Chapter 40
DOWN FOR THE COUNT
This is wrong. All Wrong.
June is on the floor of the art room, thrashing. Her nails tear at her scalp as though she could claw something out of her own head. I want to move toward her, but Mister M is still in the doorway, blocking me.
She’s surrounded by black-clad enforcers, composed faces stark against the chaos. They’re shouting codes I don’t recognize, moving to form a barrier without daring to touch her.
“What’s happening?” Mister M demands. He stands tense at the threshold, arms folded tight to his chest. I can see a twitch of his fingers against his sleeve. A nervous tell. I didn’t know he had those. My stomach lurches at the sight.
One enforcer risks a step forward and gets knocked back by nothing but the force of Juniper’s scream. He staggers into the wall hard enough to rattle the cabinets.
“We don’t know!” Ralston snaps from the corner, eyes panicked. That doesn’t make sense. They’re here to protect us. They’re trained for everything. Why don’t they know? “She just collapsed and started—”
“Useless,” Mister M spits. His eyes cut to Juniper, calculating. “Restrain her!”
What is wrong with her? I know she wasn’t feeling well after evaluations, but I didn’t think she was breaking down. A pang of guilt sears me. I would’ve noticed if something was wrong.
Right?
She jerks up, back arched, screams rising into a pitch that makes my teeth hurt. I clap my hands over my ears, but it doesn’t stop. My body tenses, head pounding so hard I might collapse. Whatever’s happening to her is making me violently ill.
Doctor Carr pushes past, shoving me sideways without so much as a glance. He’s already snapping orders. “Hold her down! Don’t let her fla—”
“She was stable this morning!” Mister M is shouting now, resolve shattering. “What did you do?”
Carr doesn’t answer. He’s too busy jamming a needle into June’s arm. Then another. Then another. Thin glass vials roll across the tile. None of it works. Her convulsions worsen, her eyes roll back. Blood streams from her nose.
“I don’t belong here!” she shrieks, practically unrecognizable. Her eyes lock on me, burning red from burst blood vessels. “They’re lying to you, Maysie!”
I stumble back, spine slamming the wall. My heart claws at my ribs. That’s not Juniper’s voice. This isn’t her. It can’t be.
Except it is. And she’s looking right at me.
The lights overhead sputter violently, plunging us into darkness again and again. The floor quivers beneath my feet, rippling like water. I don’t know if it’s the room or just my head, but the world tilts on its axis, bending like it wants me gone.
“Terminate!” Carr bellows, sweat beading on his brow. “She’s too far gone—end this before she brings the ceiling down!”
“No—restrain her!” Mister M shouts, pitched higher than I’ve ever heard it. He’s frozen, arms folded, desperately working to mask his terror.
I can’t wrap my mind around it. There are six grown men in here, dancing around June like she’s a bomb about to detonate. And June is…I don’t know.
I’ve seen girls break. Crying after drills or fainting during diagnostics. This is something else.
She isn’t breaking.
She’s exploding.
The enforcers surge together, four of them forcing her limbs to the floor. She shrieks again, the sound so piercing it feels like it’s inside me, burrowing under my skin. I swear my vision doubles. My stomach flips. I gag, doubling over violently.
“Please stop!” My palms slam into the tile, stinging. “Don’t hurt her!”
Her gaze jerks to me again, eyes wild. “It’ll happen to you too!”
“Get her out of here!” Carr’s voice rips through the storm.
The weight of an unsteady enforcer crashes down on me, driving my arms back at an unnatural angle. Pain lances through my shoulders.
“Stay out of this, 214!” Carr snarls, not sparing me a look. He tosses a syringe to the man pinning me. The cap pops off. The needle finds the crook of my arm before I can pull away.
“No!” The cry tears out of me, raw and pathetic. I kick at the man, but he’s stronger, pinning my leg with his knee. Something far stronger than a sedative floods my veins. A metallic taste coats my tongue. My limbs sag as I thrash, weak.
June bucks against the enforcers. She’s screaming, but the sound fractures into choking, then wet coughing, then something that doesn’t sound human. My vision blurs, tunneling and swimming all at once.
“She’s not responding!” one guard shouts.
“Stronger dose,” Carr orders, frantic. “End it—now!”
Everything burns. My head is spinning so hard I can barely formulate thoughts.
Only one tears through: Why is this happening?
I can barely lift my head, but I try. Through the blur, I see her eyes, deep green and bloodshot.
The veins of her arms are raised, pulsing against her skin so bright they almost look silver.
Her mouth is still forming fragmented screams. The second injection slams into her, and her body stiffens.
Then collapses.
The silence is instant, unnatural. Just the dripping of paint water, the scrape of an enforcer shifting back, and the harsh breath of boys who know they almost lost control. My heart seizes. I try to say her name, but the sound is lost to the darkness pulling me under.
The last thing I see is Mister M, standing clear of her, jaw locked tight, face pale as chalk.
And Juniper, limp. Surrounded by the wreckage of her own storm.