Chapter 3

I blinked, the familiar pattern of my bedroom ceiling swimming into focus. My head throbbed. Disoriented, I sat up. My hands. My legs. I was me.

The memory, sharp and terrifying, hit me with the force of a physical blow: the locket, the dizziness, the cold cage, Billy Ray's cruel smirk.

A bark from the doorway.

Billy Ray stood there, Angel cradled in his arms, that same false, solicitous smile plastered on his face. "Sarah, you're awake! I brought Angel to see you. Thought she might cheer you up after your little fainting spell yesterday."

Yesterday. The engagement party. It hadn't fully happened yet in this timeline. I was back. Back before the final swap, but after Daisy-Mae's "accident."He was bringing Angel home for the first time, just as he had in the original, doomed timeline.

The dog, Angel, whined, trying to jump from his arms towards me.

A primal revulsion, born of remembered terror, surged through me. "Get that thing away from me!"I recoiled, scrambling back against the headboard. "I... I'm allergic! Severely! Dander! I can't breathe!"

Billy Ray's smile faltered. "Allergic? Sarah, you've never been allergic to dogs."

"It must be a new thing!"I gasped, feigning a cough. "Take her out! Now!"

He looked confused, then irritated, but he backed out of the room with the dog. I heard my mother's concerned voice in the hallway, Billy Ray explaining my sudden, violent allergy.

I was safe, for now. But Daisy-Mae was in that dog. And she was furious.

Later that day, I returned to my room to find carnage. My dressing table was a wreck. Perfume bottles shattered, jewelry scattered. And my framed photograph of my grandmother, her kind smile now ripped to shreds, lay on the floor. Irreplaceable family heirlooms, things Daisy-Mae knew I cherished, were targeted.

Angel, or rather Daisy-Mae in Angel's body, sat innocently on my silk chaise lounge, tail wagging, a shred of my grandmother's photograph still clinging to her fluffy chin.

Rage, cold and clear, replaced my fear. I remembered the stench of the county shelter, the despair.

I snatched the dog up. She yelped in surprise.

"You like destroying things, Daisy-Mae?"I whispered, my voice low and dangerous. "I know a place you'll fit right in. A nasty, overcrowded county shelter. High kill rate. They'll love you there."

The dog went still in my arms, its bright eyes wide with what I knew was Daisy-Mae's dawning horror. My rebirth was my chance, and my first act of defense was a promise of her own grim fate.