Daddy does it twice more before he tells me it’s all done, and I open my eyes. Yamal is looking at the medical wand and a small screen in his hand while Daddy strokes through my hair, comforting me.
“You did such an amazing job. Such a good girl.” Daddy kisses my forehead.
My cheeks flush, and I look away from him. Ronal can’t keep saying things like that, or I am going to fall in love with him. I need him to stop right away.
Daddy chuckles and keeps doing it as he looks over at Yamal.
“Is there anything wrong?” Daddy asks.
“She is low on a couple of vitamins, but it might be because she doesn’t have anything in her system. After she has been drinking the formula for a while, we’ll collect the data again to see whether it’s still the case.” Yamal looks up briefly. “Her intestines look fine as of now. We’ll need to monitor them as she starts to eat again to make sure nothing goes wrong. I suspect nothing will, but it doesn’t hurt to keep track of it.”
“Thank you so much for coming by so quickly. I know we had an appointment tomorrow, but when I saw her, almost unconscious in the cage, I knew something was wrong, and I had to get you to look at her quickly,” Daddy says.
“No worries. We’ll do everything else in a couple of days when she is feeling more up to it. Right now, just take care of her and make sure she drinks the formula every hour to keep her stomach full. Even during the night. If she stops overnight, I’m afraid that her stomach might cramp and cause her pain,” Yamalexplains. “If you have any questions or need me to come back, just call me.”
“Thank you again,” Daddy says before looking at me.
I hear Yamal leave the room and the door close behind him. I don’t want to see him again.
We got medical checkups at the space station, but they were twice a year. There is no reason for me to be getting seen by a doctor every month when there is nothing wrong with me.
Daddy sits on the bed and gently grabs my hand. “I know you might think it’s overboard, but I want you healthy and want to prevent you from getting sick. This is the only way we are going to do it.”
“Unnecessary,” I mumble to myself and close my eyes.
“You might think so, but I don’t. It is very important to me to make sure that you are okay and happy,” he replies, giving my hand a little squeeze.
I should pull away from him and show him that I don’t like his touch, but I can’t bring myself to. There is just something about him that draws me in and makes me want to always be near him.
“I’m going out of my mind,” I whisper, closing my eyes even tighter, wanting to forget about everything that has happened since I arrived on Venkoria.
It should be alarming how many things haven’t been okay since I left the space station. Not once did I go to the bathroom while I was stuck in the cage.
Not. Once.
And we didn’t get fed but a couple of times and the sleep conditions. How do they expect anyone to get good-quality sleep in those uncomfortable cages? I don’t know how long we were in that room or how many days had passed since we had been fed, but it felt like a week or more. They wouldn’t come and visit us,like they had in the other room. If anything, it was almost like they forgot about us… intentionally or unintentionally.
Maybe this is all part of their plan to get us so worn down that they’ll help us get better, then hold it over our heads for the rest of our lives so we do what they want us to do.
No.
I’m not going to do that. I won’t be a puppet in their world, for them to do whatever they please with.
“Nora, are you okay? Are you experiencing any pain?” Daddy asks.
Ronal.
I meanRonal.
“Little Pet, please talk to me. I don’t want you to be in any pain,” he gently says. “Are you experiencing any?”
My heart tugs when he asks me again. All he has done since he found me is worry about me and my health. Not once has he done anything to harm me.
I find myself shaking my head at his question. It’s a partial truth. It’s not pain; my stomach feels off. I don’t know how I feel about it. I’ve never experienced something like this before.
“Let’s put you in a diaper and give you a reward for being such a good girl while Yamal checked over you,” Daddy says.
“Reward?” I whisper.
