A Spiritual's Mark

Chapter 12: No More Screams

-Phoenix-

“So, what shall we start with today?” The doctor seemed to enjoy conversing with himself, but I knew it was another mind trick, a way to mess with my head. In a sense, I had to admit it was working. I was imagining all the things he could use on me, and it was hard to prepare myself when I didn’t know which method he would choose.

Eventually, he approached with a nasty-looking pincer. Oh Goddess, he was going for my teeth today, but then he smiled, changed his mind, and returned to the table, selecting a small knife instead. He came closer, and without much preamble, cut a long superficial gash down my arm, ruining all the tally marks on my left arm.

“Counting down or up?” he inquired.

I didn’t respond. I was focused on not allowing the pain to overwhelm me. The doctor wasn’t foolish. He knew not to overwhelm me with pain but to gradually increase it. He couldn’t risk pushing me over the edge too quickly. He had to proceed with caution.

The doctor retrieved small metal clips to keep my wounds open. It was excruciating as he inserted them. He did it to drain me slowly, to make me feel weak, knowing it played with my mind. I loathed feeling weak. I detested that I couldn’t fight back, but it was futile. Chris was right. We weren’t getting out of here, not until we were mindless automatons who obeyed orders.

“If it weren’t for the fact that you would need your eyes, I would have gouged them out by now,” the doctor remarked.

I rolled them defiantly, but he interpreted that as an insult. He dug his gloved fingers into my open wound, causing me to hiss and my whole body to convulse from the pain.

“Sh*t!” I shouted.

He relished in eliciting a reaction. It was the ultimate satisfaction for him, and I hated that I was giving it to him. Even though I enjoyed pain, this was different. This wasn’t the kind of pain that could be enjoyed. This was simply meant to break me.

“Perhaps I’ll just take one of them,” the doctor mused, withdrawing his fingers from my wound.

He walked away and retrieved a new knife, one typically used for surgery. He couldn’t be serious, but then again, he had no qualms about pulling out my teeth. He had already extracted all my fingernails. I supposed he was saving the teeth for a special occasion.

He returned to me with an evil glint in his eye. Oh f*ck, I thought, he was genuinely contemplating gouging out one of my eyes. I began to struggle against the chair, but it was futile. I was too weak and bleeding. The sound of my blood dripping to the ground filled the small room, accompanied by the doctor’s sick breathing through the mask on his face, which made it all the more eerie.

“Now, hold still. We don’t want to cause too much damage.”

He was really going to gouge out my eye! How much more damage could he do?! He seized my head with his free hand, rendering it immobile, and then steadily advanced the knife towards my eye. I could see it gleaming in the light just above us. I wanted to scream. I wanted to act, but I knew that would only be another victory for him. I couldn’t react. I couldn’t display any more weakness. I had to maintain control.

The knife drew nearer and nearer. I attempted to shut my eyes tightly, but the doctor forcibly pried open my eyelid by pressing his finger just above it, then pulled back. I couldn’t close it now. I was truly going to have my eye removed!

Son of a b***h! No!

Suddenly, the doctor froze. His gaze shifted to the closed door, a look of confusion crossing his face. I wasn’t sure why he had halted. Had he heard something? He pushed away from me, still fixated on the door. I directed my gaze towards it as well, but I could barely discern anything. Then, without warning, the hefty metal door swung open, and one of the men who guarded this place leaned against the doorframe, clutching his left side.

“We need to leave!” he declared.

The doctor regarded him with bewilderment. “What on earth are you talking about? My task here isn’t complete,” he argued.

“Leave him!”

“Why?”

Abruptly, a scream pierced the air, causing the man in the doorway to glance down the hallway, evidently afraid of something.

“We must leave!” he urged, turning his attention back to the doctor.

“What’s going on?” the doctor inquired.

“It’s the queen!” the man divulged.

“What about her?”

“We have no clue… she broke free. Nobody knows how. We lost control, and… she’s already taken out half of the team!”

F*ck, they broke her?! That meant…

Suddenly, another scream echoed, followed by a deep growl. It caused the light above my head to tremble. The queen had transformed. She was now driven solely by instinct. All she knew was to kill.

“We need to leave!”

“But we’re not finished! We must bring her under control!” the doctor insisted.

The man appeared visibly frightened, sweating and breathing heavily. It was evident that things had gone terribly wrong.

“We can’t! She’s too powerful!”

“Have you attempted to sedate her?”

“We can’t get close enough, and you know she requires a double dose!” the man explained. “We can only contain her here, but we must get out before she slaughters everyone!”

The doctor glanced down at me, then back at the man, then down at me again, uncertain of what action to take. It was clear he was deeply committed to his duty, and he had not yet broken me.

“Let’s go!”

That settled it, and the doctor placed the knife back on the table before storming out of the room, leaving me bound to the table. The man followed the doctor, and now there was no one left to free me. I struggled against the restraints as I listened to the cacophony of screams. It was evident that the queen was rampaging through everyone, but soon, an eerie silence fell.

No more screams. No more growls. Just dead silence. I could hear my own heart beating as I lay there on the table. Every hair on my body stood on end suddenly, and it was then that I saw her. Right there in the doorway stood a black wolf, unusually large for a female, but she was, after all, the queen. Her silver eyes were fixed on me with deadly intent. It was evident that there was no humanity left in her. Nothing good.

Slowly, she approached. I remained completely still, hoping she would leave me alone. Any movement might irritate or trigger her in some way. She circled the surgical chair until she reached my still-bleeding arm. She sniffed the blood on the ground before beginning to lick it up. Damn it, this was not good, I thought. Either she would kill me, or I would slowly bleed to death. Either way, I was doomed.

The queen continued to lap up the blood, which kept dripping from me, providing her with more sustenance. I needed her to leave so I could attempt to free myself, but she kept drinking up the blood as if she were a starving wolf. And she likely was. They had probably withheld food and deprived her of water too. Anything to make her feel desperate, scared, and weak. They had truly broken her. They had condemned her to death. There was no way she was coming back now, and that meant Valerio wouldn’t be the same either. How was he going to survive losing her?

Suddenly, the queen lifted her head, her ears pointed forward. I hadn’t heard anything, but I was also focused on lying still and avoiding becoming her next meal. She slowly circled the chair, clearly having noticed something. She left the room and followed whatever had caught her attention. I breathed out in relief, realizing I had been holding my breath all this time.

I began to wriggle around, fighting against my restraints and trying to free myself, but they were tightly secured, and I felt so weak. I refused to give up, though, and soon noticed that my left wrist could move a little. The blood from my arm had dripped down to my restraint, and I realized I could use it as lubricant. I kept moving my hand from side to side, gradually making progress. The leather cut into my skin, but it only made my wrist smoother. I tried pulling, but it wasn’t enough, so I continued to move from side to side before attempting to pull again. Slowly, but surely, my hand made progress.

“Just a little more…”

Finally! My hand slid free, and I held it up in front of me, a relieved smile spreading across my lips. I quickly began to free myself from all the restraints and removed the clips from my arm. But just as I removed the last one, a scream pierced the air. F*ck, Chris!