Tethered

Chapter Twenty-Four

1

Sarah heard the tapping of high heels hitting the floor, and stiffened. She wanted to get out of there. She wanted to go home. She wriggled her wrists and ankles, whimpering like a puppy.

She shook herself furiously in case she could unchained herself. The sound of heels approached. It was getting closer and closer. Sarah fought to free her wrists and ankles. She was afraid—scared of what could happen to her—to Philip—and to the rest of her friends. There was no way these people could let them go with so much information.

She heard the sound of a door opening and froze instantly. Her eyes grew larger and darted to her left, then her right.

"There she is", a woman said. Sarah fisted her hands and squeezed her eyes shut.

"I still don't understand why you insisted on bringing her here. You could have finished her", another woman said.

"She will be useful. Trust me", the woman said. "Hey, Sarah. I know you're not asleep. It's okay. You can open your eyes now."

Sarah didn't hesitate. She opened her eyes and met three people staring down at her. There was a middle-aged bold man, a dark-skinned woman and Karen Scott.

"I'm sure by now you know what exactly happened, right?" The bold man asked. "Oh, my name is Frank and this is Patricia."

Wanting to hear it all again, Sarah shook her head.

Frank nodded and smiled softly. He pulled a chair and sat down beside the bed.

"Well, I'm sorry for that", he said. "With the drug in your veins, I don't think you will be able to remember. I wish I could say that the test is successful but there are still holes to fill."

Sarah opened her mouth to speak but she couldn't even make a sound. It was so hard to do that with the hammering of her heartbeat.

"I know what you're trying to say", he said. "Let me break it to you. We have been following you for sometimes now. We learned more about you from your online profile. How... super smart you are and every little information you share about yourself. It was super easy to find you, and kidnap you."

"It was all premeditated", Patricia said. "We drugged you and slashed your wrists and left you in the tub. That was bad but we had to create a scene to make you believe everything you could never imagine yourself doing. We had to create a situation where you could want to search for answers or try to remember just..."

"To prove how strong the drug is?" Sarah interrupted, her voice hoarse and unclear. She was surprised she spoke at all. Her heart pumped even faster. Tears rolled down the sides of her eyes.

"Yes", Frank said. "I know. The things we do for money but it was pleasantly worth it. Now, we know where we went wrong and how to fix it."

"The purpose of the drug is to keep someone from remembering and make them believe other things and we succeed on that because none of you remembered", Karen said.

"And my fa..."

"Like they said", Karen spoke, her voice annoyed and loud. "We wanted to put on a show, so I killed them. It's that simple. We stuffed you with pills to trigger vivid nightmares and make you hallucinate to make you believe you were going insane. Yes, everything was planned."

"But the drug is too strong, and it terminate the subject after two months of injection. But we can fix that—and you Sarah will be our test subject......again."

"You can't do this to me!" Sarah yelled. "You can't! Let me go!" She trashed and screamed. "Help!"

"There's no help for you here", Frank said. "Make this easy for all of us. I would want to see you bleed to death like the rest of your...I mean...our patients but if you collaborate, you might...well...you might live...for our sake."