Chapter Seven
Serena
Blood.
There is blood everywhere.
It coats the floor, the sheets, my skin. I feel it on my arms, my legs, my face. The metallic stench floods my nose until I cannot breathe.
I scream. I do not even hear my own voice. My ears are ringing, the sound trapped somewhere behind the panic crushing my chest.
“Someone come! Carry her!” a man’s voice roars. Loud. Angry. Impatient.
“Leave me alone!” I scream back. My throat burns. My body moves on instinct. I kick, my heel connecting with someone’s cheek. Another shadow leans in and I lash out again. Anything to keep them away from me.
“Sedate her!” the man shouts.
“We cannot,” another voice replies quickly. “He said she is not to be sedated unless she harms herself.”
“She is covered in blood,” the old man shouts, closer this time. My vision blurs with red spots. His voice sounds disgusted, inconvenienced, as if my terror is an annoyance.
“She did not self-harm,” the other voice answers flatly. “So we cannot sedate her.”
Hands grip my arms, my legs, my waist. They lift me, drag me, pin me. I fight like an animal, my knees slamming into ribs, my nails scraping against skin.
I cannot believe this is happening.
I cannot believe this is real.
Three days.
Three days since they took me.
Three days of darkness and cold floors and injections and strangers touching me like I am not a person.
Three days of being their experiment.
Their property.
Their something.
I cried myself to sleep until my body forced me into unconsciousness. I thought I welcomed the darkness, but now it terrifies me. I am scared of what they are doing. I am scared of what they want. I am scared of losing myself, losing control, losing any piece of Serena I still have left.
They throw me onto a bed and immediately strap me down. Leather restraints bite into my wrists. My ankles. My skin burns under the pressure. I twist, I pull, I try to break free, but it is useless. They immobilize me completely.
“I am going to kill you all,” I scream. My voice cracks. My chest aches so painfully I think I will break from the inside. I cannot see clearly anymore. Everything swims. My lashes are wet.
“Shut up,” another voice snaps.
He leans over me, his face so close I can smell his breath. His expression is cruel, bored, like I am just another inconvenience in his shift.
“You are lucky,” he says, his lips curling. “Otherwise, you would be passed to all of us.”
I feel something inside me collapse. Something that was holding me together.
I spit in his face.
His expression shifts instantly. “You stupid bitch,” he growls.
Then the slap comes.
Hard.
Sharp.
Violent.
My head whips to the side. A flash of white light bursts behind my eyes. My vision fades out at the edges. The last thing I feel is a warm tear sliding down my cheek, disappearing into the blood on my skin.
Then the darkness folds over me again.