The Conquering (Book #2 in The Inception Trilogy)

chapter twenty-three

(this chapter is short, but only because I feel like it's a good ending point. I'll try to update tomorrow to make up for it. hope you enjoy xx)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

A PAIN RIPS THROUGH Evelyn's chest, jolting her awake. She pants in short, erratic breaths with tears burning her sore eyes. Her mind whirls as she tries to make sense of reality, her vision blurry, whether from the tears or being freshly conscious. Her hands grip the first thing they come into contact with, something cold and hard beneath her. She tips her head upwards, focusing on leveling her breathing so she can then analyze her situation more clearly.

She hears her pulse thumping in her ears, gradually slowing. She stares up at a white ceiling, so bright she feels the need to close her eyes again. She doesn't, though, too scared they may not open again. She remembers being stabbed fatally. Remembers making Micah promise to look after Robbie right before she began to fade away. She shouldn't be alive. Is she alive? Is she in some sort of afterlife?

Once she's mostly calmed herself, she looks forwards again. Looks to what her hands are grasping. Metal. Her eyes cast downwards to her legs--she gasps. Her stab wounds from Quincy are completely gone. Then she notices her whole body is freezing, and that she only has a band of black fabric around her breasts and underwear. She doesn't have time to worry about her lack of clothing, though, when she notices her stomach.

A small hole where the dagger went through, slowly pulling back together before her very eyes. The area tingles, almost makes her nauseous. Hesitantly, she trails her fingers over the wound. It does not hurt, but she feels the skin mending beneath her fingertips. She yanks back, gawks in utter amazement.

Then it dawns on her what must have happened.

She is not dead. This is no afterlife; this is much worse.

She's been captured.

It's that moment that she also realizes the IV in her arm and the soundless machine beside her. She scratches the IV off rapidly, then pushes herself off the table to her feet. Her legs wobble, causing her to stumble back into the table. She grips the edge of it, her chest constricting and her eyes frantically searching. Nothing but white. The only things in the room with her is a toilet, the table, the machine and--a security camera in the right corner.

She grits her teeth, glares right into the lens.

Harry had told her about the various tests the doctor would put them through. She will not be a pawn for one of them.

So despite the intense urge to break her way out, she sits calmly back on the table and continues to stare into the camera.

She does not take her eyes off of it.

***

"She's not escaping," 1298 mutters beside the doctor, eyebrows furrowed.

The doctor's jaw is clenched, but he acts indifferent. "She will."

But 1298 doesn't think so. She hasn't looked away from the camera for nearly fifteen minutes now.

She's not stupid. Too clever for her own good, actually. She knows she's being tested, so now she's testing them. Or better yet, she's testing the doctor. Testing his patience, his temper, his character. She's waiting for him to either get fed up and storm in there, or to try something to draw her out.

She is a stone set perfectly still, and she will not move until physically forced to do so.

"Come on," the doctor grumbles under his breath, his knuckles white as they grip the edge of the counter. "She needs to be provoked."