I whimper and roll over to face the ceiling. My skin sticks to the floor, stinging when I move. A terrible coughing fit seizes me and doesn't end for about a minute.
I lay there, staring at the flickering fluorescent light, trying to determine what hurt and what didn't. My right hand throbs continuously, screaming when I try to move it. That is obviously going to be no use to me. My right shoulder also joins my hand in the screaming. It's a bloody chorus.
If someone with a sick sense of humor were watching me, I'm sure my whole process of getting up would crack them up.
The room I'm in is completely destroyed, demolished. The velvet on the walls is hanging off of them, torn. Another fluorescent light is flickering, but this one is hanging from the ceiling so low that one end is touching the floor. Glass and cement is shattered around. It looks as though the room is from a scene in The Terminator.
All my weight is on my left leg as I look around. My whole right side is cut and bleeding and probably broken. It hurts to breathe.
Sobs ache as I limp around, pressing a gash on my left leg with my good hand. I want to be out, to leave. That's all I want.
"Hello?" I yell as loud as I can. No one answers.
White light shines through a whole in the wall above the pile of broken cement. Excitement is all I feel. I quickly limp over to the pile of rock and try to climb up it. My legs shake as I climb, threatening to give out. My bare feet try to grip the cement as well as they can.
I get seriously two feet from the light when my right foot is skinned as it slips between two rocks. I instantly fall backwards. Snapping sounds fill the air, but I can't feel anything. My right foot is still caught between the rocks, my shin snapped and protruding from my skin. I hang there, screaming and crying, my head throbbing and bleeding everywhere.
I finally pass out from the either the pain, or loss of blood.
I open my eyes and white light blinds me. I try to shield my eyes with my arm, but it's strapped down. I blink several times before noticing that my other arm is also strapped down, along with my legs.
"Now how did that feel?" Marcus looms over me, a nasty bruise forming over his left eye.
"Great," I say sarcastically, panting.
"I just want you to know I can do that to you whenever I want." His smile is devilish. "You know why?"
I don't answer him; I jiggle the straps on my wrists. Frankly, I'm not even sure that's what he said. I ignore the hell out of him.
Until he grabs my face and forces my attention on himself. "Do you know why?"
"No." I mock his tone. I have no idea what he's talking about. His fingers are really squishing my cheeks though.
"What just happened to you," he pauses, getting closer to my face, "wasn't real."
I scoff and try to pull away. His grip is like a vise. "What are you talking about?"
"It was all in your head, birdie." He taps my temple twice.
"Po-lease. I couldn't have just imagined all of that."
Or had I? But how could I imagine all that pain and everything in detail?
"Oh, you didn't," he says in almost a cheerful voice. "I made you think it. I made you live it."
"Okay," I laugh sheepishly. "You're psycho."
I blink and the next thing I know I'm in a light blue room. It reeks of formaldehyde and rubbing alcohol. My arms are strapped again, this time keeping me in a chair. The chair is metal, thick. I notice that it's bolted to the cement floor.
A whirring sound comes from the right corner of the room, so I whip my head around to see Marcus standing behind a large metal monitor. His mouth contorts into a rotten smile and he turns a knob. The whirring gets louder, and soon my chair is shaking.
"No," I beg. "No, no-"
I'm cut off as the electricity sears through the chair and into my body. I'm for sure that I'm going to die. My muscles spasm, contract, spasm, contract. A blood-curdling scream emits from my lips, and the electricity cuts off.
I whimper, head hanging. My breathing is shallow, and I'm surprised my lungs haven't collapsed. The smell of burning flesh makes me vomit.
"Open your eyes," Marcus demands after I start sobbing.
I do as he says, afraid I'll get electrocuted to hell. I'm not in the thick metal chair, I can't smell formaldehyde, there's no electric whirring. I'm actually laying in my bed, just not strapped to it. My head spins despite the fact that I'm laying down, and of course, I pass out.
"You're mine, birdie," a deep, growling voice chuckles.
I frantically run down the endless hallway, checking every cell, every door for a way out. A door finally opens, but instead of stepping onto a floor, I fall into a giant black hole.
Laughter echoes around the hole as I fall, the sound of leathery wings accompanying it. I scream as claws grab my stomach, but I don't know what it is. Everything is pitch black. There is no light in this hole whatsoever.
Marcus' face appears in front of me, somehow lit up. He laughs again, grinning. His teeth are all jagged fangs.
"They might have you physically, birdie, but I've got you mentally," his voice is low, gravel-y.
His hands, with claws as fingers, grab my face. He shouts over my screams, "They might have you physically, but I've got your mind, your heart, and soon your soul!"
A long, earth-shattering growl sounded, and his hands rip my chest open. I lay in that giant claw, limp, useless. I can't scream, can't make a sound. I watch as a glowing orange orb floats out of my open torso. It slowly floats out, gently and delicately.
Marcus' eyes are wide and hungry as he watches the orb. Before he could grab it, I'm shocked again. My body shakes from the electricity coursing through it.
"Come on!"
The giant claw lets me go, and I start falling again. Down, down, down into the black abyss. It's almost serene as I fall. The orange orb descends into my chest, and as I'm shocked again, the wound closes up.
I can anticipate the end of my fall, but I'm okay with it. It'll all be over and soon as I hit the bottom. Closer and closer.
Another shock of electricity hits me and soon as I smack the ground.
I sit straight up, gasping and drenched in sweat. Jaeger and Warren stare at me, surprised.
Jaeger's POV
Her blue eyes are fierce and yet scared, searching our faces. It's almost like she doesn't know what to do or think, yet I don't either. I just stare at her, heart caught in my throat, tears threatening to pour down my cheeks.
We finally got her back, and I'm not letting her go.
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