The cleft that began between Yaya’s thighs now climbed past her waist and belly button, where it peaked at her collarbone. Magenta didn’t emerge, but she didn’t have to. Folds of pink labial skin lined the cleft, and partly obscured beneath them stretched furious crocodile teeth. Those lips peeled back same as a shark revealing its gums before a bite. Narrow red ropes snaked between them.

The man stumbled into Doc and then flinched away from her as if he’d touched Yaya. Doc didn’t react, stiff as stone. She’d seen some of this before.

The rest shouldn’t have changed so much since Tuesday.

Yaya seemed a tower now. “Yeah, I got teeth down there. So what?” She flashed a pearly grin. “Women got teeth up here, too, and that never stops guys like you from sticking it in, every chance.” Her teeth parted, and she pushed her tongue through. It waggled in unison with Magenta’s tentacles, their tips curling toward their prey.

The man spun around, stumbled, and ran. He’d probably been on the way to his car before touching Doc without consent, but he’d forgotten it and broke for the street without thinking, a high-pitched whine caught in his throat.

Yaya paused where he once stood. “Four of five dentists agree, I’m not a special case,” she said. She let her top drape the cleft and cupped her hands around her mouth. “You hear me? Better watch out before we chomp your dick off! Yaya yowzah!” Her hands dropped as she doubled over snickering, breath puffing in thick clouds.

A soft wind batted Doc’s plastic bag. She might have run after that man if she was smarter, but she couldn’t take her eyes off Yaya’s midriff, the cleft poking out.

“How did you know I was here?” Doc asked. Her first words to Yaya since Tuesday.

Yaya took her time standing up straight again, letting each vertebra slide over the first in a long, firm crack. “The cops came back to Bryant’s house while I was still there. So did you. And traffic was shit today, the kind where you can walk faster than the cars.”

“You’re stalking me.”

“They’ll hunt me.” Yaya stretched her arms and then grinned. “That’s what you told me.”

“Yes,” Doc muttered.

“They’ll find clues. Little warnings.” Yaya sidled closer, around to Doc’s back. “Any peanut butter in that bag?”

“Sour candy.”

Yaya recoiled. Her gut seemed to cave in. “That’s fine. I’ll find something to eat.”

Doc eyed her phone again. “They’re looking for you.”

“They think nothing’s changed, that’s why. But it has.” Yaya slinked to Doc’s front again, eyes flitting to keys and then phone. “No more Sibs checkups.

No more injections. Those tiny tests wouldn’t be enough for them anyway, not if they caught me. I am what they made me, and now if they touch me, they’ll regret it.”

Doc inspected Yaya’s face. What big eyes she had. “Are you Magenta?”

Another mean snicker fell from Yaya’s mouth. “No clue. Isn’t that neat?