Byatt

Byatt
Byatt Winsor is one of the main characters and a POV character in the book "Wilder Girls". Byatt has a second spine that rips through her body. During her flare-up soon after Hetty's first Boat Shift, she was crying on the floor and taken to the infirmary before disappearing.

Byatt has a kind and sweet soul and is best friends with Hetty and Reese. She is especially close with Hetty; she does things like cutting Hetty's hair and fixing her blind eye with stitches. They share a bunk, take walks together, and Hetty describes Byatt as her "lifeline." It is unknown if Byatt is queer or not—she is, however, shown to have a romantic interest in Teddy.

Byatt grew up in a home where her parents were negligent and blamed her for many things. Byatt seems to have acted out or was a problem child, and her parents had sent her to Raxter to "start again." She also believes that she is a problem, as problems follow her wherever she goes.

Byatt also seems to lie when she's bored. She knows how to get what she wants from people and her mother sees this as bad behavior that should be punished. On page 157, Byatt retells the story of how, at ten, she lied to her friend Tracy about having a friend named Erin who died. There doesn't seem to be a reason as to why Byatt did this other than, "I liked—I like—to see what I can do" (158).

After an extreme flare-up and the last one she has at Raxter, Byatt goes missing. This prompts Hetty and Reese to search for her. Byatt is taken by Welch to a hospital on Raxter Island where she is tested on by CDC doctors such as Dr. Paretta, who has been studying the Tox and Raxter for years.

During Byatt's final day in the hospital, Paretta and the other doctors evacuate and leave her inside. Paretta gives Byatt a Raxter Iris and says that she and the CDC can't stay any longer. She tells Byatt to breathe and puts an oxygen mask on her, but the tank is instead filled with a gas meant to kill the Tox.

After Paretta leaves, Byatt breathes the gas and her fingers turn black like Raxter Crabs and Irises when they die. She recognizes this and takes off the mask. Soon she finds the Tox parasite inside her which she removes with a scalpel. Because she removed the Tox, Byatt survives the gas, but it seems to take away Byatt's sense of self instead. Although Byatt did survive and escape the hospital, and was found by Hetty and Reese, she was unable to speak or recognize what was happening.

Tox

 * “She doesn’t look any different-just a sore throat she can’t shake and that serrated ridge of bone down her back, bits of it peaking through her skin-but I remember every second of it. How she bled through our old mattress until it dripped onto the floorboards underneath our bunk. How she looked more confused than anything as the skin over her spine split open.” Page 13