Hayden Angel hit the last note of the song and knew, right then, that she would not finish it. Her stomach twisted hard, the way it always did, the way she had spent her whole life fighting so she could stand on a stage and sing. She had done everything right this time. She ate a full meal an hour before the show. She took her medicine. She rested. Her Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome was supposed to stay quiet. It did not. The stage lights blazed on her face. The crowd waited for the next verse. Hayden opened her mouth and only a broken sound came out. She pressed a hand to her belly. Then she turned and ran. She made it past the heavy curtain before her body took over. She threw up on the wooden floor of the wings, doubled over, shaking. The mess spread across the boards. She could hear the crowd murmuring beyond the curtain. Shame burned hotter than the sickness. Hayden pushed off the wall and stumbled to the small bathroom near the back. She barely fit inside. She dropped to her knees over the toilet and threw up again. The compact space closed around her, close and quiet. She gripped the edge of the sink pedestal and tried to breathe. The door opened behind her. Lucy Gray stepped in. Hayden knew her as the neighbor with four young children, the mother whose house had burned in the night. Lucy said little to anyone. She had been watching from the wings when Hayden ran. Now she crouched beside her on the cramped floor without a word about the smell or the mess. "Breathe," Lucy said. Just the one word. Hayden's eyes filled. "I did everything right. I ate. I took the medicine." Her voice cracked. "It still happened." Lucy pulled a towel from the rail and pressed it into Hayden's hands. "I know sick children," she said. "Four of them. This isn't your fault." Hayden wiped her mouth. The tears came anyway. "Then how do I ever sing again? This is the one thing I love. My own stomach won't let me have it." Lucy didn't answer fast. She smoothed Hayden's blonde hair back from her damp face, the way she must have done for her own. "You rest tonight," she said. "Tomorrow you find someone who knows this sickness. Not me. A healer." Hayden leaned against the wall. The crowd noise had faded. Someone out there had stopped the show. She had run offstage in front of everyone, and it wasn't her mistake. She had followed every rule and her body had still betrayed her. "There's a clinic," Lucy said. "Two towns over. A healer named Lindy." Hayden closed her eyes. The performing was over. But now she had one clear thing to do. She could no longer manage this sickness alone. Tomorrow she would go find the healer, and ask why doing everything right had not been enough.