"It will end exactly as it should." Webb smiles. "With the malfunction corrected and the system restored. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do."
Abernathy looks at me. I see something in his expression, something that might be guilt, or grief, or the weight of a hundred decisions that haunt him.
He turns and walks out without another word.
The door closes.
Webb returns his attention to me.
"Where were we?" he asks. "Ah, yes. Your memories. Let's continue."
I brace myself for the headset, for the pressure, for another descent into my own personal hell.
This time he makes me watch my own torture sessions. My brain disappears and I don’t remember the session ending, or him leaving. I don’t remember anything.
It could have been an hour later, or six, but eventually I’m alone. Alone until the door opens with a squeal.
I expect Webb with his equipment. I expect more extraction, more violation, more systematic dismantling of everything I've tried to protect.
Instead, a guard enters with a tray. Water. A protein bar. Basic nutrition to keep me functional.
He sets the tray on a table beside me, unlocks one of my wrists so I can eat.
"Five minutes," he says, and undoes a cuff before he steps back.
I sit up slowly, every muscle screaming. My head pounds from the extraction sessions. My throat is raw from screaming. My wrists are ringed with bruises from pulling against the restraints.
But I'm alive.
I'm still alive.
I pick up the water, drink slowly. The protein bar tastes like cardboard, but I force it down. I need strength for whatever comes next.
The guard watches me with empty eyes. He's not cruel, not kind. Just neutral. A cog in the machine, doing his job.
"How long have I been here?" I ask.
"Sixteen hours."
I think about Briar Harrington and Landon Thompson. People I've never met. People whose only crime is falling in love with someone they weren't supposed to.
People who are just like me and Jace.
Don't do it.Don't kill them for me. I'm not worth it.
But even as I think it, I know he will. I know that whatever Jace has planned, he's not going to let me die. Not because I'm worth saving. Because I'm his.
And he protects what's his.
The guard takes the tray, locks my wrist back in place.
"Five minutes until the next session," he says.
I close my eyes and find Jace's face in the dark.
And I hold on.
Chapter Thirteen: Jace
