Page 45 of Escaping Hallow Hill Academy
Dr. Fucking Hyde.
“Sialen’s powers were nowhere near as strong as yours, and yet he served his purpose.”
Hearing the name of my Sekar on that bastard’s lips makes me push tighter against my restrictions. I recall him falling with me. I recall his arms wrapping around me at the last possible minute to protect me from the blow before we both passed out against one another.
I remember the irrationally safe feeling he instilled in me just before everything faded away.
“What have you done with Sialen?” My heart rears against my sternum as I dread the answer. If he hurt him, if he killed him, then my wrath will know no end. I will fight until he suffers for what he did. Every blow Sialen suffered will be returned with death wishes from my Lady herself!
I may not have liked him, but he was a Sekar. His blood was my blood. His heart, my heart. And his death will be avenged.
“I’ve done nothing to harm him. In fact, he’s next to you.”
I try to crane my neck to see if he’s telling the truth, but I find myself with the sudden inability to move.
What the fuck has he done to me? I want to growl, spit, and rage. I try to calm down, to think about how I can get out of here, but I can see nothing but bright light, and I know they placed it there purposely. So I can’t see.
But I can hear.
I hear metal and the slow dripping of liquid into glass.
“What’s wrong with him?” I shouldn’t be asking questions with such defiance, not when my life lies in Dr. Hyde’s hands, but I need to keep him talking. It’s better to hear his voice than to face the silence.
“His body could not handle the experimentation.”
Experimentation? What the fuck. Dread rises in me, and I hear the clang of metal scraping against stone.
“Let’s see if you fare any better, shall we?”
I feel a stab through my skin. I feel the blood and then nothing but agony.
I try to hold it in as much as I can, but it’s impossible. I open my mouth, and a scream rips out of me, but Dr. Hyde has no mercy. He laughs and slices again, and all I can do is scream.
And scream.
Until the darkness claims me once more.
* * *
The tightness on my wrist gives and I’m not even fully awake before I know that I’m loose. My body reacts, hand lashing out to attack before I even open my eyes.
“Stop! It’s me!”
I barely hear the words through my own foggy senses. My vision is slightly blurred and all I know is survival.
Hours.
That’s how long the experimentation lasted. I have no idea what Dr. Hyde did, all I know is the pain. My blood flowed into vials, my skin was cut open with scalpels, my head and body parts measured, tubes shoved down my throat, and more.
So much more.
There’s a fine line between studies and torture, and Dr. Hyde surpassed them all. Through the haze of my own pain without anesthesia to numb the dull press of his blades, I could hear the doctor chanting, claiming he was studying our race. That he was doing this for a greater good.
I was glad to slip into unconsciousness. But he woke me up. Every time my eyes closed, he woke me up to document my reactions. It didn’t matter how hard I struggled, metal still dug into my spine until I felt crippled entirely.
I don’t want to ever feel that weak again.
So when my bindings slip loose, I fucking fight. It doesn’t matter that I have no magic, that I’m nearly as useless as a human in this state, I will not go down without a fight.
