FLOOD

The Procedure

They came for me that afternoon. There was no sign of Cain this time. It was a couple of black-clad thugs, people I’d never seen before. When I heard the door creak open I stiffened, backing into the corner of the plastic cage.

Two fuzzy black figures approached. I wanted to press myself even further into the corner, but my back was already flat against the wall. There was a sharp click and then the side of the cage slid silently open, revealing the two men who’d come for me.

They were both tall, dressed in the same black t-shirt and jeans that Cain always wore. Neither of them were Cain though, and I felt my stomach sink. He’d obviously passed this part of the job onto someone else, but what did that mean? 

The man on the left gave me a wide, nasty looking grin and combed thick fingers through thinning blonde hair. “Time to go, sweetheart.”

His teeth were crooked. I don’t know why that detail stuck out to me in that moment, but it was what I thought as he leaned in and reached for me. I jammed my back against the plastic, instinctively leaning away from him. It was no good though, the man with the crooked teeth caught my shoulder and yanked me forward, dragging me towards him. My fingers squeaked against the surface of the plastic as I tried to grab at it, to hold on to something that wasn’t there. The guy tightened his grip, wrenching my shoulder in its socket, and his partner grunted at him in annoyance.

“Careful, doc will kill you if you damage her before the operation.”

Operation. The word sent a bolt of terror through me, and I struggled harder, kicking both feet at them.

“God, I can see why Cain begged off on this one.” The man lurched forward and hooked one arm around my neck, shocking me, nearly cutting off my air. My hands flew to my throat, trying to tug his arm away in order to breath. He used this distraction to drag me the rest of the way out of the cage, looping a clothe bag over my hands even as ice began to form at my fingertips. My feet didn’t even touch the ground before he hoisted me up and slung me over one shoulder. He’d done this before.

It felt like he’d corned me and then manipulated me into doing what he wanted, like a caged animal. Rage made me lash out, beating my fists against his back, screaming a string of profanities that would have horrified my mother.

Of course, they were Jotun insults, and neither man seemed to be that insulted. In fact, the one with crooked teeth laughed as he continued down the hall. “This one’s got a dirty mouth.”

“She won’t be feeling quite so lively after tonight.”

What did that mean? I tried to claw at his back through the thin t-shirt he was wearing, but he shrugged his shoulder violently, jostling me. “Stop that.”

His tone was so threatening that I froze, instead taking a moment to lift my head and look around, trying to get my bearings. I needed to memorize my surroundings in case I was able to get free. The second guy was walking behind me, and for a second we made eye contact. He leered at me, and my stomach turned. Why was he looking at me that way?

Dropping my eyes, I darted a quick look at my surroundings. We were moving down a long, bright corridor, lit with electric lights overhead that flickered and hummed. I recognized it as the same corridor Cain had dragged me down, but then again…maybe all the corridors looked the same. Maybe we were going somewhere different this time.

We turned a corner and then stopped, and I tried to twist around on his shoulder as the other guy moved past us. A squeak of door hinges, and we entered a room off the corridor. This one looked almost the same as the last one had, same stainless steel surgical tables, same glaring white lamps and sterilized, shiny tools laid out on the counters.