He Owns Me II

Chapter 6

Every step became more and more painful as the searing pain in his ankle seemed to get hotter. Why wasn't he healing?

"Something's wrong," Cloud said as he leaned against the wall to catch his breath. He pressed his back against the wall and slid down it slowly until he sat on the cool concrete. The hallway was cool, but he was sweating, and his skin was starting to burn up. He put his head on the concrete and felt it throbbing. What was happening to his body? He vaguely heard Alexis talking and tried to look in her direction. Her face was warped, and her voice distorted as if she was talking through a fan. Cloud's mouth began to get dry and it became more and more difficult to breathe as the seconds turned into minutes and hours, or so it felt to him. He could barely hear when Alexis was calling a couple guards over to help. He didn't feel when they hoisted him onto their shoulders. All he knew was after a while everything faded to black.

Everything came back in a blur of color. Everything was still distorted and the light shining in his face didn't help either. He groaned loudly and tried to roll over before his shoulder was pressed back into whatever surface he was on. It felt soft, almost comfortable, it was probably a bed. He tried to get up again but the hands that held him down were strong. He growled weakly and tried to roll over again and managed to get his shoulder up a little before it was pressed into the bed again. His growl got deeper, and he clenched his jaw. He threw his shoulder up with all the energy he had left and managed to get a few inches off the bed before his shoulder was slammed down again. He felt a stronger hand grip his shoulder and felt a sharp pinch in his shoulder, like a pinprick. He immediately recognized the feeling of injection and started to panic. The warmth from the syringe started to radiate from his shoulder, down his arm and washing over his chest, slowly crawling up his throat and into his head. He felt everything fading again but this time, his vision cleared for just a second before he passed out again and he caught a glimpse of his surroundings; white, every wall and his bed was surrounded by half a dozen people wearing doctor's uniforms.

When he came to again, he looked around and saw no one in the blinding white room. He tried to rub his aching head but found that his hands had been restrained to the bed with thick leather straps. He tried to turn his wrist over in the strap and saw that there was an IV tube running from his wrist to a bag of water and some other fluid that looked like water but wasn't as clear. He groaned and sighed.

"I thought we were over this whole restraining shit," Cloud cursed and sighed again. "And what the hell is this you're pumping into me?" No one answered. "Hello?" He called out and no answer came again. He tried calling out a few more time before a perfect square of the wall swung open like a door and the people in the doctor's uniforms came into the room and surrounded the table. Two more people in uniforms rolled a trolley into the room with doctor utensils; syringes, scissors, scalpels, masks gloves etc. One doctor turned to Cloud and was the only one to speak.

"Please remain calm, we aren't here to do anything major, we're only here to check on a surgery we previously did, just ensuring all the residue and dead flesh was removed." Cloud stared at the doctor dumbfounded before he processed what he heard.

"Wait, 'previously done'? What surgery did you do? What did you remove?"

"Apparently, someone's claw broke off in your ankle at training yesterday and infection started rapidly, that was probably the fever and vertigo you were experiencing."

"But, I don't even feel any pain, what kind of surgery is painless?"

"Oh, the surgery was done quite a while ago. If you were still feeling pain it would be concerning."

"'A while'? How long is a while?"

"Approximately 2 weeks."