Then came the sounds of Rainer ripping out the plastic. Whoever discovered the bodies couldn’t find the pink stuff melted with the flesh, so he stripped it out like wires from a wall. I heard the grinding saw, snapping sounds, and his exertions as he pried something open with a crunch. I saw him rush to the sink and wretch, dry, his apron black with blood. But with the morphine icy in my veins, everything had a farcical aspect. These were sound effects, and Rainer was a cartoon, and when he saw that I was laughing, he said, “You’re a sick bitch, Whitney.”

“No I’m not.” But still I laughed.

I fell into a flying dream, soaring over treetops in the coolest rain. When I landed, two nurses argued over my body, because I was so happy.

“We need to start it soon.”

“But when will she wake up?”

“There will be time.”

“If something happens—”

“Then it happens.” I was grinning.

“You’re so kind,” I told them, unable to open my eyes. “Do you really love me?”

“Yes, Whitney,” the nurses said. “We really do.”

My heart thrilled with joy.

8.

I surfaced to the moan of the wind. My eyes adjusted to the dark. I’d been untied. There were two faint windows and I felt my way toward them, grasping out, then pushed through the door and fell to the grass. The drugs had worn off and my head throbbed again.

I’d fallen from the back of the purple truck, which was parked by the outbuilding. Wind ripped over the field, debris spitting through the air. Smoke forced its way down my throat and I coughed. I stuffed my face in the crook of my arm and looked around, confused.

It was nighttime, of a sort I’d never seen. The sky was blood red and the tips of the pines stabbed into it, black. I heard a tree crash, and a still-burning ember came weaving toward me on the wind. The fire was close, and Dr. Kriss and Rainer were gone. I had to get off the mountain.

I couldn’t risk trying to get back to the Jeep on foot. I looked inside the cab of the truck. There were keys. I started it up and bounced over the grass. Now the driveway was bright, live flames seething on the forest floor. Embers floated toward the truck and exploded into sparks on the windshield. I accelerated through them, branches raining from the canopy, but had to hit the brakes when I saw that a tree had fallen over the drive.