┍━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━┑ one: the belly of the beast ┕━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━┙
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━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━
WHITE was all that surrounded the girl: a bright white ceiling, blinding white walls, and as she gained the strength to twist her neck ever so slightly to the side, she was met with the head of a white-cushioned chair sitting on a presumably-pristine white floor.
Valerie felt stiff cloth around her body; the feeling of the clothes was strangely familiar, but something was off...Why couldn't she remember what didn't feel right? The effort it took for her to turn her neck and gain a better view of her surroundings was enough to make her eyes flutter, threatening to close and send her into whatever oblivion she had been floating through minutes prior. She resisted the temptation, though, and instead focused on attempting to move another part of her body despite the aching pain that pounded in her skull and seemed to extend down to her neck at the attempted movement.
Move...move...move! She internally commanded her brain and desperately attempted to unclench her fists that were stuck to her side just to extend even a single finger. Why were her hands clenched? Why couldn't she move — anything? Where was she?!
But all she could manage was a squeeze of surprise that jolted through her right palm as she heard the click of a door opening behind her. Something was encasing her wrists, giving them extra weight, but her right hand felt less burdened still. Maybe there was another object on her other wrist? But what? And why the hell couldn't she move—
"Oh good, you're finally awake," a masculine voice drawled from the doorway. He didn't walk into Valerie's line of sight, so she tried to grasp any verbal clues pointing to where she was, what was wrong with her, and who the voice belonged to. "I apologize for the whole...shackles situation. We had to be sure you wouldn't try to run."
He put a particular emphasis on the word "run," and Valerie scrambled within her brain for the reason that word had such an effect on her.
"If you'll excuse me," the voice said with annoying politeness, "I need to go alert Dr. Paige of your condition." And he left, the door closing loudly behind him. He never stepped where she could see him.
