“Dylan!” John shouts, and in a second, his man comes. “Help me pick up this damn cage, and let’s bring him to the main room with all the other kids. The doc will be performing surgeries tonight before we wrap up all this shit. Do you have the list of orders?” Over the years, I’ve heard and seen so manyhorrible things, I feel I’m immune to them. “Make sure to feed them well tonight.” He gets up and bangs on the top of my cage. “Except him. Running on day ten now, huh?” He laughs as my stomach rumbles, and still, my face stays blank.
Hunger is nothing new to me. They constantly withhold food or water from me or force me to drink it by sucking it off the dirty mop.
I don’t think in such moments, imagining being in the wide-open field and not allowing myself to understand just what they do to me.
“As long as you breathe, you win.”
Dylan joins him, and, huffing and puffing, they pick up the cage and walk toward the other room, where it’s squeaky clean, and everything is so white.
I enjoy the complete silence. They drop the cage in the right corner, and I bump my head while a shooting pain travels from my elbow to my arm once again. I roll my lips, though, refusing to give them any sound or words.
That’s been my only payback to them. No matter how much they try to bait me into showing them my suffering, I withhold my screams.
There are surgical tables, along with instruments and a beeping machine. That’s where he performs all his mysterious surgeries, which must make him the happiest man alive, as he always smiles.
A lot of their men are walking around, surveilling the room, and there are countless more outside.
I should know. I’ve tried running away ten times and failed because these evil men are very devoted to their cause.
The children must still be in another room. They are probably preparing them, and I study this new bright room, making my eyes hurt, searching for a way out because I can’t die.
Not today. Not until they are all alive.
The doors burst open, and John’s best friend Bill enters. “Looks good, boys.” John flips him off. “Just imagining all the money we’ll get tonight makes all this bullshit worth it.” He looks at me. “You ended up being a liability. A fucking pig we fed for years that gave us absolutely nothing.”
The doctor follows him, wearing his usual blue costume, and John motions with his head to me.
“Start with him, Doc. Also, don’t use any anesthesia. I want his screams and pain.” The doctor nods. “May you suffer as long as possible, little shit, while we methodically remove all your organs.”
The doctor prepares the table and puts on his white gloves while all the men grin. The panic finally settles in, and I push against the cage harder, thinking what I could do.
There is no way out for me. They are too strong, and none of them would change their minds. They plan to move to another state because of that Lachlan guy, so they won’t need me again.
Besides, the taller I become, the less entertaining I am to the men who like to beat me up. They have no reason to keep me.
So I will die tonight? Let him win?
The exhausted part of me whispers into my ear that I will see my mom again. She must be in heaven, as according to her, all religions preached about good people going there. I’d be able to smell her scent, hug her tight, and hopefully finally see her smile without any bruises.
I should wish to die to end it all, but I want their blood and their suffering instead. I don’t understand it as they treat me worse than dirt under their nails and still, I want to survive.
So I do something I haven’t done in a while because I didn’t want to bother him, but Mama said he’d always listen to those who truly need his protection.
Closing my eyes, I lock my hands together and pray to Thor. The mighty god of thunder. Mama said all these gods are forgotten now, but I believe in them.
I don’t know any other way.
Please help me, Thor. Please.
I chant it over and over again, freezing only when I hear John’s muttered, “What the hell?” I open my eyes to gasp in shock at the complete darkness greeting me. “Who the fuck turned off the lights?”
Screams echo in the dark along with painful groans and shocked yells, something heavy dropping all around me, and a weird smell floats in the air. I just blink and blink, hoping to adjust my vision to the dark to understand what’s going on.
Seconds trickle by as more screams fill the air, and then someone must have knocked the operating tables as well because the devices fall on the floor, a knife sliding right to my cage.
I quickly reach for it and twist the lock on my ankle chains, opening it up and freeing myself so I can practically glue my nose to the bar, trying to see despite the hurt rocking off me. Every movement is a chore.
More time passes, and the light finally brightens up the space around me again. I wince and blink as blood is everywhere.
