The Breaking Wheel

Chapter 50: Reliving the Nightmare

She was slumped against the wall in some kind of suit. After looking around for a bit, she slowly got up and looked down at her hands and feet. It felt awkward with the heavy suit, but it was only a minor inconvenience. The hands of the suit were covered in golden-yellow fabric, while the feet and legs were covered in brown cloth. The head of the suit blocked her view of the torso.

She tried to yank it off. It was stuck.

Something in the suit clicked.

Spikes stabbed into her flesh. Hooks were driven into her cheeks. A metal rod was shoved up her windpipe, while more metal bars forced her mouth open to the point where they almost ripped her jaw from her head. Her bones snapped like toothpicks while her organs were torn to shreds. Blood spurted from the suit's openings like a geyser.

Her eyes rolled back into their sockets and she tried to scream. All that came out was a gurgle.

Bones splintered as her body was slowly crushed by the mechanisms in the suit. She thrashed around, trying to get it off of her. The spikes were only driven deeper by her struggling, ripping her body even further apart.

Dr. Collingwood awoke with a gasp and sat bolt upright in her bed, breathing heavy, heart pounding. Ever since the first time Naga had breached containment, every night she would suffer nightmares of the tortures she'd been forced to endure.

-------------------------------------------

She ended up applying for amnestics.

It was all too much. The memories, the nightmares, Naga whispering in her ear... she couldn't handle it anymore. If she didn't do something about them, she 'd be crushed under the weight. She couldn't hide it from her friends forever, and she couldn't imagine the pain they would feel if they did find out.

-------------------------------------------

The amnestics didn't work.

In fact, they only seemed to make things even worse.

The nightmares grew more and more intense and she was getting even less sleep than before. She began to see and hear things that weren't there. Everywhere she went, she felt like she was being watched by the serpent.

And now, it was becoming increasingly clear that Naga was trying to use Lawrence to get to her. He had dug through her mind, read through all her memories, seen her at both her best and her worst. He knew everything.

She knew that there was only one solution. The pain it would cause her would be unbearable. With her current mental state, it might even destroy her.

But that didn't matter.

No cost was too great.