Page 81 of Rescuing Nathaniel

Not that Ava had much of a future left.

Since there was no clock in her room, there was no way to tell how much time had passed. No one had been in to see her, whatever bloodwork or tests they’d needed they’d obviously done while she was still out. No one brought her anything to eat or drink, and since she hadn't eaten anything since dinner the night before she was taken her stomach was empty and cramping painfully.

The least of her concerns though.

It was weird to be lying there simply waiting for death knowing that nothing could be done to stop it from happening. As badly as she wished for some last minute reprieve, she wasn't really expecting one.

Her Prey people would be going all out to find her, digging into everything they could come up with. Every team would be on standby, her family coming together to try to save her, but they weren't going to make it on time. The best she could hope for would be that someone would be able to use her death as a way to get more intel and burn this trafficking ring to the ground.

If her death achieved that then at least she wouldn't die in vain.

And she didn't have to worry about people not knowing that she fought as hard as she could until the end. Her Prey family knew that she’d escaped the first time, and she’d been able to give them whatever intel she could. So even though she wouldn't be escaping this time around, no one would think less of her because she lost the fight. She wouldn't think less of herself either.

Because even though she was going to die, at least she knew she really had done everything in her power to save herself. She had escaped, she had gotten away from Rex in the Mexican jungle even though she hadn't realized he was an ally at the time, and she had gotten away from the man at the hospital.

Dying a fighter was better than dying believing she was a failure.

It also helped to know that Nathaniel would be amongst those looking for her. He might have his issues, and he might have behaved like an arrogant jerk thinking he knew what was best for her better than she knew what was best for herself, but he did care about her.

That she was sure of.

Just like she was sure that if she wasn't going to die, they would have found a way to work through it all even if she was angry with him.

But that chance was never going to come, and she hoped her death didn't become another excuse for Nathaniel to keep himself locked away from the rest of the world. His childhood had understandably hurt him, but she didn't want it to rob him of his ability to live a full and happy life.

How many of her twelve hours were left?

Without contact with anyone it was too hard to tell. It felt like she’d been lying there on her own waiting for days, but really it could have been only a handful of hours.

A window in there would be nice. Not only would it be a way for her to monitor time, but it would be something to look at. The sky was always so beautiful, like a painting that was always changing. Sometimes it was so blue it almost hurt to stare at, then it could be a pretty mix of pinks, reds, and golds. It could be every shade of gray imaginable, or it could be a dark inky blue at night. It could burn with the sun, or it could send raindrops or snowflakes showering down upon you. Every time you looked at it, it was a little bit different, and just one glance at it made you feel alive.

But in there, with nothing but white walls, and gray linoleum floors, Ava already felt half dead. The rest was just a formality, one she could never truly prepare herself for no matter how many hours she lay there with nothing else to do.

Part of her wished it would just hurry up and happen already. It was going to be painful and horrific, but it was inevitable, and she just wanted it done. Being forced to dwell on it was only making it worse.

With a whoosh, the door to her room swung open and three people filed in.

Just like that, Ava knew she didn't really want her death to hurry up and happen. Not when she was actually staring it in the face.

Despite what she told herself, there was still hope left inside her.

Hope that Nathaniel would somehow pull out a miracle and come riding in on his white horse to save her. That Prey would do what she’d seen them do, what she’dhelpedthem do, so many times before.

Only there wasn't going to be a miracle for her.

The nurses and doctor didn't even look at her. They just came over to her bed, took a moment to jot down some notes on her vitals, ensure that straps binding her to the bed were still secure, then they began to roll her bed toward the door.

Ava had been hoping they were going to transfer her to another bed. In her mind she had played out a dozen different scenarios of how she would take advantage of the moments she had to get free. How she’d grab anything she could use as a weapon and tear down anyone who got in her way.

If the day she had escaped was her lucky day, this had to be her unlucky day.

The only sounds were the soft beeps of the monitors, and the whir of the bed’s wheels as she was maneuvered through the door and then down a short corridor. They took her into another room, clearly an operating theatre, and her bed was placed in the center of it. Another two doctors were in there, but not the woman in the black skirt suit.

She’d half expected the head of the trafficking ring to be there to watch as the punishment she had ordered played out. But Ava should have known better. To that woman she wasn't a person, she was simply product that needed to be sold. While she was enforcing the punishment as a deterrent to others, she didn't care one way or the other about Ava.

No one spoke to her until one of the doctors moved to stand beside her IV. “This is just a muscle relaxant that will make it easier for us to work on you without damaging any of the organs. It won’t knock you out, won't alter consciousness, and won't provide any pain relief. You will feel everything until the pain becomes too much and your brain shuts down as a defense mechanism. We’ve been given orders that once that happens, we are to sedate you as we normally would when performing these procedures.”

What he didn't say was perfectly clear.

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