Chapter 3

I never expected my parents to come knocking this soon.

In my last life, they only turned on me after I'd hit rock bottom and crawled back home.

I settled the sunglasses on my face, walked to the entryway, and looked through the peephole.

My father and mother stood outside. My father was holding a wooden club as thick as a wrist.

"Open up! That good-for-nothing Ivan says your eyes are blind for good, that there's no fixing them and he's divorcing you! Get the deed to this place out here right now and sign it over to your brother!"

My mother's shrill voice cut through the steel door.

Something went cold in me.

My brother Brian Fox was a hopeless gambler, buried in loan-shark debt.

They weren't here today because they cared whether I lived or died. They were here to strip me of the last thing I owned.

I pulled the door open and stared at them, cold.

"Get out."

My father's face twisted. He raised the club and pointed it at my nose.

"You ungrateful girl! Watch your tone! What good is this place to a blind woman? Hand it over so your brother can pay off his debts, or I'll beat you to death right here!"

My hands clenched into fists.

"I'll say it one more time. Get out of my home, or I'm calling the police."

Seeing that force wasn't working, my mother switched faces in an instant and reached out to grab my arm.

"Oh, come on, Ali, we're family, why bring the police into this? You can't see, let Mom help you inside and we'll talk it through slowly."

As she spoke, she tugged hard at my clothes, while her other hand slid quietly toward the handbag I'd left on the entryway cabinet.

That bag held my ID and all my bank cards.

I knocked her hand away.

"Don't touch my things!"

The blow stung her, and she flew into a rage.

"You blind little thing, you dare hit your own mother!"

She lunged at me, hands clawing wildly at my face.

In the middle of the struggle, her fingers hooked the edge of my sunglasses.

She yanked.

The sunglasses came off, hit the floor, and split in two.

I had no time to shut my eyes.

My mother's gaze drove straight into my pupils.

The air seemed to freeze in that instant.

My mother stayed frozen mid-claw, her whole body rigid as carved stone.

Her eyelids twitched violently, and she shook all over like she'd been hit with a chill.

"A ghost... a ghost!!!"

My mother let out a horrible shriek.

Her legs gave out and she dropped straight to the floor, a stream of yellow spreading from between her legs.

My father saw it and cursed.

"What the hell's wrong with you!"

He turned his head and glared at me, vicious.

The moment our eyes met.

The club in my father's hand clattered to the floor.

His eyes rolled white, a rasping, choked sound climbing out of his throat, and he pitched straight over backward.

"Run... run... she's going to kill us..."

My father scrabbled backward across the floor on all fours, then dragged my mother up in a frantic, stumbling heap.

The old couple didn't even bother with the bag they'd dropped. They went screaming and wailing down the stairs.

I stood in the doorway, looking down at their backs as they scrambled away, and a bone-deep chill spread through me.

I touched my own eyes.

What kind of monster was hiding in them?

I couldn't just sit here and wait to die.

I turned back into the bedroom, dug out a ball cap, and pulled on a heavy pair of medical goggles and a mask, wrapping myself up tight.

I had to make a trip to the brain-computer interface research hospital where they'd operated on me.

I was going to get every scrap of the raw surgical data.

I was going to find out exactly what they'd planted inside my head.