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Where is Tammie?

Who's this Valerie girl?
What happened

to Tammie?

This Valerie...
she was never at medicine time.

It has always been
just eight of us.

That's what Tammie said.

There are always eight patients.

She repeats
herself.

'Who's Tammie?'

I stare at her.
She stares at me.

The sky slowly

brightens.

I don't dare to think
about what they did to her.

We just reconciled.

She gave me
one night
to think it over.

My heart is pounding
and all I hear

is the blood rushing through my body.

A drum thumps
in my chest.

Valerie is speaking.

Nonsense.
All of it.
Nothing makes sense.

Eagles in school buildings,
high top sneakers and chrysanthemum,
how she knows everything.

'Where is Tammie?'

She laughs.

She laughs.

She keeps laughing
until she chokes

on her own saliva.

Now she's coughing.

She hasn't
spoken

in a long time.

I know a nurse
will come in soon.

(They see me here.)

I'm wasting
precious time.

[Read the full story at novelconbini.com!]