broken claims

Part 14

"You're going to be fine," Steven reassured her. Her skin itched from where he had swabbed it with an alcoholic wipe. A bit of sunlight broke through the horizon of ruining buildings and Leigh kept her attention focused on the watery streams of light coming through the clouds. "You're strong. You'll come through this stronger."

Leigh didn't know if anyone ever had this much faith in her before. Sharley's focus on her was always up and down and she knew that she resembled a doll to her grandparents, something to arrange and play with. And Daryl had let her go with nothing but a photograph as a souvenir.

Sharley's last boyfriend, though, liked her. But maybe that was just because she was something of Sharley's. If he was playing a game to get her mother's attention, he needed to appeal to her as well. Like a compact unit, unable to bypass one end without flattering the other. Steven's delirious faith was wildly different from anything Leigh had ever known. She took a savage joy in the knowing she was going to wreck his plans.

"Can you undo the restraints?" Leigh asked. Her skull ached. Migraines kept plaguing her. It made it difficult to focus beyond the syrupy haze of drugs. Bits of light crackled at the edge of her vision. "Please?"

"It's safer to keep you contained."

"I have to go through this thinking I'll survive, right?" Leigh coached softly. "I can't do this pinned. I want to be ready."

He looked at her skeptically. The pen in his hand froze from where he was jotting down numbers on a chart. Steven left it the night before in her direct eye sight but she hadn't been able to piece together a single thing the man had written. It was all numbers and formulas, some kind of shorthand that barely looked like anything she had seen flashed on the medical dramas her grandmother watched. "It won't be long until they bring in a specimen."

A walker was going to devour her. It would rip the skin off her bones and go looking for more. Leigh gave a weak smile and hitched her shoulders up apologetically. "I want to live," Leigh told him plainly. "You gotta let me think I'll actually get through this."

She didn't know what would happen to her body after she died. If Steven survived her, he might play with it. Examine whatever laid beneath her skin. Maybe Steven could cut deep enough and find the Rosalie she was supposed to have been from the beginning, or maybe he might find the worst version of herself curled up somewhere safe. Like nesting dolls all the way down, Leigh thought bitterly. Unsuitable versions half hidden.

Steven turned to a tray and came back with a syringe. Leigh automatically turned away so she didn't have to watch the process of him injecting the contents into her vein. She felt it, though. A bitter sharpness pricking through the bruises. She tried conning herself into believing the pain was some kind of gift, that it was providing clarity to combat the new wave of drugs. Her feet felt disconnected, almost, like they had fallen asleep.

After the process was finished, humanity seemed to have struck a nerve. Steven carefully unstrapped the restraints and she brought her hands together and rubbed at her wrists tenderly. "I didn't want to do that, you know. I just needed you to understand this was for everybody. I don't hurt for the sake of hurting."

"I believe you," Leigh lied. The scalpel was beneath the blanket where Beth left it, utterly untouched but by her own hand. She fidgeted her fingers towards it and sat up, bones aching with the force that it took to move. "This'll be good."

"I have every reason to believe that you'll be my success," Steven added, and it sounded like he was also lying. The room was empty but for the pair of liars, two of them gazing at each other like they expected a house of cards to come crashing down.

Her hand clutched the knife tight but she brought up her free one to her chest, pressing against where she had felt the awful pain the first time. Leigh gasped, weakly, jerking back. Steven's eyes widened and he bent towards her, his hands touching her shoulders like he was holding her still. "What's happening?" Leigh bit out, struggling for air. "It hurts— why is this—"