Fairly Bear

Three - Escape

Tessa

She felt like crap. That was the first thought that came to her when she started to wake up. But something was different. She wasn’t sure what yet. Slowly she inched her eyes open and realized this wasn’t her little cage. This was a large room that looked like a hospital or a lab.

Had she been moved? Carefully, she opened both her eyes and glanced around her, she was connected to an IV, lying on a bed alone in a room…there was a window. Hesitantly she sat up, glancing over her body. She was covered in bandages and she didn’t feel the odd sticky feeling from the usual soap spray they got instead of a bath. She smelt different too. It smelt like herbs and flowers, like a grassy field in the sunshine.

No, wait, that wasn’t here. She smelt like herbs and flowers, but she smelt the field in the sunshine in the room. There was also a hospital smell. Why was the hospital smell so intense?

Shaking her head, she slowly attempted to get off the bed. Her legs felt wobbly, but she was sure she could move. She was wearing an odd overly large T-Shirt. It also smelt like a grassy field in the sunshine; she sort of liked that smell and she held the shirt up to her nose to breathe it in one more time.

Her feet were bandaged, she could still feel the gashes under her feet, but she was in better shape than she’d been when she’d run before. She could hear the hustle and bustle outside and she glanced around. She needed to get away before she was shoved back into that cage.

She pulled the IV out and took hesitant steps to the window. Her legs were still weak, but she was sure she would be able to get away if no one spotted her now. She was on the second floor again, but this place was surrounded by woods, which could work in her favor to hide.

She could use the pipes running along the wall to climb down. She opened the window and glanced around, it sounded busy, but if she slipped into the woods, no one would know and she’d have time to get away before they realized she was gone.

Quietly, she sat on the windowsill and threw one leg out. Leaning forward, she tested the pipe and it seemed able to hold her weight. Slowly, she took her other leg out and allowed herself to slide slowly down the pipes. Her legs and arms were shaking from the strain by the time she put her feet on the ground.

Tessa took a deep breath and glanced around before she attempted to sneak into the woods; she had only taken a few steps when she heard a woman curse from above. Glancing up, she saw a woman leaning out of the window and staring straight at her; that urged her to run. Pushing herself, she started running as fast as she could, ignoring the pain in her feet from stepping on fallen sticks and small stones. She had to get away.

She hadn’t gone far when she heard something behind her; Tessa risked glancing over her shoulder to see a really big dog running after her. Gasping in terror, she pushed herself harder and suddenly found herself in a clearing with people walking around casually.

But they stopped to stare while she fled from the big dog. Suddenly, a big guy appeared in front of her out of nowhere and she ran straight into his chest. “Whoa there, little one!” He said with a hint of amusement in his voice when he caught her before she fell. “What’s the matter?”

“Dog! Big…scary dog…chasing me.” She gasped, trying to get around him, but he kept moving so she couldn’t get by him. The creature approached them with a growl and a snort as if it didn’t like what she called it and, in desperation, she leapt up and tried to climb over the big guy.

She had to get away and he was in her way and wouldn’t let her pass. He chuckled with amusement as she managed to reach his shoulder, but again stopped her from trying to climb over him to get away. The animal made a strange choking sound behind her, but she didn’t look back.

The guy simply caught at her limbs as she tried to get away and kept her from her escape, and yet, he didn’t hurt her. That was confusing. Why didn’t he force her into submission like the previous captors had done? If anything, this guy thought her attempt at an escape was funny.

Did that mean she had no hope of escape?

Suddenly, a loud, furious roar echoed across the clearing that made her freeze up completely. The guy caught her in his arms and turned around to face the direction the roar had come from.

“Hey, Bud! It’s not what you think! No, just –“

She squealed in terror when she was suddenly airborne a moment before she connected with something hard. Tessa’s breath caught in her throat when she stared up at a huge, wet, burly, bearded man glaring dangerously at the guy that had thrown her. He was even bigger than the guy that had thrown her away.

“She was running from the dog…” The animal made a sound that could be interpreted as a protest. “She’s really determined.”

The guy glanced down at her with his angry eyes and she shrank into herself and started hyperventilating. The woman she’d seen in the window came rushing towards them. “We can’t give her anything to calm her down, she’s just finished detoxing. We’re going to have to –“

The guy holding her flipped her over and shoved her face against his bare chest and the strangest thing happened. She was surrounded by the field in sunlight scent that her shirt had had and she started to calm down slowly with every breath. Did this guy sweat drugs or something? He smelled so good…

“Well, that works too… s**t, we’ll have to re-bandage her feet. She ruined her feet all over again.” The woman sighed in exasperation. “Bring her so we can check her over, will you, Ulrich?”

The huge man still holding her face mashed against his chest, grunted and started walking back from where she’d come. Despite him seeming to handle her roughly, he didn’t actually hurt her like the others had done at her previous prison.

Tessa wanted to fight and keep running, but she felt wrapped up in a cocoon of warmth and she couldn’t fight the calm that had washed over her. This guy had to have drugged her somehow, but she hadn’t felt a needle go into her skin.

What was happening to her? She could feel her eyes trying to fall closed as the calm continued to wash over her despite the fact that she didn’t know where she was or what they intended to do to her. They had to have drugged her somehow.

She had just started to feel herself slip into an exhausted sleep when they entered a building and she startled awake again, remembering that she had to escape. The guy the woman had called Ulrich held her firmly against him without actually hurting her, making a deep grumbling sound in his chest.

“She’s feisty, isn’t she?” The other tall guy spoke up from beside them. “This is going to be hilarious!” He cooed with glee.

“Rupert, stop it. She’s terrified.” The woman scolded when they walked back into the room she’d tried to escape from.

“She literally climbed me like a tree, sis! Her determination is admirable.” The Rupert guy smirked.

Ulrich had pretty much immobilized her and all she could do was watch and listen. He sat down on the bed and the woman approached her again. “Hi, I’m Miranda. I know you’re scared, but you’re safe here. These meatheads rescued you when you fell through the window. Can you tell me your name?” She asked in a kind voice.

Tessa swallowed and stared at her a moment. No one had asked her name before; was this some kind of trick? Finally, she cleared her throat. “Tessa…” She managed to croak out.

“Would you like some water?” Miranda asked with a kind smile, before she went to the bedside table and poured some water into a glass from the pitcher. “The guy holding you is Ulrich and this i***t over here is my brother, Rupert. We’re trying to help you so we can find a place for you to settle.

“I just want to go home…” Tessa answered in a small voice, eyeing the water with a combination of suspicion and longing. She was thirsty after her run and would love some water, but she didn’t know if the water had been tampered with.

The man holding her growled a very animalistic growl that had her freeze up. “You can’t,” he said gruffly.

Her eyes widened in terror as she realized this was just another prison. Miranda rolled her eyes at him. “Use your words, Ulrich!” She sighed and held out the glass to her. Tessa didn’t take it, convinced now that they’d tampered with it, even though she felt like her tongue was cotton in her mouth. “What he means is that we need to keep you a while for observation, we don’t know what they injected you with and we don’t know what that would do to you.”

“And we’re still working on getting everyone from the syndicate. From what info we got, you seem to be quite important to them.” The Rupert guy added with a smile.

Miranda watched her for a moment. “Would you prefer tap water?” She didn’t wait and poured out the glass and rinsed it out before filling it from the tap in the room where she could see it.

Hesitantly, Tessa took the glass she held out to her again. They couldn’t tamper with it when she had her eyes on it the whole time. She started guzzling it down eagerly, nearly choking a few times. When was the last time she was able to drink water? They’d barely given them enough to keep them alive; this was half a glass more than she got once a day.

“Would you like some more?” Miranda asked gently when she’d emptied the glass.

Tessa stared at her wide-eyed; could she get more water? She hesitated a moment, wondering if this could be a trap, but she nodded nervously and watched as Miranda filled the glass from the tap once more and then held it out to her.

She guzzled down the second glass, almost moaning in delight as the cool, sweet water seemed to revive her. “I want to treat your feet, now. You’ve damaged them all over again.”

Miranda answered a moment before the door opened again and Tessa froze up when she saw another woman approaching with a tray of tools and the guy holding her started growling again. The woman stopped and twisted her head oddly to bare her throat, something that confused Tessa.

“These tools are just to clean the dirt off of your feet again so we can put fresh bandages on.” Miranda explained gently as she showed her the tray before putting it on the bed beside Ulrich.

Tessa sat frozen while Miranda explained what she was going to do before she did it, showing her that she wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. When she had finished wrapping her feet again, she smiled at her. “I’ve ordered you some food, so if Ulrich would be nice enough to put you down on the bed, you can have something to eat.”

Ulrich sighed, but obediently put her down on the bed, before he covered her with the blanket. Tessa lay frozen, unsure what she was supposed to do. The man was nearly seven feet tall and he was wide as a bus; he was intimidating – no, he was scary.

“Please do not walk on your feet again for at least a few more days; you’ve damaged your feet by running outside. Here is the bell if you need anything, Tessa.” Miranda smiled, before she left the room.

Tessa didn’t meet the gazes of the two men staring at her. She wasn’t sure what they wanted. After a long awkward silence, Rupert stood. “Alright, I’ve got a date with a vampire.” He muttered and headed for the door.

What did he mean vampire? Was it Halloween? Did she miss that much time?

A tray with food was brought in and placed on the table. Ulrich pulled the table closer to the bed so she could get to the food. It smelled amazing, but she couldn’t trust the food; they always drugged the food. She didn’t want to be drugged and tortured again.

So she stared at the food longingly before she turned her head away and stared out the window, concentrating on ignoring the tantalizing smell that wafted to her. “Eat.” The big man ordered and she flinched, but didn’t make a move to take the food.

Eventually, she heard him sigh heavily where he sat, but he did nothing to force her to eat. Did he just hope that she would eventually give in? The Rupert guy was right about one thing; she was determined. She was not going to eat the drugged food, no matter how good it smelled.