The fall

Chapter 28

Penelope

I've been in this room for another 48 hours. Two whole days. It feels like I've lost all sense of time. Every hour bleeds into the next, and the walls—are they brighter white than yesterday? They press in around me, suffocating. I can feel my sanity slipping, piece by piece, with each passing second. The isolation gnaws at my mind, fraying the edges of my thoughts, pulling me apart. I'm not sure how much longer I can hold on.

I just want to go home. But the idea of home—what it even was—feels like it's slipping away too, fading the more I stay here. What was it like being outside these walls? I can't remember, I don't remember how it was to be free. It's like the world has become this small, sterile box, and I'm trapped inside it.

Doctor Fray's voice cuts through my haze, distant but clear as he speaks to his colleagues and I immediately snap out of my thoughts once more when the door opens and a doctor I don't recognize steps inside. Without a word, they place a glass of juice on the table infront of me, turn, and leave. The door clicks shut behind them, the sound oddly loud in the silence.

"Penelope," Doctor Fray starts, which causes me to look at him through the glass wall. "You need medicine. You need your energy. Drink." His voice is soft, yet I hear the dishonesty.

My throat is dry, my stomach twisted with hunger and thirst. I hesitate, the last time I drank anything they gave me, I ended up feeling worse—disoriented, dizzy, sick. But my body is weak, and the thirst, the hunger—it's unbearable. I can't stop myself. My hand moves, almost involuntarily, and before I even realize what I'm doing, the glass is in my hand.
I drink it all in one go, swallowing it too fast, the cold liquid burning down my throat.

For a second, I feel nothing. But then, it hits me. A wave of nausea crashes over me like a freight train. My breath catches in my throat. I drop the glass as I start coughing and I reach out to clutch the edge of the table, after a moment of coughing—I start to cough blood.
I feel myself growing lightheaded and my eyes widen as I continue coughing uncontrollably. I cover my mouth with my hand to prevent the blood flowing. The blood stains my clothes as the red liquid streams down the hand that's covering mouth down to my arm.

My fingers reach to the glass wall beside me, the tips of my fingers staining the glass. My fingers tremble against the glass, practically praying at the cold surface to hold me awake. I speak in raspy voice as I feel myself grow exhausted at the loss of my blood. "Please..." My voice breaks, I break. "Help me.—Let me out..."

My words hang in the air, desperately. I know no one is coming for me. Especially when they're all are...just standing there, doing nothing. I tap the glass wall as silent tears stream down my cheeks, mixing with the blood stains on me. I notice the doctor's finally moving inside the room now that I personally can't.

I stare at them with an exhausted expression as they press a nail inside my arm, I flinch—but I can't push any of them away, they are doing this as they completely ignore my state. I felt hands tugging at my arms as they took blood samples.

"Stop." Richard's voice suddenly cuts through the chaos like a blade. He moved fast, shoving two of the doctors aside with force. They stumbled back, thrown of balance. "That's enough. You've had your tests. For fucks sake—Can't you see she's exhausted?"

Doctor Fray opened his mouth to protest, but Richard's glare silenced him instantly which makes his step back immediately with the others. Richard turned his focus back to me as he realizes the doctors are in check again, and he helps me sit up.
"Can you walk?"

I nod slightly but he helps me up anyway, his hand was firm as he helped me to my feet. I could feel the tension in my body as I rose to my feet, after losing blood—I sure couldn't feel some nerves. Richard guided me towards the door, I felt something I hadn't felt in what seemed forever—relief.

But just as we reached the door, Doctor Fray's voice cut the air like a knife.
"Commander, Penelope is not allowed to leave. You can't—"

Richard's yet other cold gaze, cuts him off.
"She's staying, but not here. You've done enough."

"You can't, she will force you take the collar off!"

Richard turns towards him, blocking him from my view as he continues. "I won't take it off, I have my orders, but she will do work for me instead for someone who treats her like a test subject." Dr. Fray's shoulders stiffened, and for the first time, I saw a flicker of hesitation in his eyes before Richard he leans forward to doctor Fray and speaks in a low tone; "Do I make myself clear?"

Doctor Fray immediately looks down. "Yes, commander."

Richard then turned back too me and gestures me too follow him, he opens the door to leave the laboratory and for the first time in a while—my eyes light up, at the change of scenery. He leds me down the hallway, away from the laboratory, away from the doctors, into the freedom I've been craving.