Chapter Ten - A hint of the past
Damia’s POV **************
I grabbed the last apple from yesterday’s scavenge for food and turned it, checking for any rotten part. I sank my teeth into the apple, expecting that crisp sweetness, but the moment the juice hit my tongue, my face twisted. It was sharp, bitter, almost metallic. The sourness punched the back of my jaw, and I nearly gagged. It didn’t taste like fruit; it tasted like cold syrup from a pharmacy bottle, thick, artificial, and wrong, just like the one father made drink whoever I come down with a cold. I pulled the apple away, grimacing as the aftertaste clung to my mouth like something that shouldn’t have been swallowed.
“ You better don’t spit any of it! The journey up to my little house is a little bit far up the hill. You would
