XXIII

The room was spinning. It was on an endless loop, going faster and faster at every turn. The ceiling soon meshed into the walls and the walls swirled into the floor, every element in the bathroom dancing and flowing into the next. One into the other, no lines or corners to show a separation of any kind. Maya leaned further into the toilet bowl heaving dry emptiness. Her body shook with the knowing fact that it was a matter of when instead of if - that she was going to die. Vermont had only seemed like a ghost of a rival just a few hours ago. A figment of the collective imagination but now with the hard facts of his rotting heart, inexcusable actions and limitless ideas of how far he was willing to go to inflict pain, she knew that he was very real.

The poor family she had found herself attached to had survived horrors that no normal person would have gone through in a full life time. Or s