Chapter 24
For the first time since I’d found myself in the possession of the bearded man—Warden White—my vision had cleared enough to take in my surroundings.
The incessant buzzing of the flickering fluorescent light at the far side of the room.
No windows. Lots of medical equipment. It looked like an operating room with white and teal tiled walls, and what I assumed was a cell running along the left side of the room.
To my right, a heavy door with a slit of a viewing window.
“I’m sure you have questions.” Warden White pulled up a seat beside the table I was strapped to. “But you have a very important role to play, and I have some very important questions to ask. If you do as I say, I may be allowed to release you from this table, okay, love?”
My mind was churning. The Seal had me. I was in the Seal’s possession. Of that there was no doubt. The mentions of Mads, Wardens, my role as key, only solidified the nightmare of my situation.
With the beeping of the monitors mirroring my heartrate, I had to play this carefully. Very fucking carefully. No room for error.
“What kind of questions, Warden?”
He straightened his posture at my use of his title, then gave his beard a mindless thick-fingered stroke. “About your health.” He settled his hands back on either side of his knees. “For the purposes of ensuring your comfort and well-being. Let me assure you I am medically trained, and am—"
“He’s a doctor!” Warden White gave another pointed look over his shoulder, as the young voice replied, “Alright, alright, shutting up.”
“Is it true?” Slowly, I wiggled the wrist out of White’s view, as he nodded. If my thumb was out of the way, I’d be able to slip my hand out of the restraint. “Why have you brought me here?”
“I answered that already, love, you’re the key, and it’s my turn to ask some questions. Once we get this out of the way, I assure you, you’ll get the answers you seek.”
I took a deep breath. I knew where this was going.
“So, now, I’ll ask again, how many days since you last bled?”
Warden White would get more than he was bargaining for with his question. I also never guaranteed a quick response.
“I’m afraid I’ll need an answer.”
So much for taking my time. I exhaled, no louder than a whisper, “A while.”
That got his attention. “What do you mean by a while?”
“Uh…” I kept my eyes on the ceiling. “I’m currently late.” Understatement of the year.
Planting his hands on the table next to me, Warden White got to his feet. “How late?”
“More than a couple days.”
“How late.”
“A few weeks.”
Warden White’s jaw dropped. Joy, tinged with disbelief, lit his face.
“Did she just?”
“Yes, Three.” Grazing two fingers over my arm, White’s gaze didn’t leave me, like he needed proof I existed.
“Do you think—”
“Three, I need you to let us talk here otherwise we won’t get answers.”
“Fine.”
Words directed back at me, Warden White asked, “Do you have any reason to believe you might be…” Don’t say it. “…pregnant?” He said it.
If I could have covered my face with my hands I would have. But I had nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, not even behind my own hands. Fuck, this is not how I thought things would go.
But I needed to be vulnerable. I needed to tell the truth, and if I was going to survive this, I needed a piece of hope, some small glimmer of positivity, to cling to.
Perhaps I had been lucky. My situation was a result of an interaction I chose. Perhaps sleeping with Jack not only broke my self-described curse, but prevented an unspeakable form of violence which would have otherwise unfolded.
Medical room. Table. Health questions. I knew where things were headed.
“No.” I closed my eyes, pretending I was lying on the floor of my apartment. “But a test might show otherwise.”
There was nothing for a time. I kept my eyes shut tight because I didn’t want to know, didn’t want to open myself up to the world.
Warden White and the child, didn’t believe me, I could feel it.
They’d laugh or chastise me any second now.
It was just my word, my lies, and whatever Mads had shared back to the Seal—if he’d shared anything back at all.
But when I peeled my eyes open, I found Warden White staring at me with what could only be described as awe and reverence. “What do you mean, precisely? Be specific.”
There was no disbelief in his tone, only interest. Beyond the cartoon playing in the background, the room was still. Warden White didn’t draw breath. Waiting for my response, there was a shimmer in his eye—anticipation, like he wanted to believe.
Which gave me hope, and just enough confidence to do what I needed to survive. To lie through my teeth, no matter how outlandish, unrealistic, or unbelievable. To get through this I needed to be what the Seal wanted me to be, and what they wanted was a virgin mother.
“I shouldn’t be. I know it… it’s not possible.” I swallowed jagged little bits of glass. “But, I’m… pregnant.”
?
I said it. Out loud. For the first time.
And that made it feel real. More real than when I saw the little blue plus on the test on my bathroom counter.
I thought things would go differently. That the first time I’d have to admit my pregnancy aloud would have been to Jack.
Not strapped to a table, in a room with strangers.
Whatever reaction Jack had in store for me would have been infinitely better than this, even if he didn’t agree with choices I’d have to make.
All he wanted was a child of his own. He’d be sweet, and kind, and almost bubble over with excitement. It would mean his dreams were achievable. That he could have a family.
“Are you certain?”
“I took a test.” The truth was easy.
“And you—"
“Never had sex.” Lying was harder.
“You’re certain?”
“I think I’d know.”
Eyes wide, Warden White’s hand hovered over my stomach, but didn’t touch me. He seemed panicked. “I… I’m going to need to run some tests.”
Just what I needed. Tests.
Revulsion licked my throat. If they weren’t above knocking me out when I became too much of a hassle, I had no doubt the tests were going to be unpleasant. Maybe I could delay the tests, get him distracted enough for me to mentally prepare for the unknown.
Disgust coated my mouth, my stomach hollow.
“I need to eat something,” I swallowed. “To keep the nausea away.”
“You poor thing, we’ll get you something to eat as soon as we’re done.
Are you three or more weeks late?” He paused before adding, “Give or take?” When I nodded, he muttered something under his breath as he walked around the table I was strapped to, then said, “We should be able to get what we need with an abdominal ultrasound.”
My clenched fists tightened. There was no getting out. No one was going to come to my rescue. I was at the mercy of Warden White. The Seal.
He patted my leg in a way that should have been reassuring. “Hold on just a minute, and we’ll get you that snack.”
Flickering my gaze around the room, there were plenty of weaponizable objects—medical equipment, floor lamp, set of keys—just nothing I’d be able to reach. With each pass of the room, I became more and more certain I was being held underground.
Unbearable tightness coiled in my chest. The lack of natural light, the faint trace of moisture in the air… escaping what came next was impossible.
The ultrasound was happening whether I wanted it to or not.
While Warden White readied the machine, powering it on and clicking through some settings, the child started her non-sensical singing, “Your loss is felt, but you will be found. Happy, content, with belly round.” Then, “Mark each face, telling one from the other. For there can be only one virgin mother!”
It sounded like she was mashing two parts of a song together. And I was not a fan of the lyrics, which were feeling more and more like lines to a manufactured prophecy.
“This might be cold,” Warden White warned. There was a squirt of jelly on my scarred stomach, and I had no time to adjust before the ultrasound wand was placed over my skin, and circled until… “Oh my lord. God is good.”
There was an audible thwump, thwump, thwump, of a heartbeat on the monitor.
Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. This was too much. This wasn’t the right setting. I wasn’t in the right place. I wasn’t being given an option.
The ultrasound wand still pressed into the soft muscle of my belly, Warden White whispered, “It’s true.” There was an audible click, as the metal table at my back started to rise until I was sitting upright, hands and feet still secured. “Look, take a look at your beautiful creation. God is good!”
Thwump, thwump, thwump, thwump.
I looked everywhere but the ultrasound monitor.
For the first time since I’d been in the Seal’s possession, I was able to get a good look at the room below table level. And I was right.
To my left there were floor-to-ceiling bars that ran the length of the room.
There were two cells. One sparse, with a bare mattress, a toilet, and a drain.
The other was more like a nest, with bright blankets, pillows, comforters, and stuffed toys, all different colors, textures, and shapes.
An old box TV was secured to a shelf I was fairly certain was made by cementing four cinderblocks together.
However, the person inside the nest was not a child, but rather a woman, singing loud and off-key. And she had a very prominent scar on her face.
Thwump, thwump, thwump.
The woman’s singing stopped. “Do you hear that?” Her voice was young, her actions even younger, as she held onto the bars of her cage and wiggled back and forth with an energy that rivalled a five-year old on a sugar high. “You’re going to be a mommy, Two!”