathing hard and hot all over, bedclothes flat beneath me. It brings a sudden sense of deja vu. I’ve been here before, felt this already.
    I’m sitting upright, but I topple backwards at the shock. My hands catch me and contract around softness, trying to make sense of all this. I should have returned to the street where Mason and I were caught. Where am I now?
    When am I now?
    I regain my balance and one hand lifts to my mouth, finding lips and skin, reconnecting with the things I know. It slides down my neck and keeps going to rest on my chest, the truth of my own heartbeat.
    It’s racing at a million miles an hour. I’m here. I’m alive.
    Light from a streetlamp shines through the edges of the blind, enough to see. Pale legs stretch before me. They seem strange somehow, part of a world beyond me.
    Clumsily I clamber onto the floor, expecting it to give way or swallow me completely. Each sense is overtaken by fresh reality. The rug is soft and warm beneath my palms, cushioning my knees. So many details clamour