1. Annalise
Chapter one
Annalise
"No! Stop! Don't fucking touch me!”
I don't know if the scream is trapped in my mind or tearing from my throat, but my body reacts violently all the same. I thrash against the handcuffs biting into my wrists, metal digging into raw skin as I fight to get free.
As if I have the strength.
Web thinks this will be enough to stop me from trying to stab him this time, but he's wrong.
"Hold her down!" a deep voice barks, sending tremors through my body.
He's brought someone else.
My chest heaves, panic clawing its way up my throat. I could have fought Web—I would have fought him with my last breath—but this? Him and a new partner?
I have nothing left for that kind of fight.
I won’t beg. I won’t give them that. Not when I know they’d savor every second of it.
But I can’t…I can’t stay here for this either. No, conscious and aware of whatever depravity they have planned is more than I can take.
So I let go, falling willingly into the abyss that's held me close more times than I can count.
Shame coils tight in my chest as I slip beneath it and let the world blur around me.
Web’s face snaps into focus above me as he anchors me to the ground with his body. Panic spikes. I try to swing at his twisted face, but my arm only makes it halfway before it's caught. Pain ricochets through me, sharp and all consuming.
"Breathe, Little Faren! Breathe."
"I can't do this anymore, Tyr. It hurts too much," I confess, closing my eyes once more as Tyr's furious roar rages through my mind.
The cot shifts beside me, and my eyes flutter open—or maybe they don’t. It’s hard to tell. Everything is hazy, edges blurred, my head thick with fog. I feel like I’m floating on a cloud, weightless.
I try to ask where I am, but only a high-pitched whine comes out.
“Shhh, you're safe. We had to up your dosage," a low voice says, cracking on every word like it hasn't been used recently.
Matt?
Again, I try to speak, a million questions racing through my mind, but his name comes out as a whimper as the pain in my throat gets worse.
"Go back to sleep. I’ll be back to sit with you as soon as I'm done with class."
I beg him not to leave me, but hearing his voice, rough as it may be, and feeling the gentle touch of his lips on my forehead soothes me and before I can protest, I'm lulled into the first dreamless sleep I've gotten in the gods only know how long.