The Polaroid Girls

Chapter 27

A/N: Hello my lovelies and happy Tuesday! Buckle up now--things are about to reveal themselves. Oh, and this is a long chapter so you know, get some popcorn while you're buckling in.

Question of the week: What is your favorite snack?

Cheez-itz, hummus and pretzels, kettle corn, andddd cheese sticks. A little bit of healthier--a little bit of salty, saturated goodness. Can't complain. What about you guys, what makes your taste buds sing?

As always, thank you so much for reading every week and thank you SO much for continuing to support my writing. I love and appreciate you guys greatly and can't thank you enough. Don't forget to vote, comment, follow, and share to show your love and share the love with others! c: And as always--I hope you have a fantastic week ahead and wish you much happy reading! (っ◔◡◔)っ

Shortly after waking up at the clinic, Dr. Wallace returned to Laina's room. Her vision was slow and blurry and her senses dulled as her eyes followed him. He acknowledged her once before he ran more tests, stuck her with more needles, tapped and tested different parts of her limbs, and then finally removed her I.V. She realized part way through all of this that Ethan was there with her now instead of Royce. When had he left? He smiled down at her tightly and squeezed her hand in his, his grip almost painful. But Dr. Wallace didn't notice as he bustled around her bed.

She could do nothing as the tests were done. Nothing against Ethan's cold grip. Nothing in retaliation of what had been done to her before. She couldn't move as her limbs, her joints, her muscles slowly, so slowly, started to come back to life. She could say nothing as her tongue sat leaden in her mouth. She was helpless yet again and that infuriated her more than any of the doctor's pokes and prods.

After what felt like hours, Dr. Wallace gave Ethan the okay to bring her back home. As much as she detested this room that she had been forced and violated in, she didn't want to leave, not with him. She didn't want to be alone with Ethan, not after everything she had found out, everything that still remained jumbled in her head.

But she could do nothing about it as Ethan and the doctor helped her into a wheelchair, Ethan pushed her down the hall and out the front door, and then they both hoisted her up in Dr. Wallace's van. She tried to protest as they crept closer and closer to the cabin. Her mind screeched and yelled for them to stop, to listen. But her tongue refused to cooperate.

She gurgled out some mumbled nonsense through parted lips but the doctor either didn't hear her or ignored her. Ethan however, glanced back over his shoulder from the passenger's seat and tilted his head in a perfectly innocent way.

"We're almost there, Laina. Then you can rest some more."

His voice was low and smooth like molasses but instead of finding it sweet and homely, the thick syrup suffocated her, drowning her, choking her. Her eyes widened a fraction of an inch, but her body stayed limp, unresponsive.

No--no. I don't want to go with him, she thought wildly. Her eyes flickered to Dr. Wallace, begging him to look up into his mirror, to see her fear, to stop driving, to take her back to the clinic, to the police station, to Josie's, Bailey's--anywhere but their house.

But he didn't and within two minutes he pulled into their driveway and stopped just outside the house.

No--no, no, no, no--

Dr. Wallace slid the back door open and with Ethan's help, they lifted the wheelchair out of the back and Ethan pushed her inside. He stopped her a few feet inside the door and behind her back she heard him and Dr. Wallace speak while shuffling some kind of fabric around.