Time Sensitive Target

Part 6 - Fever

Paige's ribs cracked as her body upheaved itself against her will. Her eyelids peeled themselves apart as her arms began to quiver; her bones humming restlessly as the sensation spread through the length of her body until every part of her was shaking desperately.

"Rise and shine." She heard the words echo through the basement and could make out her captor's figure to her left. She watched as his arm lunged down to Jas's head and scooped up a mass of tangled, matted blonde hair. Fingers laced against her scalp, he dragged her frail and battered body across the floor until he reached Paige, then he released his grip and Jas dropped to the ground with relief. She was wailing now, any words completely incoherent. She hadn't spoken for the past day, only muffled sobs and this desperate cry had passed her lips. Paige was sure she would die if they tortured her any more; their situation suddenly felt more perilous than ever. 

She stayed silent- she had learned this. Stay silent, don't move, don't look at anyone. She fixed her blurry vision to the blood stained floor, she didn't even listen as Bazish talked. Beyond the pain she'd grown accustomed to, a fuzzy uneasy feeling tingled in her fingertips. Both she and Jasmin were being kept conscious by adrenaline, and each time she was brought back to hell the feeling got a little worse; the throbbing in her head pounded harder and the prickling in her skin stung more. She was slumped rigidly still as the buzz of electricity shot through her veins, a gasp jumped in her throat and pins and needles peppered her spine. At least she could breathe now, at some point she'd come around to find her jaw realigned and some relief in easier breaths. A sharp sting licked her thigh and she glanced down. Fresh blood... Paige was confused. Something kicked her leg with force, and she stifled a groan and drew her eyes up.

"Ignore me one more time and you can watch as every man here rapes your friend!" Bazish's voice echoed off the walls furiously and Paige looked up obediently with a start. Bazish had the laptop and camera set up again, the small lens aimed squarely at her.

"You want to say hello to your people? Look, these ones are English. Say hello," he picked the laptop off the table it had rested on and shone it in Paige's face. The light from the screen glared at her dazzlingly and she winced back, harsh blazes of light creating rings in her already blurry and confused vision.

"Sit up, come on," Bazish hit her around the back of the head impatiently, grabbed her under the arm when she didn't immediately respond and hoisted her up until she was upright against the concrete wall. He rested the laptop on her thighs, the warm air shooting out from the fan burning the fresh wound there. He crouched down beside Paige, pointing the small camera towards her. "Don't be fucking rude, say hello!"

Paige tried to get the figures on the screen to make sense. Why did everything feel so... difficult? Everything felt a little too far away, a little too hard to reach, a little too blurry to focus on. She frowned deeply as she tried to fix her eyes.

"-home..."

Any image she saw was swimming, like water was rippling across her retinas. Some figures were starting to come in to focus. People, lots of people in a large room. Sitting at a large table. That was all she could manage.

"- drugged them?!"

A woman. Had she heard a woman's voice? Where would she hear a woman's voice from in here? She was still in the basement, wasn't she? Something burned uncomfortably on her thigh. That was sore, what was that? She dragged her eyes open and a piercing glare hit back. She gave up and let herself succumb to the dark. She felt warm all over, comfortably so everywhere except the back of her neck which prickled with heat. Sweat dripped down her spine and off the tip of her nose. She was inexplicably hot now, like somebody was rolling a thousand flames across her skin. She felt like she was drifting off in a boiling sea...