Page 32 - Otherland

isn’t coming here.”
When his hand touched her arm, he gasped. “Her skin,
it’s sticky!” he shuddered.
“What? She’s always sticky. She’s a toddler,” pointed
out Myra.
Rohan didn’t answer. He was trying to lift his sister
out of her cot, but she seemed to slip away each time he made a grab for part of her body. Myra had never seen his eyes so wide and scared. This was no longer worry. This was terror.
Myra grasped at Shilpa herself, to help him, but the child felt wrong. Shilpa seemed to slide around under Myra’s fingers, like jelly in a plastic bag. Horror flooded through her and, instinctively, Myra flung the child away. Ew! Get it away! What is it?
“MYRA!” Rohan yelled.
What have I done?
Myra’s stomach dropped like a lift shaft. But as Shilpa hit the floor, she didn’t cry. She sat up, with an expressionless look on her chubby little face. She was almost perfectly still. Rohan knelt down beside her, reaching out to touch her.
Relief whooshed through Myra. She’s OK. I haven’t hurt her. She knelt down beside him, leaning over Shilpa.
“I think she’s OK,” Rohan murmured. “But why did
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