Yaya’s snug lavender pants slid off her hips and crumpled around her ankles.

She wished Doc were here. She might have dropped the cold mad scientist act and quit pretending they were strangers. Aziz’s shoulders relaxed, and he knelt in front of Yaya.

Yaya pressed her back to the toilet tank. Her underwear slid down her thighs, the pad clear, the fastest menstrual cycle in her life. Her skin chilled.

“Can you help me?” she asked.

“Can’t say.” Aziz drew a speculum from the bag and torn off its plastic wrap. “Should we help you?”

“If you made the mess, yes. The whole ‘you break it, you bought it’ code is why you even have the Sibs stations.” Muscles turned to tightropes beneath Yaya’s skin from head to toe, and especially in private places between.

“Calm down,” Aziz said. He couldn’t understand; this would never happen to him. “Beginning procedure.”

Yaya thought to make another comment, but her teeth clamped down on her lower lip. She was in enough trouble already. The speculum reached closer.

Yaya stared down at Aziz’s gas mask, bathroom light reflecting off its eye glass.

She tried not to flinch, but the speculum was cold.

“Enhanced muscle growth,” Aziz said. “Different.”

Yaya opened her mouth to mention doing her Kegels, but realized she’d already made that joke to Ruby Kaur. Instead she whispered, “I’m scared, okay?

I admit it. Can we talk about this?” The speculum pressed harder. Discomfort burst into sharp pain. “A little bedside manner, please?”

Aziz stuck to his task, even as a vibration climbed Yaya’s spine. It almost sounded like a word in her head, but she couldn’t quite make it out.

Aziz grunted. “Teeth, again.”

Yaya swallowed. Again? Had this happened to others? The questions squirmed through her guts, a violent pulse racing down every muscle.

“Stop,” she hissed.

Aziz ignored her. “Fully formed, almost bone surrounding.”

What had Ruby said at the clinic? Jaw bone.

Squirming muscle spilled through Yaya’s center, a cramp to end worlds. Aziz flinched back as a toothy red coil shot past Yaya’s labia, out between her legs, and twisted around his neck. It tightened faster than he could cry out. He grabbed the coil in his free hand.

Yaya felt it. Her nerves knew the rubber of Aziz’s crinkling suit, the fragility of his bones. She started to shout, but what to say? Help? Stop? A big mouth, all her life, and now her voice faltered the moment she needed it most.

Another surge pushed out from between her legs. New fleshy coils blossomed, petals to a toothy flower. It snapped cobra-like toward Aziz’s gas mask, a stalk of magenta-colored muscle, harsh jaws, and pearly teeth.

“Stop!” Yaya hissed.

Another vibration shot up her spine, and this time it did sound like a word.

Scared.

Aziz’s limbs went slack. The speculum clattered to the tile floor. Two coils lashed up Yaya’s body, where one caught around the hem of her suit jacket. The other reached past her chest and slammed against her throat.