The door closed, sealing tightly. The oxygen climbed rapidly, back over 95. The confusion peeled back slowly as I finally caught my breath. Damien was smiling at me as he slipped his phone back in his pocket. The relief of his giving me breathableair brought a sick sense of gratitude, despite Damien being the one who caused it.
I stood swaying, and the edges of my vision went black again. This time it was from anemia. After I managed to get to my feet, I stumbled to the bed. I needed to rest. I was always tired. The moment I flopped on the covers, the lights dimmed and switched to a warm yellow. Damien had control over every aspect of my room, and he used it liberally. Make me fall to the floor gasping for breath, or make me more comfortable to fuck with my head.
The whole spiel about negative pressure rooms and airflow was true, but stealing my ability to function was absolute asshole behavior. It was completely unnecessary to drop the oxygen that low. Maybe I could have bought his bullshit about needing to keep his employees safe from an untrustworthy killerifhe didn’t play mind games with me. Dimming the lights, acting like he was saving me from the very situation he made, offering prizes for being good … I could smell a sick fuck from a mile away.
Damien wanted absolute, utter control. Worst yet, he wanted me tolikehim while he gained it. Unfortunately, he knew exactly what he was doing. And I knew what he was doing too, yet … I felt my logic deteriorating with every interaction. It was hard to fight when he was the only person I could interact with.
So yeah, I was being Stockholm Syndrome’d.Yipee.
What else had I learned in the past couple of weeks? Damien liked to wear browns. He could sit at a computer all day with complete focus. He was a reasonably normal boss despite his company being completely evil. He gave every decision full consideration, and I was suspicious that he might be the most intelligent person I’d ever met.
That’s it. So yeah, that was my life now. Damien D’Bolique.
I fell asleep to the sound of him typing and woke up to his voice.
“Make sure the extractors are changed daily, and I don’t want one visiting him more than once a week. Fire today’s.” Damien sighed. I heard the chair creak as he adjusted. “We’re losing too many scientists. Can it be subdued in him? … Well, try. I can’t have half the team obsessed with him. The death toll is climbing instead of stabilizing.” He hung up and looked at me lying in bed, staring at him.
“Can’t imagine you know how to control it, do you? Or if you’d even want to.” His eyes slid down to my chest, and then he sat back with a sigh, rubbing his eyes.
“Control my venom?” I asked.
“No.” He opened a desk drawer and pulled out a pair of round, red-tinted glasses. I swallowed thickly as he slid them on.Shit.
When he was behind the wall, my gaze didn’t kill him. But when he was in my room with me, he wore a special pair of glasses that protected him from my gaze. They were the only pair I was aware of.
I ran my hands through my hair and gathered my breath while Damien pulled on gloves. He didn’t suffocate me when he came into the room. Logically, I should feel relief when it was him in here instead of someone else. Why it made me nervous instead was beyond me. He grabbed his air tank and left his room. I had to shake out a slight tremor in my hands before climbing out of bed and shuffling to the table. There were two chairs now. One for me, one for him.
I flopped down. My eyes slid down to Orson’s watch as the door to my room opened. I pulled my sweater sleeve over it. I knew they were aware of it, but I still felt the need to protect it. It was the only thing I still had from them.
Damien set a glass beaker in front of me and took his chair next to me. The lid was a thick elastic material. Saliva collected in my mouth as I stared at it. My tongue brushed over my gums,feeling my fangs sliding out without any prompting besides the collection container.
I gripped the table. Shit, I was trained like a dog—jumping up and running to the chair, my body reacting without effort. Was this really who I was becoming? Suddenly, I wanted to refuse to give him anything. Fuck your samples. Fuck your control.
“Something wrong?” Damien asked.
I could kill him. He was trapped in here with me. It would be so easy. Just pull off those red glasses and make him look me in the eye, man to man. Then we’d see who really had the power here. He’d see just how easy it was for me to have control, compared to him with his fucking mind games.
The rubber texture of Damien’s gloves gripped the back of my neck. My muscles tensed. He leaned in close.
“That cabin is cute, the one in the woods,” he whispered. I closed my eyes.
Damien roughly pulled me towards the beaker. My fangs slid out and broke the seal. It was like sinking into skin. His fingers bruised my neck as he held me down. Clear venom dripped out, plopping into the bottom of the glass.
Now I knew why I hated him in my room. Because I couldn’t hide from how well-trained I’d become. I’d followed my dad’s orders because I wanted his approval and love. And because I was too young to know I didn’t have to. However, I killed my dad in the end because that’s my nature.Basilisks kill.
But not even my nature could overcome Damien because it wasn’t about me. It was about that fucking cabin and the people who were inside it. All of this was.
Damien tightened his grip slightly before releasing me. As if to give me a little good boy pat. I pulled my fangs back and sat up.
“You haven’t cried since you’ve been here,” Damien said. “We’ll have to get that figured out.”
“Concerned about my emotional well-being?” Today, he wasn’t wearing a clean room suit. Just gloves, glasses, and the oxygen mask. His tank sat beside him on the floor. He was trying to build an immunity. Or at least, test his limits.
“Phoenix tears are said to have interesting qualities. I want to study yours. Stand up.” He stood up from his own chair. Every nerve in my body willed me to stay seated. I ground my teeth, closed my eyes, and stood, looking at him blankly.
Damien punched me in the gut. I dropped to my knees from the shock of it. The air was knocked out of me, and an intense, sharp pain spread through my midsection. He grabbed my chin and forced me to look up at him. A smile spread over his face behind the oxygen mask.
“Good job, Baz,” he said as tears slid from my eyes. He pulled out a vial and scooped one up. I fell to my hands and knees as he dropped my face and backed away, holding the vial up to look at the liquid. “Looks completely normal, but I bet this could kill an elephant.”
