Phantom Rider - The Aftermath | Book 1

Treatment

Present moment, Russia

Mila's POV

"What would you call the baby boy?" Alice's voice echoed oddly. She smiled at me, but I couldn't quite place where we were. It felt like summer, yet the landscape was an open field that seemed strangely out of place.

"We never talked about the name," I said, suddenly realizing that Bill and I had almost never discussed future plans, we had avoided them at every opportunity. I had avoided those conversations.

"That's right... I noticed your relationship isn't that deep," Alice said with an oddly knowing smile. I nodded absently.

"So, where do you want me to throw him?" Alice asked, holding a bloodied bag. A creeping, unsettling sensation washed over me as I looked around and saw that we weren't in a field at all - it was a graveyard, though it felt eerily silent and unreal.

"Throw what?" I asked, my voice feeling strangely distant.

"Your baby, silly!" she said, glancing at the bag with casual indifference.

"Alice, give me back my child!" I shouted, but my voice felt hollow and distorted. Alice walked away, her movements almost dreamlike. Swinging her hips in a too-smooth way, she tossed the bag into a trash can without a second glance.

"Aaaaa!" I jolted awake, the sting of a needle piercing through my dream.

"Where is my child? Where did you put my child?" I screamed, my voice hoarse and full of pain.

"You don't have a child, Miss Petrova. You lost it weeks ago," the doctor said, his voice void of any real emotion, the words hanging in the air - empty.

"It? You're calling my baby 'it'? Like he's just a thing?" Tears streamed down my cheeks. The nightmares had been torturing me every night since Alice had died, and now the distinction between dream and reality felt painfully blurred.

"Lady, I know it's hard to accept, but many women go through this - more than you might think. Your baby was barely the size of a peach, you wouldn't even be able to tell if it was a he or a she." The doctor's voice was clinical and detached. I struggled to accept the truth.

"Where did you put him? The remains?" I asked, still clinging to the idea that it was a boy.

"We don't keep remains from first-trimester losses," the doctor replied sharply, seeing my distress.

"You threw him in the trash?! Alice was right!" I tried to get out of bed but realized I was restrained. The realization that I was chained, just like Bill, sent me into complete despair.

"Mila, your privileges are gone. Now you're on the same level as the other patients here," the nurse said coldly.

The nurse then turned to me, her smile wide but tainted with something sinister. She was the same one I had stabbed with scissors and stolen the chip from days ago.

"Gosh, I think I'm fucked," I mumbled under my breath.

"Yes, you are!" she sneered at me.

I was injected with something that made me euphoric and relaxed. This time, nightmares didn't come around. Warm, soft light and instant happiness surrounded me. I closed my eyes, Bill's warm breath traveling down my neck. The scent of his skin wrapped around my body. His smooth, calming voice traveled through my mind. I couldn't catch the words, but I knew it was him. I felt ecstatic, all wrapped up in his being. His soul and body melted into me, and I felt safe in his presence.

Victor's POV

Victor marched into the room and quickly glanced at Mila. She was in bed, eyes closed, smiling at something only she knew.