She spit into the sink, a swirl of brown disappearing down the drain.

Her gums must be bleeding, crimson with off-green toothpaste.

Her gums never used to bleed, not that she could remember. The dentist had always said that she was healthy when she was kid, that she had a nice set of pearly whites. She knew they weren’t that anymore, but she hadn’t been ready for blood.

“They’ll toughen back up over time,” she spoke softly, as if worried about eavesdroppers, even though she was alone in this uncomfortably large bathroom. “I just need to stay here for a while, and my gums will be fine. No more blood, my teeth will be white again. Maybe I’ll even have long hair again.”

She swore these things, but she did not believe them. This was an illusion, as real as it felt, a thing she could not hold on to, as much as she desperately tried. She was feeling the beginnings of the hunger already, her will could only stifle these things for so long.

She sucked the sweet taste of her blood, and dreaded tasting it again.