The Life: Sacrifice (The Life 3)

“Okay, Tommy, you may go.” Gabe, Gabe, Gabe, my son. If the boy had a treacherous bone in his body, I’d be looking over my shoulder. It isn’t lost on me, the fact that my people look up to him and trust him the way they do me. He’s smart enough to outmaneuver a hard ass like Tommy while keeping him blind to what he’s really doing. A lesson? Nah, he’s pushing her off a cliff without lifting a finger, and I don’t think she’s his target.

VICTORIA

“What’s this place?” I squinted my eyes against the brightness of the room that seemed to reflect the sunlight no matter where I looked. There was a weird taste in my mouth, and my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton balls. I looked over at the two people in the room who didn’t seem to have heard me and realized that I’d said the words internally and not out loud.

When I did try to speak, my lips seemed weirdly stuck together. I was in that strange place between sleep and wake, just before the fog lifts completely, and it took a few tries to clear my head before reality dawned. The last thing I remember was getting off the plane, but I have no idea how long ago that was or what the hell happened between then and now.

The events leading up to the plane ride came back in bits and spurts, and I cleared my throat to speak again. “Where’s Jimmy?” The two people in the room didn’t answer, just kept staring at me without saying or doing anything. I started to think they were mannequins before one of them blinked. What the hell?

“What? Who are you?” I tried moving, and that’s when true panic set in. My arms and legs were chained to the bed beneath me. What the hell? I felt real fear for the first time as I struggled to free myself. Pulling against the chains only made them cut into my flesh but did nothing to help release me, and the chains were done in such a way that I could hardly move at all, which only made the panic and fear intensified.

“Where am I?” Why aren’t they answering me? I know they heard me because their eyes looked in my direction each time I spoke, but they were acting like I wasn’t even in the room. Then they started whispering to each other while looking at me, and the fear made my tummy hurt.

I tried looking around the room to gauge my surroundings, but it was too bright, and I couldn’t make out anything other than the two people whom I’d never seen before. I don’t think I’ve ever felt real fear before that moment. It’s hard to explain. There were no outward signs of danger, just a sense that I was at the mercy of someone else. That’s the thought that kept playing through my mind as seconds ticked by.

There were no sounds in the room or beyond, nothing to tell me what kind of place this was. I gather it’s some kind of hospital because of the medical smocks the room’s two occupants wore, but there was nothing else to go on. No machines that beeped, not even that sick hospital smell you associate with those places. And the brightness of the room made it almost impossible to keep my eyes open for any length of time.

I kept closing and opening them until my vision adjusted somewhat, but it was painful, to say the least. Once my sight cleared up, it was obvious that what I thought was sunlight was actually fluorescent lighting that painted the room in a too bright glow. How the hell did they get the walls so white?

Whatever drug I’d been given was starting to wear off, but my body still felt odd, heavy, and weighed down. I had a feeling I knew where I was, but it was too farfetched to believe. Why would Jimmy let them bring me here, and where the hell is he? I threw out more questions, anything that came to mind, and still, the two of them acted as if they couldn’t hear me.

I felt even more afraid when they just stood up a few minutes later and left the room without a word. I didn’t know what to think, how to feel, other than fear. The only thing keeping me from losing it completely is the fact that Jimmy knows I’m here, so whatever this was, I won’t be left here to rot. But where exactly is here?

I needed to use the bathroom in the worst way and screamed out as much, but no one came. I laid there for what felt like hours, screaming until my throat grew raw, and still no one entered the room. I couldn’t hold it any longer and ended up soiling myself, which made the whole experience that much more horrifying. What was even scarier was all the time; I had to think, to second guess, and to worry.