Only she was.
Terrified in fact.
But she’d made a promise to herself not to give in to that fear and let it consume her. So to that end, since she couldn’t come up with a sassy remark, she merely held the gaze of the man standing beside her bed, ready to put her to sleep so he could steal her organs.
Just because they didn't want to see her as a human being, one just like them with hopes and dreams for her future, plansand goals, didn't mean she wasn't. And she wanted them to be reminded of that, even though she knew it wouldn't change anything.
The drug was injected into her IV, and almost immediately, she began to feel sleepy.
Even though she knew she would wake up on the other side of this operation, they weren't going to kill her just yet, when there was so much more money to be made keeping her alive as long as possible and harvesting as many organs as they could, she wouldn't wake up the same as she was right now.
When consciousness returned, she would be missing another organ.
One she could live without, but it would still be a piece of herself gone.
Pushed into oblivion by the drugs, the world faded to black around her, but at the very last second, she could have sworn she felt a small sting on the inside of her elbow. Right where her IV was connected.
There was no time for her to examine the feeling, try to figure out what it was, or wonder if she’d merely imagined the whole thing, because she passed out.
Only then there was more pain, a sharp stabbing one in her stomach right where her partly healed wound was.
“Stay still, don’t move,” a voice murmured close to her ear, but the words took a while to penetrate.
Why was someone telling her to be still?
And who did the voice belong to?
It was familiar, yet she couldn’t seem to place it.
More voices spoke around her, chattering away too fast for her to be able to make out the words.
The energy from them seeped into her mind, though.
Panicked, angry, scared.
That’s how the voices sounded, but she still couldn’t figure out what was going on.
“Can you hear me?” that same voice spoke, this time low and hurried. Urgent.
Try as she might, her head was still too stuffy to be able to use her brain properly. Everything was fuzzy, and she wasn't sure what was real and what was just an illusion.
“I need you to wake up, we don’t have much time. I think … I think someone is coming for us, but I'm afraid they’re going to kill us before we can be rescued. I won’t let that happen. But I really need you to wake up,” the voice finished, desperation bleeding into the tone.
Someone coming for them?
Rescue?
The trafficking ring.
The surgery.
It all came filtering back in as the fuzziness in her head receded enough that she could focus again and access her memories.
She was supposed to be unconscious, put to sleep so she could be operated on. Why was she awake, and what had been the pain in her stomach?
Blinking open heavy eyes, she saw the nurse standing beside her. William, the one who had loosened the strap binding her wrist to the bed so that she could activate the tracker. That had been a couple of hours ago, so by now there was every chance that Prey was already mounting a rescue.
“Coming?” she asked. Her throat felt dry, and her voice came out scratchy, but William nodded, relief evident in his dark eyes.
