The chains hit the ground with a loud clanking noise as both men close in on me. I have a split second before they get their hands on me. I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and make a bold leap for the door that leads to my salvation. In seconds, I’m out the door and up the stairs, my fight-or-flight mode kicking in. I push through the door at the top of the stairs and run down a long hallway. I don’t look back to see if they’re chasing me. My legs feel like rubber, but I will them not to give out. I see my way out beyond the hallway and bolt straight through another door. I stumble and lose my footing, landing hard on my back in the snow. I’m a little dazed, but all I can think is...
FREEDOM!!
The cold on my face feels wonderful. I sit up to get my bearings and prepare to run again until I hear the cock of a shot gun. My ears perk at the sound, my heart hammering wildly in my chest.
“Nice try, animal,” Genocide clips, as he fires off a round from his gun, the explosion sounding over my head. “If you move, I’ll shoot and hang your pretty head on my wall with the rest of my collection.”
“And that would be murder, you dick,” I spit, my eyes darting back and forth between Genocide and Jim.
“She certainly has a mouth on her, this one,” Jim confirms, advancing on me behind Genocide.
I’m frozen solid, my limbs refusing to obey my command to move. I squeeze my eyes shut and beg for help from the one man I know can hear me. I call his name in my head. “He’s gonna kill me, Salvation.”
Strong hands grip my arms, jerking me up from where I’d landed in the snow and stand me on my feet. They go to drag me back inside the house and the fight begins. I won’t make this easy for them and they’ll end up having to kill me. I kick and I scream all the way back inside, one of them slamming the door behind us.
Once again, I’m trapped inside hell. “SALVATION!!” I scream, not caring if it makes me look crazy.
“God can’t help you now, animal,” Jim says, pushing me through the door of the room I was in only moments ago. He tosses me onto the cot like a rag doll and tries to hold my flailing arms and legs down so Genocide can strap me down.
I’m going to die…
“I’m not an animal, you asshole!” I continue to scream and try to pull myself from their hands, but it’s no use, they’re too strong and the harder I fight, the more it entices them. They strap me down, my arms outstretched, the entire room blanketed in darkness except for the bright light from a flashlight Jim is shining directly into my eyes.
Genocide pulls a box from his cargo pants pocket, sitting it on the bed. He turns to Jim, “Hold the light over here.”
I blink a few times and watch in horror as Genocide opens the box. The flashlight gleams off the tip of a needle and a small bottle of clear liquid. I immediately begin to fight against my restraints, but Jim holds my arm steady with one hand while the other holds the flashlight for Genocide as he pushes the needle into the bottle, filing the syringe with God only knows what.
This isn’t good.
I have never done drugs, ever. I smoked a little weed once when I was a teenager, but nothing intravenously.
“This may sting just a little,” Genocide says with a sneer as he lowers the needle to the crook of my arm, piercing my skin. He pushes the plunger into my flesh and my body goes rigid.
I hate needles.
My head flies off the cot as heat slides through me. My heartbeat accelerates and my legs begin to thrash. “What did you give me?” The words leaving my throat in a growl and before I know what’s happening, a shrill scream comes barreling out of me, a loud and deathly scream. “What did you do to me?” I ask again, gritting my teeth.
“It’s just a bit of adrenaline to get your cat like juices moving,” Jim says, pushing the sweat slicked hair off my forehead.
This is it; I’m dying. This is where I die, in a dark, dank hole, on a cot, surrounded by two men who think I’m an animal. Another scream rips through me and I think my throat has caught fire. Tears prick my eyes. “I’m not the animal, you are!”
“Let it go, my pretty lynx, show me your beauty,” Genocide whispers to me, his hot breath coating the shell of my ear. He’s disgusting.
I buck off the bed as the drug powers through my blood stream; this is the worst kind of pain I have ever experienced. My whole body is on fire, my heart slams against my rib cage so hard and fast, I feel like I’m exploding from the inside out. My breathing becomes erratic and labored. I’m dizzy and my vision begins to blur.
Jim and Genocide taunt me from beside the bed to let go of my human and bring forth the huntress cat they think I am.
“Come to me, you beauty,” Genocide coaxes.
“When you phase, we let you go,” Jim agrees as he wipes the sweat from my face.
I thrash on the cot, a fire blazing a trail through my whole body. I feel as though I’m trying to claw my way out of my own skin. “I’m not going to become anything, but a corpse,” I stutter between harsh breaths.
“I know how badly you want to rip us both to shreds right now, my pet,” Jim says, trying to soothe me.
“I want you both to burn
