Chapter 28
Darlia
Three days. It’s been three days in this hell. For three days, I have had no food, water, or any sort of contact. They shut the lights off three days ago, and haven’t turned them on since.
Everywhere I look is darkness, just like how it feels in my mind right now.
The Academy are liars, Cayden is a liar, Marcus probably, too. There’s no one left to trust other than Bella, and I haven’t heard anything about her. Did she get taken back to The Academy?
The door opens for the first time in what feels like forever, and Doctor Langdon walks in with a chair, sitting down in front of me and looking at me carefully.
“Good morning, Darlia. How did you sleep?”
I could slit his throat right now and no one could stop me, but what’s waiting outside those doors? I have enough strength for one kill, but any more than that and it will be me who’s being killed. I decide to play their game, for now.
“I’m in pain, my body hurts and I’m hungry.”
“Yes well, unfortunately your case is more severe, so we do have to take extreme precautions. I do have some food and water here, but I can only give it to you if you give me some answers honestly. Can you do that for me PX-3?” I nod, having nothing left to lose.
“Very good, let’s start with an easy one. What is your name?”
“PX-3.”
“See, that’s not so hard, is it?” Doctor Langdon smiles as he hands me a bottle of water, and for a split second, I forget all my pain, sitting up like my life depends on it. When my body catches up to my mind, every muscle and bone aches in protest.
I take the bottle, immediately finishing it and hoping for more. If these are the questions, I will be fine for weeks before I need to speak again. If I get enough water and ration it correctly, I can survive.
“What is your relationship with Cayden Ashford?”
“He was my target, but I saw him as a friend.”
“A friend who betrayed you, no?” Slitting the throat option just got moved to the top of the list. Even if it gets me killed, I want to be the one to kill this asshole.
“Yes,” I manage through gritted teeth, not mentioning that we were more than friends, that he was teaching me things The Academy would never allow. That he taught me what it felt like to feel safe, comfortable, even if that’s all gone now.
Doctor Langdon hands me a sandwich this time for my honesty, and I eat it as quickly as I can. I’m more afraid it will be taken away than anything else in this moment.
“Did you meet anyone else while on your missions with Mr Ashford?”
I shake my head, finishing the last bite and wiping my mouth. “No, it was only ever him and his guards. But I never met them; I don’t know any names or anything.” I say it with such conviction I even convince myself, considering my desperation.
“What about family? Do you know of any family?” This is a test question, if they know Cayden they know he has a sister. They may not be able to find his accomplice, but siblings are easy to track. One search of his family, and all details would be there.
“He mentioned a sister, but he told me she passed during the transition from before to now. He’s still quite upset about it.”
Doctor Langdon nods, handing me another water bottle and another sandwich. I drink it without thinking as he stares at me, amused. “Desperation is a beautiful thing, sweet child. But I asked for honesty, and you lied.”
Before I can process what he’s saying, I start to feel ill, my stomach protesting everything it’s just received as Doctor Langdon places a bucket in front of me.
“And until you’re honest, you won’t get anything else. The medication should wear off in an hour. Until then, try to keep it in the bucket.”
I grasp on to the plastic like it’s a lifeline as I feel the nausea in my stomach, the bile raising in my throat. I look up at Doctor Langdon, not bothering to hide how awful I feel. He knows, he did this on purpose. He wants to empty my stomach and make me desperate again.
“Why me? What did I do to deserve this?”
“Oh, sweet child, that boy corrupted you. We saved you, but don’t worry. We will correct that in your re-education.”
?
Another week passes where I’m left to waste away. The room has a horrid stench of vomit from the bucket they haven’t bothered to remove, only serving to make me feel nauseous all over again.
I’ve spent four weeks in this hell, I think. It’s hard to keep track correctly when I can’t see anything from outside. They didn’t come to get me yesterday, I think I finally earned a day off. My body has been beaten and broken to a point I’m not even sure it works anymore.
I haven’t spoken in a week. My chest hurts too much to try; I’m sure my ribs haven’t healed properly, and it’s only making everything worse.
I have been drowned, electrocuted, starved, deprived, beaten, stabbed, choked.
Every horrible possible thing you could imagine, yet I’m still alive.
I’m not sure how much longer I can hold on.
My dress is now in shreds, the fabric bringing me barely any warmth, barely covering anything but my breasts and below the waist. There’s a large circle cut in the middle of the dress on my stomach where they cut me over and over, thick bandages covering the butchered skin.
I did earn the right to a blanket at the end of my second week, and I earned the white jumpsuit three days ago, but I still haven’t put it on. I can’t. It hurts to breathe, let alone move to change out of clothes, only to put on new clothes.
My lips are cracked. I need water desperately, more than the small amounts they give me.
Cayden promised I wouldn’t get hurt again, yet here I am, and he hasn’t come to rescue me this time. I wonder if he even knows I’m missing; he must with his sources in The Academy.
Even if he did, I doubt he would be able to find me. I doubt he’s looking.
I hear the door creak open again, and Doctor Langdon walks inside with a bottle of water. My eyes widen like he’s just brought me a puppy or something actually meaningful. His brows knit when he sees I’m still laid on the ground in my dress.
“Does the jumpsuit not fit?” I shake my head.
“Can’t…Move…” The words hurt considerably to say, my chest protesting even the single syllables, my body protesting being alive. Every part of me apart from my mind wants me to give up, and until they manage to take that, too, I won’t.
“I see. I will send a guard in to help you change. I need you to sit up to drink, do you need assistance?” I nod, and his hands are on me. My body screams to fight him off, to scream, to yell out for Cayden.
But Cayden isn’t coming, and right now I need water to survive.
“Thank…you…” I manage to say weakly. Doctor Langdon opens the water bottle and holds it to my lips, tipping it until a small stream of water passes through my cracked lips and hits my throat.
I drink faster than I ever have before, and within seconds the entire bottle is empty.
I spilled some water down my neck and chest in the desperation, but I don’t care. I honestly couldn’t care less.
I will not die here.
“I will send in a guard to help you change, then we will prepare you to be moved back to The Academy. Congratulations PX-3, you have officially finished your re-education. I’m so glad we managed to get you back.
I’ve heard such wonderful things about you, it would be a shame to have lost you.
But we shall not dwell on it, for you my sweet child, are going home. ”
Home. The Academy is not my home.
I don’t have a home.
The doctor leaves, walking out of the room without saying another word and leaves me alone to process his words. I survived.
I survived.
I’m going back to The Academy, and Bella, I’ll get to see Bella again.
And Cayden…do I even want to see Cayden anymore? He’s the reason all this started in the first place, isn’t he?
My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the door opening and two guards walking in. The dark haired one I’ve come to learn is named Thomas, while the blond is called Damon. They were friends before the new regulations started.
“I’ll hold her up while you take off the dress,” Thomas says, and Damon nods. I feel arms move under mine, holding me still while Damon pulls the dress up, forcing my arms up with his rough movements. I don’t hold back the sharp cry from pain it earns.
“How the fuck is she still lucid?” I’m not sure which one asks that; I can’t focus on voices with the pain radiating through me, it’s blurring my vision, my eyes switching between focused and unfocused.
“Beats me,” the other voice says. The room is spinning, every muscle in my body is screaming at me and I can’t take it. It’s too much, it’s all too much.
“She looks really pale.”
“No shit, she’s been tortured for three weeks, dumbass.”
“Nah bro, look at her.”
I look down, seeing myself in the white jumpsuit, my knife sheath thrown aside like it means nothing.
Slowly, I inch my fingers towards it, ignoring the way they tremble.
I keep inching them forward, until I feel the familiar leather strap and bend my finger around it, hooking it around the leather and slowly bringing it in closer.
When I’m finally close enough to reach for the handle, I use the last of my strength I have left to remove my military knife from the sheath before slicing the backs of one of the guard’s ankles.
I watch as he falls back down to the ground, screaming in pain just like I have every day for three weeks.
His blood spills onto the white floors, coating them red.
Only then do I pierce the knife through his chest, hitting his lungs.
I could’ve gone for the heart, but he didn’t deserve the quick death.
The other guard backs himself into a corner.
I’m too tired to move, turning the knife so the blade is pointed towards me.
I throw the blade, hitting the last guard in the side.
Shit, not a kill shot. Despite the fact, the guard screams like he is dying.
He will survive as long as he leaves the knife in his side.
I actually smile for the first time in weeks as he pulls out the knife. That was dumb.
Loud footsteps make their way down the hall towards my room as my head finally falls down to the ground. I’m going to die today, I know I am. There’s nothing left for me anymore anyway, apart from Bella. But I know she will survive.
I let out a manic-sounding laugh. Maybe I’m going crazy, maybe this place made me crazy. They kept me alive for four weeks, just to kill me anyway. But I got two of them. I guess in a way, I won the game we were playing. They tried to break me, but I still managed to fight.
I fought.
I survived for as long as I could.
But I feel lighter, like in some way I succeeded in my plan to leave The Academy. They may have taken my life from me, but at least I decided to go on my own terms, taking down two of their own before giving up.
If this is death, I will go quietly. I only hope it takes me peacefully.
I let the exhaustion take me, the world turning black when all I’ve seen for weeks on end is white. In the darkness, I don’t feel the pain in every bone, I don’t feel the stabbing pain radiating through my ribs every time I breathe. In the darkness it’s safe, I’m free.
I finally feel free.