The guard threw a large bucket of water over Nora's head, drenching her. Before she had a chance to get her bearings, the Lieutenant threw her to the ground, stomped on her broken leg, and left the cell, closing the plexiglas door with a bang. Then they were off to the next victim.
Well, it was official, she looked like a drowned rat. She turned around to punch someone but was shoved to the ground. "Motherfucker!" She shouted, both as an exclamation of pain and an insult. She clutched her now throbbing leg and swore so much that it would cause a sailor to blush.
Nora's cell grew colder and colder, stopping at forty degrees. It wasn't cold enough to freeze the water on her, but it was still very cold.
When Rowan woke up, the light was on and there was a tube in her wrist. A man was pressing a button and she could feel something cold going into her veins. "Is she okay?" she asked, her eyes half-opened.
"Is who okay?" the man asked. She thought she recognized him, but she couldn't be sure.
"I don't know. . . . " Rowan murmured. Everything started to go blurry and dark again and that was it.
Nora shook her head and caused water droplets to fly all cross the cell. "Get you pansy asses back in here and fight me, you dense shit bricks! Take these chains off and we'll see what you're really made of!" She shouted and climbed back to her feet. It was cold in the cell. Bitterly cold. The constant movement would help keep her warm. She knew that much at least.
The grief that she felt earlier was pushed aside in favor of rage. She wanted revenge and she was going to get it even if it was the last thing that she ever did.
Lieutenant Herrin stopped. He walked back to Nora. "What did you say you stupid bitch?" He used a key to unlock a window in her cell door, brought his hand in and used his fist to hit her over the head. He pulled his fist back.
"You heard me, dumbass," Nora snapped, her hands curled into fists. She accepted the brief abused before she jammed her hands through the opening in the cell door and grabbed the man by his neck. The grip was awkward but that didn't stop her from squeezing as hard as possible.
The Lieutenant looked shocked for a second and then his face broke into a smile. A guard came up behind him and slammed his forearm down on Nora's wrists, forcing her to let go. The guard shoved her back and closed the door. The Lieutenant leered at her, rubbing his neck. He coughed once and then grinned. "That was good, very good. I thought they had broken you, but you're not broken, are you? Nah, we'll take care of that." He turned to the guard behind him. "Starting tomorrow. Mark it down." The guard nodded and wrote something down on a clipboard. The Lieutenant grinned at her again. "Yeah, this is gonna be fun."
Nora held fast to the man's neck and refused to let go until she had no other choice. That should leave a bruise. She withdrew her hands and met his gaze, her eyes sparked with a challenge. She wasn't going to give in easily. "You aren't going to break me. You can try all you want but it won't work. I'm going to break out of here and I'll kill all of you. The halls will run red with your blood," She snarled and stepped right up to the glass, her gaze didn't waver for a second. If only looks could kill………..
"Ooh, someone's a fighter." Lieutenant Herrin stepped towards the glass, right next to Nora's face. "we'll see how well you do when you're weak with hunger and sleep deprivation. Remember girlie, we control all that." He walked away.
Nora lifted up her hand and flipped up both of her middle fingers and kept glaring. "Bring it on, dipshit." They could starve her and take away her sleep but that wouldn't break her spirit. She leaved on the streets for years. That shit didn't bother her anymore.
The cell stayed cold. After several hours of nothing, the gas floated in the room again and the voices started playing.
After an eternity of drifting in and out of nothingness something finally happened. Rowan could smell it. A familiar sickly-sweet smell. She finally, finally drifted off and dreamed of a transport ship and a girl with blue hair.
Nora sighed heavily when she noticed the gas. Here we go again. She closed her eyes and waited for the fitful sleep to begin. Earlier, the voices would have bothered her much more but now she was motivated. She was going to get revenge. That gave her something to hold onto and to think about.
Rowan woke again. The same man was there. He attached something with a red light to her finger. "Can you let us go? We've been through so much," she said, her voice hoarse.
The man's face remained expressionless. "Let who go?" he asked carefully, though Rowan couldn't decet that in her weakened state. Rowan muttered something about not knowing and she heard the man tell someone to up the dosage. She fell back into darkness.
Nora sprawled out on the floor and propped her broken leg up on some rubble. Having it elevated helped for the pain. She yawned and closed her eyes. The voices were still trying to drill into her head but she did her best to block them out. She did, however, strain her ears when she heard someone from another cell singing. A few shouts for the dude to shut up echoed through the air. Then there was silence.
The gas subsided. The guards and the Lieutenant came around again, and the guards banged on the cell doors. In a flash, a guard opened Nora's cell door and stuck a needle in her neck before she had time to react. Lieutenant Herrin came up behind the guard. "Now that right there is a sort of tranquilizer. Makes it hard for you to move so we can get to you easier. The more we use, the more permanent it becomes, so let's play nice, yeah?" He smiled.
Nora had just managed to successfully fall asleep when she was jerked awake by the sensation of a needle being stabbed into her neck. She awkwardly jumped up and pain shot through her leg. "Fuck off!" Without hesitation, she spitted on the Lieutenant. The tranquillizer started to take effect after that. She leaned heavily against the wall. She felt as though she was being weighed down by bricks. Even her vision started to blur. She had a lot of different drugs in her system this week so this one's effect is even stronger due to her weakened body.
"Oooh." The Lieutenant clicked his tongue. "That's not playing nice. Mark her down for a repeat twenty-seven," he barked at the guard. He held out his hand and the guard handed him a syringe filled with a clear liquid. It was a hallucinatory drug, one of the strongest they had. It targeted a person's worst fears, put them in situations they didn't want to be in, made the people they love say the worst possible things about them, and made it seem as though they were hurting the people they loved. It allowed the dark corners of your brain to get creative. "Now, I'm not going to tell you what this is, cause where's the fun in that? But I will tell you that it gets stronger the weaker your body is." He tilted his head to look at Nora in her weakened state. "And you look pretty weak right now," he said as he plunged the syringe in her neck. He walked out of the cell and locked the door. "Have fun."
Nora glared daggers at the man, beyond furious. "Burn in hell, you rat bastard!" She lunged forward to grab at him but her feet felt too heavy. She sank down to the ground and leaned against the wall. "Fuck you!" She grabbed some dirt and rubble in her hand and threw it the retreating guards. Exhausted, she closed her eyes. She may as well sleep before whatever drug this was kicked in. A vision of her parents flashed in her head. This alone caused her to tense up.
"Nora!" Rowan woke up in a cold sweat. She had been dreaming about . . . someone. Someone important. She struggled to remember the details of her dream. The vision of a face danced on the edge of her brain, then it was gone. She blinked. She didn't feel as drowsy she just couldn't remember anything.
"Dad, tell mom to stop singing!" Nora exclaims, laughing as her mom butchers a popular pop song that's blasting from the radio. The family is on their way to the last karake competition of the season. "Lily, darling, I do believe that our daughter would appreciate it if you sang even louder. You know how much she enjoys your concerts." Joseph smiles lovingly over to his wife. The woman opens she mouth to speak but no words come out. A tracks barrels across the icy roads and slams straight into the side of the car. The car flips off of the side of the road and tumbles down the side of the hill. Flames leap up into the sky. "This is your fault!" The words screech through her head. Nora sits straight up as a panicked scream escapes her lips.
The doctor came in. "Ah, you're awake." He pressed a button on the side of the table Rowan was laying on and it brought her up into a sitting position.
Rowan's head jerked towards the sound of a scream. "What was that?"
The doctor shrugged. "You'll get used to it." He grabbed a clipboard and started checking Rowan's vitals.
"But I know that scream. . . . " Rowan kept her head turned.
Nora freaked the frick out when she started to see visions of Rowan being tortured and then murdered over and over again. Each and every time it was her fault. "Rowan!" She screeches. She climbed to her feet only to fall right back down again. Overwhelming panic enveloped her as she searched around desperately. "Rowan!" The screams continued until her voice went hoarse. This wasn't real. It couldn't be real. She dug her nails in her skin, leaving long bloody marks.
"No, you don't." The doctor looked like the words were painful to say.
Rowan finally turned to face him. "Who is Nora?"
The doctor froze for a fraction of a second, then went back to taking Rowan's blood pressure. The moment was over so soon that Rowan wasn't sure whether or not she had imagined it. "Your sister." He heard another scream and pushed a button under the table his medical supplies were on. On the other side of the closed door, a screen came down that would block out the noise from the outside.
Rowan shook her head. "No. I don't have a sister."
"Are you sure?"
" . . . No."
Nora tore into her skin. It was the one thing she knew was real. The pain helped keep her anchored. Scratch marks ran down her body, each was bright red and ugly. But it worked. The pain drive the flashes away. She huddled up in the corner of the cell and focused on the blood dripping down from the wounds. They would get infected quickly in this environment but it would be worth it. She would rather deal with the pain of being burned alive than deal with the pain of her memories. They stayed locked up for a reason.
The doctor was finished and had started to pack his things. “I don’t like not remembering.”
Keeping his head down he said, “I’ll answer one question not related to the word Nora.”
Rowan gasped softly. Her mind reeled. What could she ask? “Did I ever try to escape?”
The doctor smiled and closed his bag. “Once. You gave them hell. Took out eight guards with nothing but a pipe.” He turned around and walked out the door without another word, leaving Rowan to her thoughts.