Broken Wings

Addiction-Chapter 6

AN: I like to think that this chapter adds another complication. I love the story personally, and now that semester exams are over, I hope to upload more often. Still, enjoy!

I woke up because I was slapped. Even though I had a strong suspicion about who had done it, I still had to look. Sure enough, it was the black-haired girl from the night before. The one who had helped me get away from my inquisition.

Waking up was not pleasant, not that I had expected it to be. Every part of me ached from sleeping on the hard ground. My head was groggy and I suspected that even though I had been sleeping for what felt like hours, very little energy was gained. My muscles were sore and tight, only allowing for cautious movement while they waited on tenterhooks for the pain to come back.

“Good morning sunshine! Welcome to your first day of paradise! My name is Aria and I will be your tour guide today.” Her mouth was twisted in some mangled mockery of a smile.

“Huh?”

Her hand came down again, in a quick slap. “Don’t say stuff like that. It makes you sound stupid.”

She used the same hand she had used to slap me to pull me up. I tried to find some sort of irony in that but my brain was still so stuffed up that I couldn’t.

“You’ve got a big day ahead of you!” Aria was still going on, making the role of a tour guide suddenly seem macabre. “In thirty minutes you have to be down at your cell for more tests. Then it’s off to lunch where the questioning will probably continue. After that you’ll have more tests, and then tonight you’ll have some sort of punishment for making Jessa look bad last night.”

All of this was spoken in some cheery voice while a huge plastic smile covered Aria’s face. There was no doubt in my mind that even years from now, I would still have nightmares about this.

“I made Jessa look bad?” There was too much stress. All the patience I had spent a lifetime building was crumbled at my feet. “I didn’t do anything wrong. You were the one who swooped in and told her off. And now you’ve given me an enemy when I can’t afford to have one. Why did you even do that in the first place?”

She stared at me for a moment, her head cocked to the side, as if she was trying to decide whether or not to tell me. Finally, she looped her arm around mine.

“You walk, I’ll talk.”

I could tell this was the best deal I was going to get, so I allowed her to lead me out the door and down the maze of white hallways.

“You are an investment on my part.” She plunged into her narrative with no warning. “To be honest, you reminded me of myself last night, coming in here already drugged up on the Burn. I figured that someone like you could use an ally, and that you could in turn be useful to me.”

“But why me?” That was what I really wanted to know. Why, out of everyone, had she chosen me? There was nothing unique about me.

“Weren’t you listening? You remind me of me. Plus, you were first. Did you think that you were the only new girl brought here yesterday? They bring in about ten at a time, but have you seen any of the others? No. Because you passed the tests faster than I’ve ever seen anyone else. Put this on.”

She opened a door, seemingly at random, and pulled out a plain white jumpsuit identical to the one she was wearing. Too numb to really think about it, I tugged it over my head. As soon as it was on correctly, we were walking again.

“And then you had the Burn! You come stumbling into our room hours before we were expecting you and you have the Burn on top of that! Do you know how insane that is? Some of these girls haven’t even felt it before, and they’ve been her months. But you, you come in here drugged up and you haven’t even been free for an hour.