“Stop, stop, please stop,” I plead.
No one’s listening. No one cares. Gray spots dance at the edge of my vision. The floor fades in and out. My chest is locked so tight I can’t breathe. My skin presses into the straps I hang against. I’m going to die here, hanging upside down at the school’s mercy.
The pain in my spine slides out. A needle, my muddled mind supplies. It had to be a monstrous humongous needle, and the spasms subside. As fast as I was turned upside down, I’m whipped back around. My hair slaps my cheek and strands remain across one eye. Restrained, I can’t push them away.
A fine sheen of moisture drips down the side of my neck. Tears. From when I was screaming. My gown is wet too, sticking to my skin. My breasts hurt, tight from fear.
Different electrodes are stuck to my head and chest, against my sides. Before I get the chance to even quiet my breaths, a rubbery mouth guard is shoved into my mouth.
“What’s going on?” I try to say around it, but the words are muffled. I don’t care about acting compliant and just going with this anymore. I’m freaking scared. This place is a house of horrors. It’s Frankenstein’s evil gruesome lab. I want out. I want out now. I strain against the straps, pushing my head so hard the leather cuts into my forehead. My neck hurts.
A palm slides across my cheek. Suddenly the director’s face moves over me into my line of vision. “Shhh, Katherine. Everything’s all right. Calm yourself. We must discover what you excel at, sweetheart.”
His face lifts and he nods at someone I can’t see as they are out of my line of sight. He removes his palm from my face. There’s a hum and every nerve in my body explodes in a thousand jolts of electricity.
I arch off the chair, at least I would if the straps weren’t so tight. I’m sure they are cutting through my skin, shutting off any circulation, but I can’t feel it over the current burning through my veins and the rigid stretching of my body.
Suddenly it shuts off and I sag, limp as a wet leaf. There’s saliva in my mouth. I can’t swallow around the mouth guard. How does this tell them what I excel in?
Before the thought is finished, they zap me again. Every muscle spasms and I can’t fight it, can’t think, can’t do any little thing to defend myself.
The session goes on forever. Short moments of respite and then the voltage ramps up again. What are they learning? What are they learning that’s worth this?
YOU ARE READING
Extracted
Teen Fiction{Complete} What would you do if you woke up to a different life? A different face? A different name? But you remember who you really are. AnnaLee Johnson awakens from rolling her truck into a ditch into a world of nightmares. She's no longer her...
