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Glass shatters, making his words cut off and my eyes snap open to look down my body. They widen in utter shock at the sight before me. I consider, briefly, that my mind did finally shatter, and that it's taken me to some other place where I've never been because before me looms a monster. Dark grey, head, shoulders, and chest standing above the disgusting man who looks over his shoulder at him. Horns all along his head, black hair spilling over his shoulders, and...claws.The handle of a sword peeks out from his back, and his black teeth are bared, putting his fangs on display. But not at me. At the nurse. The monster's pitch-black eyes slowly lower from the man's face, to where his hands are still on my thighs. He lets out a growl, so deep and loud and scary, that I scream out.
The man screams too, but it's cut short by the monster gripping the back of his head. I can hear the sound of claws crunching something as they dig into the man's head. As Scrub’s hands raise towards his head, the monster yanks him back, slamming his body into the wall. The man doesn't even have time to slump to the floor before the monster is picking him right back up, this time, by his throat. I watch in utter fear, but...something else too...some emotion I can't figure out pierces me deeply as the monster carries the man like he weighs nothing at all towards me. When they reach me, he places the man on his feet, but just as quickly kicks the back of his knee, one after the other, so he's kneeling before me. I only look at his terror-filled eyes for a second, because then the monster speaks and my eyes snap to him.
"Apologize to her!" he shouts. His voice is gravelly and hard, demanding, not leaving an ounce of space to think that not apologizing is even an option.
But only a groan leaves the man's mouth, so the monster grabs one of his hands, bends it back so far that I can both see and hear the bones in his wrist break from the force. The man screams out in agony, trying to bring his hand to his body, but the monster doesn't allow it.
"Apologize for touching her."
"I'm-I'm-I," he sputters, pausing only to sob. The monster bends his hand back further and he screams out. "I'm sorry!"
"Not yet, but you will be."
Then, the monster grabs a knife from his waist that I never noticed, and with one quick slice, he severs the man's hand. Blood squirts onto my face, and I barely flinch, so in shock at what I'm witnessing that I can do nothing else. The man screams and screams, but it becomes a gurgle when the monster digs his claws into his throat. Blood pours out, covering the monster's hands, and the man's neck and chest. The monster yanks his hand forward and pulls the man's throat out. A shuddering breath leaves me as I watch the monster throw the chunk of bloody meat to the floor, releasing the man to fall lifeless at his feet.
Then he comes towards me with the knife, and I release a blood-curdling scream.
"No, no! Please!" I beg, moving as far away from him as the restraints will allow.
His brows furrow, his face becoming less stern and severe, and slightly less frightening. But not enough for me to want him anywhere near me, especially not while holding a knife, as if any other part of him seems somehow less dangerous. He puts his hands up in surrender, but they don't look any less threatening since they're covered with blood and other bodily matter.
"I won't hurt you." His deep voice rumbles with the assurance, less...angry now. And I could swear he's trying to be...soothing?
"You...you just..."
"Because he touched you, he hurt you. I would never harm you, Leah."
How does he know my name? Before I can even ask, heavy footsteps thunder towards the room. The monster's face loses all softness in an instant as he reaches one hand back to grab the handle of the sword. The metal blade zings as he unsheathes it and the door bursts open. Two men run in but quickly stop short, one looking at the monster beside the table and the other's eyes widening on the nurse's dead body. I recognize both. My mind thinks of Mr. Carson trapping me in the car, and then delivering me here where he helped them strip me of my clothes. And the other, the man who pulled me out of the car and touched my breasts as he ripped my shirt off. I almost vomit again at just the memory.
The monster's growl echoes through the room as he rushes forward at a speed that doesn't seem natural. Mr. Carson puts his hands up as he approaches, but the monster swings his sword to the left, cutting off his hands. With a flick of his wrist, the blade turns unforgivingly, and he brings his arm to the right, cutting off Mr. Carson's head. The other man tries to run, but the monster thrusts his sword into his back so far that it comes out of his stomach, and then he turns the sword, slicing brutally to the side to deliver the kill. It doesn't look real, the way the man's guts spill out onto the floor, or how his body yanks up when the monster pulls the sword up and out of him. As he drops to his knees, the monster turns around and walks back over to me.
"Please, we have to go," he says in what I think is a quiet voice, for him.
It makes me shiver with its roughness, with the way his words rush over my skin almost protectively.
"I know you're afraid, but I swear I would never...couldnever hurt you."
Why the hell do I believe him? Why do those words give me any kind of security? Am I losing my mind? This monster,a monster,is covered in blood while broken, dead bodies litter the room around him, sword in one hand, and a knife in the other. With eyes so black they look like a pit of darkness that I could fall in to and never return. Yet, something, that same feeling I was unable to recognize earlier and still can't name now, tells me he's being honest. That he won't hurt me. The men who did hurt me, he's killed, and even made one apologize to me before he ended him. Why do that just to harm me himself? But he's a monster. Monsters killed my sisters, one just hours ago. How can I possibly be willing to accept his words as truth? But as I hear more people coming towards the room, I ask myself a better question: can I afford not to trust him right now?
What waits for me if I stay here?
He comes closer to me, slowly extending the knife, and I still move away from it as much as I can, but this time, I don't scream. He seems to take that for the little bit of trust that it is and brings the knife to the strap over my calves, cutting through it. He does the same to the straps on my thighs and chest, and then to the shackles on my hands and ankles. His hands reach for my stomach, but I shriek, backing away and almost falling off the table, but I catch myself at the last moment so I can stand.
"We need to leave through the window. I have to carry you," he tells me.
I immediately shake my head.
"Carson is down!" I hear a voice call right outside the door.
"Trust me, Leah. Please."
I look at the door, and then him. The fear of what these men have already shown they'll do to me somehow outweighs my fear of this monster who has only helped me since the moment he broke through the window. I take a step towards him, and he does the rest, rushing forward to grab me by my middle, pulling me into his body.
"Hold on to me."
As I gingerly wrap myself around him, realizing he's going to have to climb down a building while somehow holding me, he runs to the window. Men, far too many men, rush through the room door as the monster climbs back through the window. Just as I see them raise their guns, the monster jumps. My scream is snatched away by the wind as we freefall. I close my eyes, thinking, at least I'll die free rather than strapped to some table. But then I jerk in the monster's hold and open my eyes to see he's landed perfectly on his feet. Without barely even a bump. Then he's running, the sound of guns firing behind us as we enter the forest. The trees around us are nothing but a blur as he rushes and weaves between tree trunks and low hanging branches. I grip him tighter, fear a building emotion in me, both from what I'm fleeing and the monster I'm clenching as I flee. What in the hell am I thinking? I escaped the institution, but how will I escape him if he turns out to be just like them?
I try to notice anything that will tell me where we are, so I can run if I get the chance. I didn't ever trust the President and still ended up at the institution. I have trusted this monster for some reason and God only knows where or how I'll end up now.
