Chapter 35 From Dawn to Twilight
MAGDALENA
“This is ridiculous! Why don’t you let me take her to the medical unit so that I can reseal her wounds, make sure she’s not internally bleeding, then you can do whatever it is you’re going to do?
” Dr. Miller protested as the guards dropped me on the huge cleared wooden office desk, then held me down so he could start working on my wounds.
I wished I could’ve stayed unconscious, but as always, my body had other plans.
“Since when do I have to explain myself to you?” the man who’d threatened me two days prior in the hospital unit asked. “Just seal her up and leave.”
“Lord Adler.” The man was walking away to meet his friends when Doctor Miller called him. He only turned half his body toward us. “Remember, I need her alive for the harvesting.”
Harvesting? My eyes widened while my mind raced. Sir had warned me they would do this, that they would harvest my organs and sell them. It was best like that. I didn’t want to continue to live, not like this.
Lord Adler nodded once, then walked away. I stared out the window, and when I couldn’t stand the pain, I squeezed my eyes tight while breathing in short puffs. The worst part was dreading how much worse the pain would be once he worked on my new gunshot wound.
He resealed the old one quickly, placing thick bandages, then turned me over to work on the new one.
There were two men with their rough hands on my lower back, pinning me.
As soon as I smelled the sterilizer, my panting got louder.
I gripped the edge of the desk, trying to prepare, and then it splashed all over.
I gasped at the stinging and burning. Every muscle in my body tensed, then I stopped breathing while trying to count how many pine trees filled the forest.
“Oh, and, hey, Doctor?” Lord Adler called from the other side of the room. I didn’t bother turning to look at the asshole.
“Yes?” Dr. Miller responded while sanitizing the wound.
“Don’t anesthetize her.”
Dr. Miller murmured a cuss, sighed, then replied, “Of course not, sir.” He was working fast, mumbling about how the wound was too damn close to my lung.
His rushed work meant he was rougher than usual.
Any touch from his fingers sent me in a spiral of pain, starting with stars bursting in my view and gritting my teeth.
I screeched from the forceps stabbing my wound, searching for the bullet.
He whispered, “Don’t worry. I’ll hold out for as long as possible. Hopefully, they’ll get bored and go away.” After the bullet clanked in a metal tray, I was left lightheaded, sweating and trembling at the same time, and hot tears of agony slipped out of my eyes.
“We got ourselves a screamer,” someone joked from the group of lords on the other side of the room, but I didn’t even have the energy to look at them. I was exhausted, staring at the carpet, wondering how I’d survive the next hours. I kept waking with no idea of how many minutes had passed.
“Dr. Miller?” I whispered.
“Yes, dear.” The way he spoke to me consoled me, made me feel safe, but I knew better.
“Can you … please … just … let me die? P-please, help me,” I sobbed with my eyes still closed.
“Oh, darling … I wish I could, believe me, I do, but that would go against everything I stand for,” he explained, then bit into the thread to break it off.
“There. You should be fine. You’re too strong for your own good.
Aren’t you?” He paused or I passed out. Nothing was clear, not even the words coming out of my mouth.
“May I have some water? I’m so … thirsty. Please, Doctor.”
“Yes. You lost way too much blood. These men have the patience of raging bulls. What the hell could be the hurry? A week and you’d be back to normal.
Why do you girls bother getting into so much trouble?
” I almost apologized, then remembered all I’d done was defend myself and try to save a girl from a madman.
How could he be against giving me the mercy of death, knowing they would torture me into it? I guessed the gentle demeanor didn’t match his morals. It was all an act; he didn’t really care. No one was going to help me. As I accepted my fate, fear jumbled all my thoughts into one another.
They lifted me to help me sit so I could drink cold water. I couldn’t get enough of it and chugged it.
“Is she ready yet?” Lord Adler called from across the room as I drank.
“No, not ’til the bleeding stops.” He wasn’t lying. My bandages had been changed twice already.
“She looks just fine to me,” another asshole joked.
“See how she’s drinking all that water? That’s a sign of significant blood loss. Unless you’re looking to party with a corpse, you’ll wait a few more minutes.”
“Wow. The bitch has the doctor under her spell too.”
Only after drinking all the water did I dare to look around the large room. The door was a yard to my right, and the sectional, on which they sat joking and ignoring everything that had been done to me, was to my left. To get to the desk, one had to climb three thin steps.
From my short peek, I didn’t see Sir. I couldn’t believe I was stupid enough to still be hopeful he was alive. I guessed I was destined to always be searching for him, like I did my Killian.
I lay on my belly on the wood, my palms under my cheek while I stared out the window at the forest for a long time.
Everything hurt, but at least there was a wall made of glass from where I could watch as the sun dipped into the pine forest. The wind bent the longest of trees, their branches tickling each other. There were less and less birds flying.
Something broke the air, ShhhWissshhh, then I felt it across my ass.
I had to gasp to swallow the scream at the splitting heat that tormented my butt cheeks.
He’d stricken me with a horse whip. Before I knew what’d happened, I fell from the desk.
Laughter thundered, but I felt the bandage soak with way too much blood.
“Stand up.” It took a long time, but after standing as I’d been taught, I kept my gaze to the floor, my fingers interlaced in front of me, and waited, trying to keep myself from collapsing.
“Gentlemen, look who’s ready.”
“Awww … I can see why he’s so methodical with her. Her skin is … amazing.”
“Her skin, George? Seriously? What are you, gonna silence-of-the-lamb her?” They laughed.
One of the men stood and walked up to me. “Come, dear. Let us see.” He turned me in a circle while holding my hand up high. “I mean, goddamn, look at that ass. That alone is almost worth not killing her.” When he stopped, he lifted my chin so I could look at him. The windows were behind me.
There were seven of them. It was snowing outside. Even if I jumped out the window … and survived the fall, again, it was snowing outside. I could no longer hide my fear, so I snapped my head down again and repeatedly pinched the tip of my finger.
“Have you eaten, dear?” the only man sitting on the sofa asked.
“No. I have not.”
“James, why don’t you see if her meal is ready?
Put some nutrition into that skinny body.
” He was so obese his belly reached halfway to his knees.
Even though the room was frigid cold, his skin glistened with sweat.
The rest of the men were younger, from twenties to forties, but he didn’t look less than fifty.
His tone hadn’t carried malice. I hoped it wasn’t lying to me.
It sounded like the tone of a leader, a father.
The assessment made my heart ache for mine.
“Why don’t you take a seat at the desk?” he proposed.
I was grateful for the added rest and kept falling asleep while they talked.
“Where is Tristan?”
“Taking care of the overlord.”
“Oh. What an honor.” There was sarcasm to his tone, but I could scarcely pay enough attention.
It was one conversation among many. Soon, it all became background noise. I searched for something, anything I could use to defend myself, but the top of the giant wooden desk was empty, and the drawers were all locked.
As they conversed, they emptied the bottles of scotch and whiskey, and I kept hoping they would drop dead from drunkenness and that someone would just take me back to my room to be left alone. Their intentions were clear. There was no escaping this.
As soon as the young men entered the room with a tray of covered food, Lord Adler walked over to me and uncovered the tray. “You may eat.”
There was white rice, sweetened carrots, and some sort of grilled meat. I cut it, wanting some energy from the food after such a long day. I wanted to ask him why he was still standing there, lurking, but I’d gotten myself in enough trouble, so I ate while ignoring him.
I was halfway through the meal when he smiled, lowering himself so his lips were near my ear, and then asked, “How does your friend taste?”
I stared at the food, trying to ignore what he’d said, to act nonchalant, but I knew he wasn’t lying.
I could taste the difference, the unfamiliarity of the meat.
Regret and disgust overwhelmed me. I remembered how Summer had told me about her baby.
Then I remembered the sadness and fear in her eyes—Alma.
I couldn’t hide how disgusted I was, and he enjoyed every second of it, laughing his ass off.
When I looked around, the world was shaking.
It was as if I were riding in a rollercoaster, things moving too fast, swerving, their faces close one second and far the next, always laughing like scary clowns.
The laughter was too loud and came from everywhere.
My stomach cramped, and it all came back up my throat and landed on the tray.
Once I began, I couldn’t stop; after I vomited all the food, water was still coming back up, even through my nose.
“Help her get cleaned up,” he commanded the guards, who raised me from the chair and took me through a door to my right into a bathroom. I walked to the sink right away to rinse my mouth, then showered the best I could without wetting my wounds.