Whatever it was that they gave me took hours to wear off. After Cain had shut me back inside the plastic cage I ended up curled on the floor, knees to my chest, arms wrapped around my knees. Staring at the wall I tried to memorize how I’d seen him open the door, where the hinges were. They had disappeared now, I couldn’t even see a seam in the plastic. He hadn’t said anything after he’d set me down on the floor, just turned and slammed the door shut. I’d listened to the echo of his footsteps grow quieter and fade into silence. The lights clicked off, plunging me into darkness.
Something kept rising up in my throat to choke me, screams that wanted to slip out. The silence surrounded me so completely I felt like it might crush me.
The feeling in my legs slowly returned, I couldn’t sleep until it did. Even if I’d managed to sleep, the sensations of pins and needles shooting through my thighs would have woken me up. The tingling numbness slowly turned to pain, and I chewed on the inside of my cheek until I tasted the coppery tang of blood in my mouth.
It felt like both legs had fallen asleep and the blood was rushing back into them. Anger spiked, sending a throb of pain through the back of my head. Half mad with the pain I reached out and slammed my palm flat against the Plexiglas, a growl tearing out of my throat.
It was stupid, since it only hurt my hand, but it soothed something deep inside, something that needed to get out. I slammed my fist into the plastic again and howled my anger at nothing. At everything. At this place, whatever it was. At the darkness that threatened to drown me. At the cold-faced nurse who had stuck a needle in my arm, and at Cain. Cain, who shuffled around and smirked like all of this was no big deal and talked about me like I wasn’t a person, but a lab rat. Some kind of experiment.
I screamed at him, mostly, because he was the only person who kept coming back. He was the only person that talked to me. And he was the face of this place. He was my captor. I screamed until my throat was raw and sore and then I continued screaming.
Finally, when the pain had died down and the feeling had returned to my legs, and I had screamed myself completely hoarse, I stopped. The silence rang in my ears, and then a noise in the darkness made me jerk upright. There was a sharp click, like a door had swung shut.
Someone had heard me screaming. Someone had stayed behind in the darkness and listened to me. And my money was on Cain.
It was impossible to tell how many days had passed. Had it been two days, three? I wasn’t sure how long I’d been here, since the hours seemed endless and for all I knew they were turning the lights on and off at random times, just to screw with me. Maybe they were doing experiments on my brain. Just to see how long it would take a Jotun to crack under pressure. Would I last longer than a human? Did we take a longer amount of time to go insane?
It was the second day, I thought, when they came again.
Fuzzy figures moved through the room, I could see them through the thick plastic walls of my cage. I didn’t bother yelling at them though. My voice was still hoarse from last night. One of the taller figures approached, a blob of white. Someone in a lab coat, I guessed.
“Is she ready?” The voice was deep and gravely. I wasn’t sure, but I thought it was the voice of the doctor I’d seen on my last visit to the lab. Instinctively I recoiled, backing myself up into the far corner of the cage. I didn’t want that man near me again, didn’t want to wake up on a table wondering what he’d done to me a second time.
The second blob was still white, but shorter than the doctor. “I believe so. And subject 24?” A woman’s voice, the same cool tone of the nurse who had put the needle in my arm.
“Prepped and ready.”
Subject 24. Excitement crashed through me, making me sit up straight. Did that mean Kalda was still alive? Was she okay? I wanted to ask, but I knew they wouldn’t answer me. I was a test subject to them. A number. My questions didn’t matter.
But the third fuzzy outline beside them, the black one. I thought it was probably Cain. Maybe he would answer my question, if the other two left. He seemed to like to talk, even just to hear himself. Desperately I wished the other two would go away so I could get him talking. I needed to know if my friends were okay. Both Kalda and Fiske.
The doctor was still talking. “Great, we’ll start the procedure this afternoon.” He turned to the fuzzy outline that was Cain. “Make sure she doesn’t have any fluids or solids.”
Cain said nothing. I wasn’t sure, but I thought he was staring at the plastic wall between us, probably at my blurry outline, the same as I was looking at him.
What did that mean, no fluids? What were they prepping me for? My stomach was twisting and churning, making me feel like I was going to be sick. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.
After a few more minutes of murmured conversation the nurse and doctor turned and left. The fuzzy outline that was Cain stayed in place, and I continued to stare at him, pressing my lips together so tightly they were going numb. I was bursting with questions but I couldn’t say anything until the others were out of earshot.
When the door finally clicked shut, Cain shifted, moving forward. I could make out his face better now, even though it was still slightly blurred.
“Morning, twenty-three.”
I had to force myself not to launch forward and press my hands against the plastic. I didn’t want to seem too desperate, since he seemed completely unpredictable. “My friends, are they okay?”
“Subject twenty-four and twenty-five you mean?”
A muscle in my jaw twitched, I was grinding my teeth so hard. “Yeah, what’s going on, are they okay?”
“They’re fine.” His tone was way too casual, it made my gut lurch.
“What are they talking about…what am I prepped for? What are they planning.”
Cain stood still, and he didn’t say anything for a long time. Since I couldn’t see his face clearly I couldn’t tell if he was smugly enjoying this, or if he was hesitating for another reason. The idea that he might be reluctant to tell me something scared the daylights out of me. If Cain wasn’t going to tell me, that meant it was really bad. Otherwise he would have told me and probably enjoyed getting a reaction out of me.
I pressed closer to the Plexiglas. “What is it? Tell me.”
“I don’t have to tell you anything.”
His voice, dark and flat, sent an electric surge of anger through me, and I lashed out without thinking, smashing my fist into the wall between us. I wished it was his face.
“Then why are you here?”
More silence. “Because it’s interesting.” A pause, like Cain was struggling to figure out what he wanted to say. Or if he wanted to say it. “Because…you’re interesting.”
“I thought I was a lab rat to you people.”
“You are.” There was something in his voice though, something that made the fear even more intense. Regret.
Whatever was happening this afternoon, it was something Cain wasn’t happy about, and that didn’t bode well for me. My heart was slamming against my ribs so hard it felt like I could barely breathe.
Cain started to turn away, he was going to leave me. “No wait, Cain.”
He stopped so fast, it was like I’d struck him with lightening. “Don’t do that.”
I faltered, taken aback. “What…do what?”
“Don’t say my name.” Cain strode back towards the cage, and this time he slammed his fist into his side of it, making me jump back in shock. His voice was tense with anger. “Don’t pretend like you know me, Jotun. You think I haven’t heard this all before? The begging and the pleading. The crying. It won’t work, it never does.”
I shot to my feet, rage ripping at my insides. “My people do not beg.”
For a second he just stayed there, with his hand on one side of the plastic, fingers stretched out, like he was reaching for me. I thought he was going to taunt me. To tell me all the horrible things they’d done to my people, but he didn’t. Instead he turned and walked away, footsteps echoing around the room. The door slammed shut, leaving me in silence.
Now all I could do was wait. For this afternoon. For the doctor to come for me. For whatever it was they had in store for me.