By His Side

Chapter 8

Whatever Carter Logans did to me made me a spectator in my own body which might I say is like being in a coma where I can't move my body on my own will but I can hear and oddly see everything that is occurring which granted is different from a coma patient. Though I'd say its a form of torture in itself since my body is doing things that I swore to never do again.

How many I've killed in the last week under the order of Carter Logans I've lost count. How many children I've kidnapped on his orders? I don't even want to comprehend. From the crack of dawn to the hue of dusk, I'm always on the move. One day I'm in China and the next I'm in Romania. Days and time are lost to me but I know for a fact that I'm steadily growing more and more pregnant day by day.

I guess that means that even though consciously I'm not present in my body, my body knows that I am pregnant and is protecting the baby. Motherly instinct if you will. Currently, I am sitting in the six by seven feet concrete room that has been designated to me by that bitch Lillian Lane and until someone opens the door to tell me 'Master Logans' has called for me, this damned body of mine sits in place until 10 pm. 

Routine things like daily showers and teeth brushing still happen but once those are done, I'm am motionless like a lifeless doll waiting for its owner to play with it. Where the hell is Alexander Holt?! I shout, not for the first time since I've been imprisoned, in my mind. Hell, where the fuck is Shino Ootori?! That man has the patience range of a teaspoon and the impulsivity of a hormonal teenage boy when those he loves are in trouble. If anything, I expected him to come to find me much earlier than I'd dare to let on.

The door to the room opens and a bloodied man pokes his head in with a gun pressed into the side of his neck. Excitement courses through my ectoplasmic body as a bullet rips its way through the man's neck and out to impale itself into the ceramic wall. The blood that splatters onto me does not faze my body but it does turn away when the body is dumped to the ground and the killer makes an appearance.

"Alastora?" Shino Ootori asks me, grabbing me by my shoulders to force my body to face him. "Mō owaridesu. Anata wa ima anzendesu. (It is over now. You are safe now.)"

Where have you been since I went missing? I sob in relief, wanting nothing more than to wrap my arms around my mentor. My body, however, doesn't share the same sentiments as me. It does the total opposite of what I want to do. Abruptly standing, I rear my fist back and begin raining punches on Shino who is so taken aback by the assault that all he can do is defend himself from my hit by protecting his face.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING ALASTORA?!" He shouts at me as I watch helplessly as my body doesn't respond, continuing to rain punches and kicks at him. "ALASTORA!"

Grabbing Shino by the scruff of his neck, I pull him up from the floor. My arm goes around his neck in a chokehold and the man can only struggle to get out of my grip which has grown considerably since I was...' transformed'.

"Shit! Give me a sedative," Someone instructs from behind me and my body is about to turn around to attack that person but whoever it is must have had the same training as I did since the person manages to stick a needle in me and push in the Ativan which makes my body slip into unconsciousness.

Shino coughs heavily, drawing in shaky breaths as others come rushing to his aid asking him questions and giving him information. From what I gather, Alexander has Carter Logans beaten and unconscious for transport to the Cosa Nostra mansion in the south of Italy and that the men of the Sangue Nero syndicate have either surrendered, converted or died.

"Tell that boy that there's something wrong with his wife and that we need to find out what's been done to her," Shino tells whoever it is that is giving him the report. "If he can't get it out of his deranged ex-wife then wake the piece of shit that took Alastora. He has the honour of being tortured by me."

If Shino is doing the dirty work himself, it must mean he's thoroughly pissed at Carter Logans, I note sleepily as the Ativan works its magic on me. Hopefully...they can...return...my body...to...me...

*******************************************

In the end, the doctors on staff for the Cosa Nostra syndicate have decided that it's for everyone's as well as my own's safety that I am put in a medically induced coma to prevent the multitude of things I've done to not repeat themselves. Among those things, I've killed two guards, nearly made it out of the estate grounds and I also held someone's wife at gunpoint as insurance to getaway.

Why is my body trying to getaway? Well, previously to the medical ward I am currently in I was placed in a bedroom that had a crawl space that was connected to the torture rooms. At one point, Carter Logans had yelled quote 'Get out!' to someone and my body took that as an order.

Alexander has been by to see me at least once every day since they raided Carter Logans's base of operation. Some days, he's hopeful. Telling me things that have been going on, even the weather or what milestones Danny has hit. Other days, he's so stressed that I'm nowhere closer to waking up that he just holds my hand and cries.

"Today is supposed to be our wedding day, Janetta," Alexander tells me, holding my hand. "The skies are clear and the sun isn't that strong today. It's been well over six months now since we've met."

How time and flown...Would you believe me if I told you that when we first met that I didn't want to have anything to do with you? I tell him teasingly, wishing I could say it. Thankfully, I came around.

"I swear the doctors have better find a cure for you soon, Danny's babbling is getting annoying to me," He continues, not hearing me. "I swear, you might even miss his first words if they don't hurry up."

I'll kill Logans myself if I miss Danny's first words, I hiss irritatedly in response. I've already missed Danny sitting up on his own, rolling and scooting around, supporting himself to stand and now I'm missing him babbling. That's too much already and if you throw in his first words, death would be merciful to Logans once I'm through with him.

"Sir, this may be it," a voice that I recognise to be a man called Doctor Peyton Manning informs Alexander cautiously.

Supposedly, whatever cocktail of drugs that Carter Logans had injected into me and subsequently electrocuted to activate is known in the black market as Flakka, a synthetic cathinone which produces a catatonic-like state in some people but when electrocuted through the brain causes either death or, in my case, total obedience to the first voice I hear after losing consciousness due to the high voltage used.

The doctors and chemists have worked relentlessly to provide me with a cure to give my body back to me. Sixteen of their tests have all failed so far, this antidote that Doctor Manning has is probably going to fail too. Not that the failed drugs have endangered by life before, of course not, I think to myself sarcastically. Not that I haven't already gone into heart failure twice now.

Being pregnant does not make things easier for the medical team either. I did get an earful from both Alexander and Shino when the doctors revealed that I am three months pregnant and that certain drugs couldn't be used on me and thus making the antidote 'pregnancy-safe' though they did warn the two men that there may be adverse effects in the trial and error process that may harm the baby. Ladies and gentlemen, HEART FAILURE!

"I hope it is, Peyton," Alexander says despondently, letting go of my hand to let the doctor do his job. 

Unprecedented to me, the same little needle-like feeling spreads from my hand to my arm to my neck and throughout my body, the process even more painful than when I was forcibly injected with it. Feeling my body arch off of the bed, I hear Doctor Manning call for assistance as I begin to seize.

Then out of nowhere, I have the urge to open my eyes and I manage to do so. The world around me is a blur and the rest of my body aside from my eyes is still seizing. I continue to seize for nearly two hours before I finally regain control of my entire body and am far from exhausted by the end of things.

"Janetta?" Alexander calls to me, grasping my freezing cold hand in between his warm ones. "Sweetheart, do you know who I am?"

Smiling at him tiredly, I blink once to let him know that I know who he is. I believe this antidote worked.