Three Hearts Left Intact

Chapter 79: Fever

After a few hours of listening to Dr. Todd's tortuous lectures about total obedience and compliance Kaila was finally starting to feel the affects of not eating. Her head was already throbbing throughout the entire session making it extremely difficult for her to focus on anything, but now with an empty stomach it only intensified.

Dr. Todd went on and on about what it meant to obey and explained the psychological background to it which only made Kaila doze off more. Her head was beginning to feel heavy as did her eyelids. 'Why now...' she tried fighting her way through the pain. 'Even the chamber didn't make my head hurt this bad.'

Another hour passed as the doctor finished up his speech before getting down in front of Kaila who looked lifeless with her back leaned against the wall sitting on the floor. "Get up, its time to put all of that into action now." He insisted putting his hands underneath her arms trying to lift her up.

"Uh uh" she mumbled too far out of it to find the right words. Each little movement her body made only worsened the throbbing pain beating in her head.

"Kaila, I just spent the last three hours going over what I expect to see from you. For a second I actually believed you were going to listen. After all you didn't talk when you weren't spoken to, you stayed looking at me the entire time, and you weren't trying to get away. I thought you had actually taken what I said to heart and accepted your current situation. What happened?" He clicked his tongue standing the young girl up completely lost to the fact why Kaila was responding the way she was.

To no surprise Kaila didn't respond. Instead she had a blank stare towards the ground. He sighed going through several papers on his clipboard before writing down some notes on one of them. Kaila's head was getting foggy. The only pieces of information she could pick out from Dr. Todd's speech was that she wasn't living up to his expectations.

So far she was on the right track with her plan. Even through the pain she cracked a small smile letting her simple scheme continue on. But she could feel her stomach gurgling as it beg her for food. Despite that she insisted it was better this way. The lack of food she had been having ever since she ran away from Lauren and ended up in the chambers was starting to become normal. Her body still craved the taste of food, but her mind was prepared to not receive any.

"Alright look at me." Dr. Todd asked as he stood directly in front of Kaila. However her eyes darted all over the room still feeling the affects of her migraine affecting her focus. "Kaila." He sternly said trying to catch her attention. When that didn't work he snapped his fingers right in front of her nose with curious eyes.

Instead of going cross eyed as he imagined, the small girl merely blinked before continuing her scattered pattern. Looking closer at the girl, he realized her fair skin was even paler than normal. Her nose and eyes were both slightly red and her cheeks were flustered.

Grabbing a thermometer from out of his lab coat, he put it up to Kaila's forehead. "Forty degrees Celsius." His eyes shot wide. "You've got to be joking. Please tell me this isn't what I think it is." He slammed the tool back into his pocket before grabbing a small light.

Seeing Kaila's legs start to sway in place he gently sat her down before she collapsed all together. Grabbing hold of her head he felt just how hot she was. Shining the light he realized her eyes were still responding to the stimuli as they should. He breathed out in relief, "good, at least the gas didn't leave any lingering affects like I thought. Seems like you've just got a fever, not any brain or optic damage."

Putting his light away the doctor laid Kaila down on the ground. "You're really testing my patience here Kaila. If you weren't feeling well you should have said something, how am I suppose to be training you when you can't even stand up on your own!" He growled in frustration leaving the cage to retrieve supplies.

Kaila noticed the room had gone silent since the door was thankfully shut quietly, attempting to look around the room she noticed that indeed she was all alone. Finally letting all her emotions come to light with her newfound privacy the pain became more uncomfortable.

"Ow..." she whined loudly finally not having anyone around to hear her. She felt tears slip through her eyes feeling like she was dying.

Her breathing became erratic and her heart rate increased. Each breathe she took was shallow only letting small bits of air in as she took deep exhales.

There was sweat forming at the tip of her hairline. Kaila curled up into a ball wiping away the droplets from her face. Her whole body was crumbling, she just wanted to feel better. Her mind was becoming too consumed by the overwhelming feeling of dread she didn't care about whether or not she listen to Todd.

Right now she needed to feel better, at least then she could properly think of a way out of this situation. Letting minutes pass by she heard the door reopen followed by a few footsteps approaching her.

Her eyes were shut, the light he had shown into them had irritated them. Feeling something familiar wipe against her lips, she desperately opened up letting the tip of a bottle in. When nothing started flowing, instinctively she sucked on it surprised when a nice cool liquid started flowing down her dry aching throat.

Opening up her eyes slowly, letting them adjust to the light, she was even more shocked to find Lauren holding a sipping cup up to her lips with no doctor in sight. "Hey there." Her voice was almost soothing.

Kaila whined trying to get up and move away from the girl sitting down besides her before she felt a secure hand on her back. With symmetrical timing in between Lauren began to pat her back softly. "Don't worry Kay, just relax for a minute. Finish your juice."

"N-no" she murmured from behind the sippy cup trying to push away, but her weak body was nothing compared to the strength Lauren had as she moved the little girl to sit in her lap. Cradling Kaila in her arms, Lauren held the cup in place.

Lauren could feel how hot Kaila's body was and wiped away some of her sweat with a cold cloth. The small girl in her lap whined wanting the cloth off her head as she waved her arms trying to remove it. "Stop fighting it. You need to get better. Just keep drinking your juice please."

Lauren's tone was firm and final. Deciding she wasn't in the right state of mind or well being, Kaila gave in dropping her arms to her sides. Letting Lauren help her finish the juice with medicine hidden in it before hand feeding Kaila a plateful of delicious food.
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Let me know what you think. Thanks Lexx signing off