Daughter of a Dixon {Book Two}

03: Commonwealth

When I woke up, I knew I was awake, but the world around me was still pitch dark.

I could feel my surroundings; I was lying down on something cold and hard, and the air around me was chilly. It reeked of a smell I couldn't identify in the moment, but I knew I'd smelled before. It was almost nauseating.

My head ached something awful, and as I slowly tried to bring myself into a sitting position, pain erupted from the back and made its way all around - even my forehead was burning. I winced as I grasped the back of my head with one hand and used the other to hold myself in a sitting position. I also leaned against the back of the cold wall behind me, and that's when I realized I'd been stripped into my underwear. No wonder why it was so cold.

I looked around the dark room I found myself in for any indication of the outside world, and I faintly saw light outlining what appeared to be a door, adjacent from the wall I was leaned against. I continued to look around the room, and in the farthest ceiling corner of the room, I saw a blinking, red light.

It seemed to be pointed right at me.

Then, before I could form any ideas as to what it was, the single door in the room burst open, and light flooded inside - along with two, strong-looking women. Before I could think to try and defend myself in any way, they hoisted me up by my underarms, one of them on each side of me. They roughly escorted me out of the cell room and into a large, long hallway. I was too weak to resist them, so I just stepped with them and allowed them to take me to God-knows-where.

The building we were in must've been absolutely huge - we made several left and right turns before stopping in a room that looked similar to an infirmary. The room was clean, the walls were freshly painted, and the windows were spotless, letting perfect sunlight illuminate the room. Something was different about this place, and I didn't know if it was a good or bad difference yet.

The women sat me down on a soft bed with a spotless white blanket draped over it. One of them (she had short, brown hair and wore an unusually clean yellow sweater) walked over to a cabinet, and pulled out a bottle of medication. The other (with long, blonde hair and a black, leather jacket) walked over to a drawer, and pulled out a plain, light blue sweatshirt and gray sweatpants.

The one with the bottle reached me first, and she stopped in front of me as she poured some of the clear liquid into a medicine cup. She extended it to me, and said calmly, "drink it."

"What is it?" I asked in response, furrowing my eyebrows in distrust.

"Painkiller. For your head," she explained, her face remaining expressionless.

I considered for a moment, then realized I didn't have any idea where I was, who these people were, and what had happened to me. I couldn't trust them. Silently, I shook my head, a nonverbal no, to the woman, and she sighed, walking away. "Suit yourself."

The blonde woman threw the sweatshirt and sweatpants beside me on the bed, and I didn't hesitate putting them on - clothes were something I could trust. I hoped.

"Stay here," the one with short hair said as both women walked towards the door. "We'll be back."

With that, they left, leaving me unattended and unwatched. That was different. As if they actually trusted me.

What the Hell was this place?

I stood up from the bed carefully, looking around the clean room with suspicious eyes. I stepped over to the window on the opposite side of the bed, and carefully peered outside. As soon as I got the tiniest glance of the world outside the building, my eyes widened, and I placed both my hands on the glass as I looked outside in pure shock.