Stung

Fiona “Fo” Tarsis wakes in her bedroom, immediately disoriented because everything in her home is dirty and in ruins. She cannot understand why her classical music posters and first-place ribbons are faded; mirrors and windows are broken; the bathroom sink has no running water. She recalls her father saying goodnight to her just “a few nights ago” (3), but now the house is abandoned with no sign of her mother, father, older sister Lissa, or twin brother Jonah. She is shocked to see a much older version of herself in the bathroom mirror. In her last memories, she is 13, but she looks like an older teen now. She discovers a tattoo on the back of her hand: an oval with 10 lines, five on each side, resembling a 10-legged spider.

Some instinct tells her to “Conceal the mark” (4); with luck, she finds a tube of makeup concealer left by Lissa in a bathroom drawer. She covers the tattoo and pockets the tube. Then she hears footsteps on the stairs. When she peeks, she sees a wild, unkempt, violent young man smelling the carpet. Terrified, she locks the bathroom door, grabs a metal nail file, and barely escapes through the window as the man breaks in and claws for her.