Meant to Be (The Saving Angels 1)

She carefully inspected each sensor as the other spectators stationed themselves on the far side of the machine where the control panel was.

I tried to turn my head to watch them, but the strap holding my head in place kept them just out of my line of vision. I heard Amanda tell someone else to grab more sensors for my heart.

A few seconds later, the neckline of my shirt was pulled down as another sensor was attached.

I could only lie there, helplessly waiting for what was about to happen. My pulse began to quicken and I could feel my hands begin to shake. I tried my breathing technique to steady them, but the claustrophobic feeling of being tied down was more than I could handle.

“Okay, we’re ready to go,” said someone off to my right.

Before I could brace myself, a stabbing pain radiated through my forearm where one of the sensors rested. I screamed out in pain.

“Oh no, that won’t do,” Russo said, walking back to the front of the table where I was strapped down. I felt a moment of relief thinking that maybe he wasn’t a monster after all.

“Amanda, bring me the mouth restraint,” he said undoing my head strap.

I felt my panic rise as she approached with some kind of medieval face mask. I shook my head from side to side as they tried to strap the mask around my face. Bruno was beckoned over to hold me steady, wrapping his massive hands around my head as a single tear trickled down my cheek.

“Please, don’t do this,” I tried to plea, but no sound came out.

“Very good, no need for all of us to hear your screams,” he said walking away as Amanda re-strapped my head to the table.

This time I tried to brace myself for the pain, but it came from another sensor unexpectedly. I bucked against the table as a knife-like pain slashed through my other arm.

Sobbing, I tried to plea with them, but my words never made it past the mask. The next pain was below my collarbone and was more staggering than before. Each jolt seemed to intensify every time they shocked me. Over and over again in different locations, they tortured my body.

I lost all track of time and my vision began to blur. I yearned for my emotions to take over, anything to help me escape what I was suffering.

I began to hallucinate and could see Mark off to the side. Though he wasn’t strapped down, he seemed to be in greater pain than I was. I wanted to reach out to him, but my arms were too heavy, I could no longer feel them attached to my body.

“Mark!” I tried to cry out. I could read his lips as he called out my name and then there was darkness as I mercifully passed out.

I came to suddenly, finding myself in a wheelchair under a steaming shower. I was still fully dressed and my clothes were soaked through.

My throat burned and tasted of bile. I looked down and discovered that I had vomited all over myself.

I felt someone behind me as they squirted something in their hands and scrubbed my hair. I could feel their frustration as they roughly scrubbed my head.

The water abruptly turned off. I was instantly chilled from the soaked clothing against my body. My teeth began to chatter uncontrollably.

“James, you can’t leave her sitting in the cold like that,” I heard Bruno say through the noise of my chattering teeth.

I felt the straps being undone.

“Look man, they didn’t tell me when they hired me I was going to have to clean puke off some girl.”

“Yeah I know, but it’s not the girls fault. You heard her screams. She was in some serious pain. I don’t think I will ever forget the scream she made when they first turned on whatever that machine was,” Bruno said. As he finished taking off the bindings, I felt a warm blanket being tucked around me and surprisingly gentle hands under my knees picking me up out of the chair.

I was weak as a newborn kitten as he carried me down the maze of hallways. I kept my eyes closed, but tried to gather my thoughts. They had obviously carried me into a different part of the building to bathe me because the hallway we had taken earlier was a straight shot without any turns.

Finally, I heard a door being opened and I felt myself being lowered onto a cot. I opened my eyes although I was extremely dizzy, and could see that I was back in my room. Bruno was standing in the doorway. His clone James was holding a folded stack of hospital scrubs and a couple more blankets. He set them on the cot without a word. Bruno shot me a look of what looked like sympathy, but it could have been just a trick of light.

I heard the lock reengage. I sat up slowly and was surprised at how weak I was. I used my arm to steady myself and cringed when I saw the ugly mark the sensor had left. Steadying myself didn’t work, so I laid back down trying to catch my breath.

The lights flickered out.

“Go figure,” I muttered.

My teeth stared to chatter as a shiver ran down my body. My wet clothes had soaked through the blanket that was wrapped around me. I knew I needed to get them off. I used the last of my strength to shimmy out of my wet jeans. It took several moments to recover from the exertion and by the time I started on my shirt, my teeth were knocking painfully against each other. My shivering was so intense that the cot began to shake. It took some work, but I managed to shrug out of my shirt, and slip on the scrubs that were sitting on the edge of the cot. I was so exhausted I barely had the strength left to tuck the blankets around myself.