Page 108 of Anarchy Chained: Alpha Thomas

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR - SADIE

“Sadie?”

Someone is shaking me. Who? Where am I? What’s going on?

“Sadie, can you hear us?” A new voice. Female this time. But my mind is swimming with illusions and doubt.

Sadie…

They’re talking to me. They’re gonna wipe my mind again. They’re gonna wipe my mind and make me powerless. I will have to obey.

Who?

I don’t know, I just know that I can’t let it happen again.

“What the ever-loving fuck?” a third voice says.

“She’s tripping, you guys. Don’t pay any attention to her illusions, it’s fake. Uzi blasted her and she’s out of control. We need to get her to the lab. Get her arms, Case.”

I fight. I thrash in their grip. I won’t be taken back there. I refuse to be someone’s loyal puppet of death. I won’t do it…

Sadie, he calls. Sadie… help me…

A sharp prick in my arm and I’m swimming again. This is it. This is the end for me. I’m done.

I am in a dark place. Four walls, no light except for a thin strip leaking in from under a door. The room smells like the earth. Damp dirt and stale air. There are lots of voices outside and I recognize all of them. Uzi, Cyan, and the others.

I wait in the dark until I hear the locks disengage. Fear jolts me to my feet as he enters the room. “Time for some fun, Sadie.” Uzi walks towards me, one arm reaching. In my head, I fight him. I grab that outstretched arm and flip him over. Smash his face on the hard floor. Snap his neck and relish the sickening crack of bones breaking.

But in reality, I let him hold my hand. I let him lead me from my prison cell. I let him take me down the hall, feeling shame as everyone looks at me, grinning. Knowing what he’s about to do. Knowing that I will let him.

“Here you go, Samuel,” Uzi says, holding my hand out to the other man. “She’s all yours.”

“She doesn’t look like Azure,” the man called Samuel spits.

Uzi laughs. “Not yet. But she will. You just have to get used to it. Ask anyone. Right, Gordon?” Uzi nods his head towards another guy in the hallway with us, asking for his validation of my skills.

“She looks just like Jayleen when I fuck her.” Gordon shrugs. “She flips in and out. Her trips are short. But she’s pretty enough and you get used to it. Plus, Sadie here gives some first-rate blowjobs. And it’s as close as you’ll ever come to fucking your dead wife again, right?”

“Take it or leave it,” Uzi says. “I have dozens of people lined up, Samuel.”

“Just relax,” Samuel says. “I just needed a little clarification. How do I make her look like Azure then?”

“That’s the beauty.” Uzi laughs. “She just does it. You show the picture and hold the image of Azure in your mind and she just… becomes her.”

Samuel thinks about this for a few seconds. “How do you keep her so… docile? Will she wake up from this trance—or whatever you have her in—and try to kill me? She’s one of you, right?” Samuel shakes his head with doubt. “And everyone knows what you four are.”

“Hey,” Uzi says, getting angry now. “I’ve been doing this for two years. No one’s died yet. You’ve got five seconds to take your turn and then I’m moving on to the next client on the list.”

“Fine,” Samuel says, pulling out his wallet.

Uzi takes his money and places my hand in Samuel’s. He leads me to an open door and we enter, closing it behind us.

I walk to the bed and start getting undressed. When I’m naked I turn to look at the man who wants me to be his dead wife. He’s holding out a picture of a woman. Early twenties, blonde hair, green eyes, pretty face. I drag my eyes away from the picture and find it in his mind too.

He smiles at me. “Azure?”

I nod, but don’t speak. He’s got a few more seconds on this trip and I don’t want to end it early with speech.