"I'm about to go on a journey," she whispered. "I don't remember you, but maybe you're the one who's going with me.
There was something otherworldly and chilling about her voice.
"What journey do you—"
"We were going to go away. That's what he promised. Just us two. Well, I'm ready. I want to go out and play. But he doesn't care anymore. He just wants me to disappear. So that's what I'll do. Only we'll do it together, you and me." She reached up from her bed and ran a finger across Ally's face. "Will you take me out of here? He promised me everything, that I could get it all back. But now I know he didn't care. He was just using me." She stopped, then gave a cruel laugh from the back of her throat. "But now it's going to happen to him too. I can tell. That's why he doesn't want to see me anymore. He doesn't want to see what's in store for him."
What has happened? Ally wondered. It sounds like some kind of bizarre experiment gone wrong.
"Won't you come with me?" Kristen went on. "We'll go to a place nobody has ever been to before. It'll be just us."
Her seductive eyes, at once plaintive and demanding, would have lured anyone toward wherever she wanted to go. For a careless moment Ally found herself wanting to follow them.
No, this is madness.
Or, Ally thought with horror, is she seeing something in me that I can't see?
"Kristen, listen to me. Please. I think it's very possible I've just had a stem cell procedure. For my heart. I don't know if it's like what you had, but I want to know what happened to you."