I locked my dorm room door, pressed my back against it, and let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

Something was wrong with my stomach.

Not like, "I ate too much pizza" wrong. Wrong in the way everything had been wrong since yesterday, the kind of wrong that made me afraid to look down. But I looked down anyway.

I shuffled into the bathroom and flipped on the light. I'd been avoiding mirrors all day, but now I planted my hands on the sink and stared at myself. My belly was rounder. Not by much, but it was definitely there, a slight swell under the folds of the loose dress, firm when I pressed against it. I frowned at my reflection.

"You've always looked like this," I told myself, testing the lie. It didn't stick. I'd had a flat stomach twenty-four hours ago. Now I looked like I'd swallowed a grapefruit.

And I was starving.

I hadn't eaten since yesterday evening. Every time I'd thought about food, I'd remembered the state of Professor Gibson's lab floor, and my appetite had packed its bags and left. But my stomach wasn't taking no for an answer anymore. It growled, low and insistent, and I felt something shift deep inside me. Not a cramp. Something bigger. Something that moved.

The cure was supposed to come today. It had to come today. But I couldn't face it on an empty stomach.

There was a little café just off campus, sticky tables and plastic-wrapped sandwiches and the best chicken soup I'd ever had. I grabbed a menu and slid into a booth.

Chicken soup was the first thing I saw. The words jumped off the page like they were in neon, and my stomach turned over. I'd loved that soup. I'd ordered it every time the weather turned. Now the thought of it, the greasy broth, the shreds of meat, made me genuinely want to gag.

I scanned the rest of the menu with my nose wrinkled. Everything looked flat. Burgers, pasta, salads, all just pictures of objects. Nothing looked like food.

Then I got to the last page. Garden salad. Loaf of bread. My mouth watered for the first time in twenty-four hours. I ordered both and surprised myself by eating every bite. The bread was warm, the lettuce crisp, and it tasted like the best thing I'd ever put in …