Hooked On A Feeling by Blue Swede woke me up.
White light burned behind my eyelids. I wanted to open my eyes, wanted to see where the music was coming from. At first, it annoyed me. After a few seconds, I found the music relaxing, almost carefree and untroubled. The light, however, was something I didn't know if I could deal with. Even with my eyes closed, it threatened to give me a headache.
When you hold me
In your arms so tight
You let me know
Everything's all right
I'm hooked on a feeling
I'm high on believing
That you're in love with me
A man was singing along with the music, humming, beating on something hard to match the drums in the song. The drums and the man's beating were like thunder in my ears, bringing me back, remembering that Scott had shot me twice in the leg and three times with a stun gun. And I remembered I called Audi, remembered that he was coming, remembered that Scott said they'd be ready for whoever was coming to rescue me. Rescue all of us.
Lips as sweet as candy
Its taste is on my mind
Girl, you got me thirsty
For another cup of wine
I was paying attention to the music when I heard footsteps approach me, which made me open my eyes. The bright fluorescent bulbs that hung over me were the first thing I saw, which meant I was on a bed. Or in a chair.
"Wakey, wakey, you little bitch," Scott said to me. He was the one who was beside me now. When I heard him pull apart Velcro, I forced my eyes open again.
Squinting, I saw him beside me. His tall frame was bent down to reach me. He had a white cuff in his hands, a restraint, getting ready to do something with it. Another cuff was between his knees, as his hands were full with the first restraint.
"You're the first one who's come here that has needed extra attention," he told me as he hooked the first restraint around my wrist. Why couldn't I move? "It's alright, though," he told me. "We'll get you fixed up again. Might need a couple of more Lethe sessions, but you'll be an asset to us in the long run."
Realizing I was holding my breath, I exhaled. "Lethe?" I asked. My voice was hoarse and weak, but energy was coming back to me with every passing second. If he just kept me conscious for a few more minutes...
"Waters of Lethe," Scott told me as he moved around me to fasten the other restraint. I really hoped he didn't think these Velcro things would hold me down. Then again, I hope he did.
I looked from him to what was in front of me. I was laid back in one of the dentist chairs they had in the brain monitoring room while people worked around me. Someone else was in the other chair that was ten feet away from me, but I couldn't tell who it was.
Scott continued to sing. "I'm hooked on a feeling. I'm high on believing... That you're in love with me..."
People around me were talking amongst themselves, to each other, about me and the other person who was strapped to the other chair in the room. I tried focusing on them instead of Scott's annoying, wrong singing.
Someone was giving directions to another person regarding the person in the other chair. "Have an anxiolytic ready for when he wakes up. He's questionable."
"Are we doing the girl or the guy first?" someone asked.
It wasn't until Scott answered that I realized the person was talking to him. "I want to do the guy first. Let's let El watch us work our magic. Plus," he pondered, "I don't think she'll want to miss it."
I sighed and weakly attempted to pull against the restraints with no luck of pulling them off.
"Ah, ah, ah," Scott scolded, wagging a finger at me after he'd fastened the second restraint. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he warned. He didn't wait for me to curse at him or spit in his face or try to get loose again. He left me and pulled up a black rolling chair. He positioned it beside my hip and left me again, walking to the counter twenty feet in front of me to turn off the stereo that played the music.
"Everybody!" Scott called, leaning his butt against the counter so he had the whole room in his view. The people in lab coats stopped at once, looking at him, waiting for orders. His only order: "Leave."
All but a few filed out of the room, keeping their distance from me as they walked three feet around my chair to reach the exit.
"Bastards," I said, raising my head up but getting dizzy and having to lay it back down again.
Scott crossed his arms and chuckled to himself. He looked at his feet, not meeting my eyes. "Look to your right, if you would, El—"
The person in the chair groaned before Scott got all of his words out, and I instantly knew who it was.
I'd heard the groan several times before; when he was annoyed, when he would wake up, when he stretched before a run.
Jai was semi-unconscious in the chair. He wiggled around, halfheartedly pulling against the restraints. He was groggy, but he, too, was coming out of whatever they'd given both of us. If they didn't give us another dose of whatever it was or another stun, they'd be sorry. I didn't think either Jai or I would mind that, but I knew none of these people were that stupid.
"Let her go..." Jai mumbled. He looked like he didn't quite like the bright lights either. His eyes were squeezed tightly shut.
"No," I objected. "Let him go. Keep me."
"No!" Jai said with a little more force. A few more minutes for both of us and Scott and the few people who remained in the room wouldn't be alive. Just a few more minutes...
I tugged against the restraints, testing my strength. It wasn't quite there yet. "Scott, I swear—"
"El, shut up," Jai mumbled. I sucked in an annoyed breath.
Scott was enjoying our back and forth, evident by the smirk he wore on his face.
"We'll just keep remembering, Scott. Look at us. Look at me. I'll evolve. Every time I remember what you're doing to me and the others who are here, the more I'm going to want to kill you. It doesn't matter if—"
"El," Jai warned.
Scott only raised his eyebrows, only half interested in my threats. It was clear to him that I wasn't a threat at all.
"—you keep wiping my memories. They'll find their way back to me and it won't become a want anymore, killing you. It'll become a need."
"What she means to say is—"
"Jai! Stop!" I yelled. Only a few more minutes... I turned my attention back to Scott. "I will kill you."
Scott only smiled his charming, sweet smile that he'd used on everyone ever since I'd met him. Then he turned to one of the fools in a white lab coat and nodded at me. "Give her something to calm her down. She'll need to be calm to listen."
"Listen to what?" I asked as his assistant quickly got to work on drawing up some kind of medicine in a five milliliter syringe. Scott uncrossed his arms and walked easily to me, sitting in the chair at my thighs.
Scott tilted his head. "Why, the explanation to all of this, of course."
Something I'd just noticed was that I was in a hospital gown. I looked away from Scott and back at Jai to see if he were in a gown also. He wasn't. He was wearing his normal pair of jeans, but that was it. His shirt and shoes had been pulled off of him. Besides the white bandage over the rib that used to hide the tracking device, I noticed a few scars that I hadn't noticed before. They hadn't always been there, had they?
The scars were so neat that they could have only came from a scalpel. Had I missed them when I ran my hands over his torso so many months ago, the countless times I'd seen him without a shirt on? There was no way I could have missed them.
Jai tilted his head over to Scott and I and finally opened his eyes. When he opened them, they met mine. I tried shooting him an angry look, one that told him to back off, that he wasn't the one who had been here for over a month, wasn't the one who knew the people like us who were in here. I wanted to tell him this wasn't his fight, but it was. I couldn't deny that fact, and he wouldn't let me.
And I failed in shooting him an angry look. When I saw the concern in his eyes, I melted. The anger I had towards Jai's worry for me went away, replaced with a feeling of full responsibility to get him out of here first.
I broke my gaze from Jai and looked back at Scott, only a couple of feet from me. "Please."
"You can do better than that, El," Scott informed me as one of his assistants handed him the syringe full of whatever medicine was in it that would make me more relaxed. Scott held the syringe in front of his face and flicked at it, making the air bubbles rise to the top so he could push them out. When he was satisfied, he pulled my gown back to expose my upper thighs. White bandages were wrapped around both of them where he'd shot me, but I couldn't feel them. There was no pain. In fact, they were probably already starting to heal.
I turned my head away from Scott and back to Jai, squeezing my eyes shut and gritting my teeth as the large needle slid into my thigh muscle.
"Try again," Scott said when he was finished. I turned my head back to him in time to watch him pass the empty syringe off to someone, and then I watched them dispose of it.
"What's Waters of Lethe?" I asked, trying to buy Jai and I some time. There was no point, however. Scott had all the time in the world as long as he kept pumping relaxants into us.
Scott smiled wide. "I'm so glad you asked, El. It's a program that, as you probably know by now, we have created to do a little brain remodeling. When we retrieve targets, such as yourselves," he said, nodding at Jai and then looking back at me, "we reprogram you, so to speak." Scott smiled still, as if he were pleased with himself. Then he leaned close to me and flicked my head like he flicked at the syringe, as if my head was full of air and he wanted to get it out. And I nearly came unglued.
And so did Jai. "Don't touch her!" he yelled as he pulled against the white restraints. I gritted my teeth, hoping that if I stayed calm, Jai would follow suit.
Scott ignored him, still looking at me. "How do I say this nicely?" he asked, flicking my head again. "Your brain doesn't work for us."
Jai let out a nasty string of curse words that both warmed my heart and made me want to slap the shit out of him. Why couldn't he keep quiet?
Scott pursed his lips as Jai went on, then, when Scott couldn't take it anymore, got up and walked to the counter in front of me.
And got a gun.