Beasthood

~Chapter 9 -Refuse~ Part 2

The Next Day...

Tuesday May 10th, 5:50 p.m. -Surveillance Room

 Jaz hadn’t taken her iron pills for three days. She hadn’t eaten anything either.

She could barely sit up in bed. The exhaustion had gone from mild to severe and she started to regret not eating. Even if it was tainted with drugs, she wouldn’t have to die a horrible death. What if I have a heart attack? She shivered at the thought.

Her fever had gone but it had left her feeling frail. She’d have recovered from it quicker if she wasn’t so reliant on medication to get through the day.

I don’t want to die.But she didn’t want to be someone’s pet either.

She started to wonder if they even knew she was anaemic. Had they figured it out yet? All they have to do is look in my handbag. She cursed to herself. Why didn’t I grab it before I ran? Stupid, stupid.

The night before at around the same time, she had woken up to the sound of a tray scraping on the floor. She’d sprung up in alarm from her lying position on the bed only to lock eyes with the startled face of a young man, barely eighteen.

He watched her cautiously without blinking, as if trying to gauge what she would do.

Evenshe was shocked by her reaction when she jumped from the bed and pounced on him. She managed to claw his pretty cheek with her nails before he pushed her back, hurled himself out the room and slammed the door shut with his foot. The sound of a lock bolting echoed through the thick door before all was silent.

She sat, slumped against the wall in an awkward position panting heavily with adrenaline. The shock at her primal reaction and the rage she had felt, froze her in place. The fury simmered beneath her skin; she could feel it. As her breathing slowed and evened out, the rage faded away. But she knew it was waiting.

She didn’t catch the boy again, they made sure of that. But the food still came at regular intervals. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. When she didn’t eat the first meal, it was removed and replaced by the second, then the second by the third. Uneaten. She didn’t eat any of them.

They had left her an early dinner on the floor when she was asleep- which seemed to be most of the time now. She barely woke up to look at it before rolling over and drifting back to sleep again.

*

Driver had slept in the Surveillance Room the night before, after Jaz had attacked the food bringer. The Surveillance Room was right across the hall from his room, which was next to hers, separated by the thick oak door she’d kicked the tray at the first day. He wished she’d react like that again. He even wished she’d attack someone again. It would show she had some strength left in her. Today, she had barely moved an inch.

Enough was enough.

Driver jumped up from his chair and grunted, “I’m not gonna sit around any longer and wait for her to die. She’ll get too weak. Her body will cripple if she Changes now.”

“She won’t,” Maria argued.

“What makes you so sure?”

The old woman glared at him.

There were others in the room. They were watching the two discreetly. Maria and Driver's bickering was their only entertainment during the long, dull hours of watching others living their lives in the village.