After several hours, my host’s stomach began rumbling audibly. “I need to eat and drink.”

Without a word, Leah’s father stood and pushed my table back into the lab’s main room. He closed the door to the portal room before leaving through the door opposite. Several minutes later, he returned with a foul-smelling creation in a cup. Shoving its straw in my mouth, he held the cup in front of my face. 

I reluctantly took a swig of the drink. It was a thick slurry unlike anything Leah had ever tasted. Judging by the composite taste of milk, orange juice, ground meat, and any number of other ingredients, it was meant to provide a wide range of nutrients at once. That would be useful, albeit disgusting. Yet again, I wished I could retract more of my tendrils to turn off Leah’s senses.

Scowling, I downed the odd concoction. “That is sufficient for now. I will soon need to relieve myself.” 

“How soon?”

“If you return me to the portal room, several minutes. If you leave me here, my slower metabolism will take several hours to process the nutrients.”

He returned me to the portal room and took watch again. 

Sure enough, within a few minutes, my host needed to release waste. “It’s time to relieve myself.”

He took me out of the portal room, ripped off the velcro restraints, and jumped back out of reach as I got up. Holding the remote to my collar, he gestured at the door opposite the portal room. “Go out and down the hall to the first door on the left. If you make a run for it, you’re dead.”

“Understood.” I slipped off the table. My host body was sore and weaker than Leah was used to it being, but it had enough strength to stand. I stepped carefully, acutely aware that my muscles might give out at any second. Leaning on the table then the counter for support, I made my way to the door. 

Past the door was a living room straight ahead and a hall to my left. The urge to sprint across the living room and out the front door was strong, but death was only a button press away if I tried that. Instead, I ducked into the bathroom. 

Of course, Leah’s father followed me in. He watched with a finger hovering over the remote as I took care of business. 

After escorting me back to the laboratory, tying me to the bed, and pushing me into the portal room, he took the watch once again. 

***

In forty-eight hours, Leah’s father--who I’d discovered was named Dr. Swanson--hadn’t left me untied and alone once. He barely left me alone at all, instead opting to sleep in the lab with a motion detecting alarm leveled on me at all times. It was pure luck that Leah’s mother, Celest, happened upon us in the hall on the way back from the bathroom. 

She dropped her groceries on the couch and sprinted across the living room to envelop me in a hug so tight that it hurt my true body. “Oh, baby, you’re alright.” She sobbed. “Henry, why didn’t you tell me she’d be up today? I would’ve made her favorites.”

Dr. Swanson hesitated. “She isn’t… herself yet. I couldn’t fix all the damage to her brain, and her behavior has been unpredictable.”

She pulled back. “Wait, how long has she been awake?”

“Two days,” I said in my best Leah impression. Fooling a grieving mother in such a horrible way made my stomach churn, but I didn’t see any other choice if I wanted to escape alive. “It’s been awful, Mom. He thinks I’m so screwed up in the head that he won’t even let me go to the bathroom alone. Like, come on, I may be a bit clumsy, but I can crap without an audience. And I’m not going to strangle myself with bedsheets, so I don’t have to sleep on a metal table anymore. Puh-leez talk some sense into him.”

She rounded on Dr. Swanson. “Tell me she hasn’t been awake for two whole days and you didn’t tell me.”

“She-” He shot a harsh look at me before yanking back the neck of his shirt to reveal his bandaged shoulder. “She woke up and bit me. She threatened to kill me. I couldn’t bear to see you be hurt all over again if her mania was a sign that she wasn’t going to make it long term.”

Celest gave me a questioning look. 

I crossed my arms. “I woke up from a frigging coma, and I was super paranoid. ‘Snot like I was in control then, but I am now. And I’m obviously sorry about going crazy for a minute. Please, Dad, stop bringing it up. I feel crappy enough already.” I forced my eyes to well up. It wasn’t difficult. As exhausted and sore as I was, I’d been fighting tears all day. 

“You poor dear.” Celest hugged me again. “Don’t worry, baby, you don’t have to go back in the lab.” She sniffed. “Mmm, how about you take a shower while your dad and I have a little talk?”

“Okay.” I hated how well this was working. As long as Dr. Swanson didn’t get desperate enough to fake my death in front of Celest, I’d just guaranteed I would live long enough to escape. 

On second thought, the fiery look in his eye gave me pause. Maybe I’d gone too far by mentioning the metal table I’d been sleeping on. He might be angry enough to kill me and take his chances with a furious Celest. Nothing I could say was likely to calm him down. What I needed was to get that collar remote back from him. 

I whimpered, drawing Celest’s attention back to me. “I’m scared.”

“Of what, baby?”

I gripped the metal collar around my neck. “H-he put a shock collar on me. That’s the remote for it.” I pointed at the little device in Dr. Swanson’s hand. “What if he presses it by accident?”

Her eyes went wild as she leveled a terrifying glare on Dr. Swanson. “You put a shock collar on my daughter?”

“She threatened-”

“I don’t give a damn what she said. You don’t put a shock collar on my baby. Hand over the remote.” She thrust her hand out. 

Gritting his teeth, he clutched the remote like a lifeline. “If she attacks us-”

“She’s not going to attack us now she’s in her right mind. Hand over the damn remote, or get out of the house.”

“Wh-what? You can’t be serious.” He brandished the remote at me. “I-I saved her life.” 

“She wouldn’t’ve needed saving if you hadn’t let her run off with that alcoholic bastard.” She lunged at the remote. 

For a split second, I thought he would push the button just to spite me, but the fury in his expression faded to bitter defeat. He let her take the device. 

She backed away, holding it like it was a dead rat. When she looked at the front and back of my collar, she scowled. “How does it come off?”

“The green button.” There was barely a scrap of strength in his voice. 

She pressed the button before I could warn her that he might be lying. The collar clicked and loosened. Shivering with anticipation, I tore off the collar and tossed it aside. 

Celest gasped. “What’s on your neck?” She touched my true head between my antennae. 

I wanted to make a run for it, but where would I run to? I still couldn’t open the portal room, and I couldn’t think of a lie that would convince Celest to make Dr. Swanson open it. If I played along, maybe I could find someone else with a portal who would be more willing to help me. 

“It’s a realm leech.” I took a steadying breath and wracked my brain for an explanation that wouldn’t get me killed. “There was a lot of damage to my spinal cord. I’d be paralyzed from the neck down, except Dad’s work found these things in the Otherealm that can help with injuries like mine.”

She pressed her lips into a fine line. “When can you take it off?”

I shook my head. “I can’t. If it came off, I’d be back where I started.”

“Is it-” She grimaced. “It’s a parasite, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

Turning back to Dr. Swanson, she gestured at me. “What’s she supposed to do when that thing sucks all her blood or lays eggs in her or something?”

He shrugged. “I dunno, what will you do, Leah?” 

She strangled the air in his direction. “I asked you, not-”

I cleared my throat. “He said yesterday that the parasite’s not like that. It’s been neutered, so it can’t breed, and it doesn’t want to kill me. It just wants a little blood every now and then. That’s not too bad a price to pay for being able to walk and move my arms, right?”

“I guess not.” Wincing, she gestured at the bathroom. “That thing on your back stinks. Try scrubbing it with the tea tree bodywash. It might help.”

I most certainly did not stink. The unwashed corpse I was attached to, on the other hand… “Okay, Mom.” I slipped into the bathroom and locked the door behind me.