Gravity by M. Leighton Page B

through Brady’s door.  When Ientered his room this time, neither Brady nor Lacey glanced in my direction.  And I barely noticed.  They were both clearly consumed and I was nearly as far gone as they, struggling with every breath to hold onto my sanity, to my humanity, to my will to do anything more than feed—from either of them, from both of them.  At that point, it was all a blur of hunger.  I felt their need as if it were my own.
    As I neared the bed, I felt the urges grow stronger within me.  When I stopped in front of the dangerous duo, I reached out to touch them, lightly placing my hand on their shoulder.  The contact enhanced my connection to them, sending sensation as well as a ravenous need rocketing through me.  What small portion of my brain was still functioning as my own recognized that the side of me closest to Brady had already changed to mirror his likeness, my skin once again that odd gray color.  My other arm had taken on what I assumed was another bit of Lacey’s affliction and my skin was shimmering and iridescent. 
    Just as it had happened when I’d been trapped between Brady and Trace during their change, I could feel the two forces warring inside me, fighting for dominance.  My bottom lip prickled where my fangs, now extended, grazed them.  My shoulder blades tingled with what I knew were beautiful pastel feathers that arose from them.  And everything else inside me screamed out with the pain of being torn apart by the two. 
    I tried to push out against their influence, as I had with my brother and his best friend, to no avail.  With every second that passed, I lost a little bit more of what made me me and became someone else entirely.  Some thing else entirely.  Even the panic that had managed to hold on, though tenuously, was quickly fading beneath the cover of an all-consuming need, and I couldn’t drum up enough concern to care, enough will to fight it.  I was lost.  And I knew it.
    But for the roar of an electricity that could only be felt, not seen, there was absolute silence in the room.  It was as though life as I knew it had ceased to exist and a strange new reality, a profound nothingness had taken its place. 
    Just before everything was lost, I felt the most incredible peace.  And strength.  And freedom.  And love.  Like a rescue mission arriving on the scene, I knew the instant Trace was near.  I felt it the minute that he entered the room behind me.  I felt it in my arms and chest where Brady and Lacey had taken over part of my body.  I felt it in my heart, where love was the dominant emotion rather than an uncontrollable thirst for…something else.  I felt it in my mind, with the easing away of all things that threatened to overcome me and the return of all things familiar. 
    When he stopped behind me and placed his hands on my upper arms, I felt my own will rise up and spread through my chest, down my arms and into Brady and Lacey where I still touched them.  With eyes that were finally able to focus, I saw their strange visages dissolve into that which had always been. 
    A rush of fatigue suffused my body, sweeping my knees out from under me.  But I didn’t fall.  I didn’t move one inch closer to the floor.  Trace’s hold on me was complete.  Firm.  Steady.  Rock solid.  He stepped in closer to me and pulled me back against his chest, supporting me with his strength.  I felt it like a physical entity, permeating my skin and rolling through my body in steely waves.
    Inch by inch, my flesh recovered.  In the meantime, I listened to Trace’s heartbeat and watched with rapt fascination as Brady and Lacey became aware of their surroundings.
    Brady was the first to find his tongue.  He looked quizzically at me and then asked, “I thought I told you to knock.”
    I had no response.  I was flabbergasted that, once again, he seemed to have no clue what had happened, what was going on.  I looked to Lacey.  She said nothing, but there was a