Page 49 of Dark Night of the Soul

I said nothing.

He held a tablet, looking at the screen, scrolling through whatever information was there.

“As the first,” he said mildly, “you’ve done remarkably well.”

The first. The test subject.

There were more to come.

“You’ll have some soreness,” he continued. “But otherwise, you should recovery quickly and be fine.”

If I was the first, how did he know that? He couldn’t.

The door opened and closed behind him. “Bring her.”

Sebastian.

“Not yet,” the doctor said. “She just came to.”

“I want to see how she performs,” Sebastian said. “Bring her.”

Performs.

Not speaks. Not recovers.

The doctor turned his back to me and lowered his voice. “No. It’s too soon. In a few hours.”

A pause as the silence stretched. “Fine. One hour.”

And then receding footsteps.

The doctor expelled a frustrated breath.

One hour.

Whatever they’d turned me into, I would find out soon enough.

One hour later, the doctor returned and removed the IV, bandaged my arm. Then helped me to a sitting position. I didn’t want his hands on me, but I didn’t have a choice.

Black pinpricks dotted my vision when I rose. I flinched. Took a deep breath. Expelled it. And then it dissipated.

He forced me into a wheelchair and pushed me out of the room. The hallway flashed by in a haze. As much as I tried to keep my bearings, they were going too fast. And I couldn’t keep up. My mind was still fuzzy.

He paused in a hallway. Sebastian stood, waiting and watching.

“In there,” he said. Nodding to a door.

A guard took my arm, hoisted me to my feet and then pushed me into a room. The door closed behind me.

I was alone.

There was nothing but a long metal bench along one side. No other chairs. I turned to glance behind me. A two-way mirror.

Great. I stood in a fishbowl. And whoever was on the other side was going to watch whatever I was supposed to do.

I glanced at the door. The only exit.

After a long moment, when no one else came, I sat on the metal bench. The cold steel bit through the thin gown. But it didn’t seem to bother me. That should have bothered me. I crisscrossed my legs in front of me, put my hands on my knees, and waited.