Unintended Side Effects

Chapter Four

Light.

That was the first thing that Adri sees when she opens her eyes. A bright fluorescent bulb shines down on her face, so much so that it temporarily blinds her. Even though it was uncomfortable, it was her only source of warmth.

That was the second thing: the temperature. It was arctic cold, like sleeping in a meat locker with only a swimsuit. She looked down to see she was wearing a thin hospital gown and no shoes. She also noticed that there were thick leather restraints strapping her to a metal morgue table.

She looked around the dark room, noticing that she was the only one. Another light was illuminating from under a door to her left.

Not even a minute later, the door opens to reveal two shadowed figures. One was a woman in scrubs and the other was a man in a lab coat and a surgical mask with glasses. As the man walks towards her, she noticed the woman was wheeling a tray of surgical equipment.

"Well, well, well. Look who it is..." The doctor spoke in a deep, raspy voice that made Adri's hair stand on her neck. She tried to move away from him, but the restraints kept her from doing so.

"It seems Dominique's daughter decided to pay us a visit." Adri's eyes widened. Of course, this was about money, when wouldn't it be?

"Oh no, my dear," the doctor corrected, seeming to read her mind, "we don't want money." Then why would you kidnap a celebrity's daughter if money isn't what you want? Adri's thoughts began to quicken as the nurse rolled the table to the doctor.

"Doctor," the nurse spoke finally, "the instruments are ready." The doctor chuckled in his raspy tone.

"Excellent." The nurse placed an oxygen mask over Adri's nose and mouth. She began to fade into unconsciousness as the doctor says;

"Let's begin."
...

Kieran had no idea what happened. He remembered being driven home with Ayita with him. They had ended up too far North and was gassed by his chauffeur.

Now he was here, wrists and ankles bound by leather restraints onto a metal table. He was wearing a thin hospital gown with nothing covering his feet, causing the leather restraints to scar his ankles. 

A fluorescent bulb hung over him and the table he was strapped to. The door, illuminated by the light pooling under it, was to his direct right. It swung open to reveal three figures. Two burly men in nurse scrubs walked behind a short man in a lab coat and surgical mask. The two nurses, Kieran guess they were nurses, walked on either side of him while the doctor, again an assumption, stopped directly in front of him. 

"Hey," Kieran struggled out, "who are you? Where am I?" The doctor in front of him ignored him as he checked the leather restraints to the table. 

The nurse to his left wheeled a table topped with surgical equipment. Oh my god, he thought, they're going to take my organs. The nurse to the right handed the doctor what looked like a syringe with clear liquid. It was at this point that Kieran regained some movement and began to struggle again to no avail. The doctor filled Kieran's bloodstream with the liquid and he felt himself go limp. The metal table began to move as he was wheeled out of the room. The light of the bright hallway blinded him as he fell into unconsciousness.

...

Cristiano never expected to be jumped in broad daylight, especially by those who weren't robbers. 

If only he had waited for Ayita to finish her project instead of leaving her at school like an idiot. Now, he would never see her again. Whatever happened to Zola? SHe was with him walking home, but when he woke up she was gone.

Cristiano woke up in a dark room illuminated by a single fluorescent light above him. After he woke up, two figures in nurse scrubs, one male and one female, walked into his room and wheeled the table he was strapped to down a brightly lit hallway. After what seemed like an eternity, they finally wheeled him into another room. This room, unlike his last room, was similar to an operating room but with machines that he didn't recognize. 

The sound of wheels locking snaps Cristiano out of his daze. As the male nurse finished locking the wheels, the female nurse flips a switch on the large machine to his left to start it. She then places a mask over his mouth and nose, pumping a gas that smells like anesthesia into his lungs. Immediately, his vision began to become blurry but he can still see basic shapes.

The doctor was currently to his right, cleaning a patch of skin on Cristiano's left bicep. Cris then felt a sharp pain explode along his arm, like spare shrapnel tearing through his veins. He raised his head as much as he could to see that the doctor was extracting blood through a syringe. How did it feel so painful if it was just a syringe? As the doctor pulled it away, Cris screamed as he felt pieces of his skin tear away.  As his vision recovered from the pain, he saw that the syringe had tiny sharp barbs on the needle. 

The doctor plucked the needle off the syringe and transferred the blood into a vial. He then closed the vial with a stopper and slid it into a cooler with room for eight. Cris could see that two were already filled with vials as the doctor added his to the collection. If there were other vials, that means he wasn't alone!

His head began to spin with the loss of blood from his body. He didn't even notice the words that the doctor said to him as he walked away.

"I'll be back shortly, so don't run off~." As the doctor and the two nurses walked out of the door behind him, he slipped into the darkness...