𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘿𝙀𝙑𝙄𝙇'𝙎 𝘼𝘿𝙑𝙊𝘾𝘼𝙏𝙀 • 𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙫𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧

TWENTY-TWO

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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Untethered
  

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"You'll be fine, you know," Noa assured me as we stood at my father's fresh grave.

"I feel like I'm hurtling through space without a tether," I replied numbly. "Have I just lost my tether?" Though my father wasn't the kindest or most loving, or even a decent person, having him around put some structure in my life.

"Maybe you have," Noa said with a shrug. "But you'll be fine."

"How can you say that?" I asked, turning to look up at him. "How could you know that?"

I shot up, breathing heavily, before noticing that I was in bed. But not my bed.

The room was mostly white, and I could hear whirring and incessant beeps. Looking around and slowly gaining more consciousness, I realized I was in a medical room. Immediately, I was concerned, wondering what could have brought me here. Was I dying?

Then it hit me.

"No, General. I'm sorry. Noa's dead."

"No," I mumbled, looking around the room before raising my voice. "No!"

It was then that I felt the restraints. Looking down, I saw that my wrists were tied to the bed, and moving my ankles let me know that my feet were tied down, too. I was quickly washed in fear, my chest heaving as I began to panic.

"Please, help!" I all but screamed, tears pricking my eyes. Was this their plan all along? Had they murdered Noa? Was I next?

Just then, the door burst open, and in walked a man in a white coat. When he noticed my manic state, he held his hands up in surrender and walked closer. "It's okay, General, you're safe."

"Let me go!" I yelled, thrashing against my restraints but failing to loosen them. "Please, just let me go!"

"Calm down, General Damri," He said, keeping his distance. "My name is Doctor Fyko, and-"

"Eat shit!" I cut him off, wild tears rushing down my cheeks. "Untie me, now!"

Fyko sighed before pulling out a comm device and pressing a red button on the side. He turned to the side and muttered into it, "Room 703. We have a Code 17."

His cryptic words only made me sob harder as I shook my head. "Please don't do this, please don't kill me, please just let me go."

"I'm not here to hurt you," He insisted, slowly coming closer to me.

"I'm a General," I stated, my voice cracking. "And you're just a fucking doctor. I have more power than you here, so let me go."

"I'm sorry, but I can't do that," Fyko said, making me thrash as hard as I could, which wasn't very hard under the restraints.

"Please," I whined weakly, utterly broken. "I can't be here. I need Noa. Please."

Suddenly, the door opened again, and this time in walked two nurses. I let out a scream when I realized they were rushing right over to me, one of them holding an injection with a clear liquid inside.

"No!" I bellowed, moving my body as much as I could to prevent him from being able to find a vein. "Get away from me!"

Fyko and the other nurse held me down tightly, allowing the man with the needle to calmly find a vein in my arm, ignore my begging for him to stop, and inject the liquid into me.