The headache I was nursing refused to abate. One day after the latest experiment combined with another vision and my reward was an hour of free time in the common room.
“Hey cunt, who are you?” a gruff version of Marcy’s voice demanded.
“The same cunt you sit with whenever I’m free of my cage,” I grumbled. Billy scoffed, muttering something about how I was as useful as a truck with no gas in the tank. Useless was right. I’d been useless at fighting off the inevitable.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Screaming. Fighting the arms around me, dragging me out back, smoke pouring from every door and window. Frayed tethers hung from my soul. Unimaginable pain pulsed through me. Despite unmarked skin, blood oozed from the unseen hole in my chest.
“Where is he?” Vince demanded, grunting as I struggled. Through blurred vision, the shapes of Brandon and Tyler appeared.
Tyler.
Covered in blood.
A purely animal sound ripped from my throat.
Vince’s hand slapped over my mouth-
He clearly didn't learn from last time. I bit down again, shaking my head like a dog, ripping the skin. He shrieked, arms loosening. I tore from him, spitting his blood and launching at Tyler.
“You’re the fucking monster!”
A sharp sting in the side of my neck. Hands shoved me to the ground. My head bounced off the dirt, stars sparking in my eyes. Numbness trickled down, spreading through my muscles. I tried to scream, but my voice was nothing more than a grunt. Paralyzed.
“She was supposed to be in the dorm. What the fuck do we do with her?” Brandon demanded, dropping an empty syringe in the grass. I tracked them with unblinking eyes. Internally, I was a storm of rage and fear and agony.
“Why the hell are you all bloody?” Vince asked Tyler, ignoring Brandon.
“He got in my head,” Tyler growled. “Made me kill him instead of us taking him.”
No.
No, no, no.
That couldn't be true. Ollie wasn’t gone. He wouldn’t leave me. He wouldn’t do that.
“Miranda saw us. We knocked her out. The others were locked in Jack's room. We couldn’t risk it. We had to burn it down,” Brandon stated, purely factual in his delivery as he stared at me like I was nothing more than a piece of trash stuck to the bottom of his shoe. Tears leaked out, my heart shredding.
“Wait, you killed them all?” Vince gasped. “The boss is going to lose it.”
“We had no other option,” Brandon snapped. “Bring her to the boss, maybe you can keep her as a pet after med school.”
No. This was a nightmare. A bad dream. I’d wake up any moment and laugh at my wild imagination.
Shouts from inside froze all three of them.
“There’s no one here!”
Tyler and Brandon’s eyes connected.
“No bodies?” another voice shouted.
“Nope. All clear here.”
“That’s impossible, they were all in there,” Brandon gasped. Tyler’s head was shaking back and forth, red coated hands clenched. “They couldn’t have gotten out- he was dead- I know he was dead. There’s no way they just vanished.”
Vanished.
