Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
The tingling becomes a burning and I push my rolling chair back from the microscope, yanking off my goggles and blinking hard.
What the hell?
I lift my hand to my face but stop just before making contact. Instead, I hurry to the bathroom, shouldering past someone on their way out.
“Hey man, watch out!”
I ignore him and make my way to the mirror, shoving my face towards the glass. It doesn’t look that bad. There was only the smallest incision from where Adams class ring caught my cheek last night when he punched me, but now the whole area is puffy and red.
But then, as I watch, red vein-like spindles begin to spider outwards. Down my cheek. Up towards my left eye.
I stumble back from the mirror, grunting in shocked surprise.
But it’s not stopping.
It only accelerates as I watch.
I reach my phone to call 911 but by the time I’ve dialed, the mirror is already revealing a monster.
The infection or whatever it is, is spreading like spilled ink through the veins of my face. And I’m being lit on fire from within. Hellfire. Burning me alive from the inside out.
I vaguely hear the 911 operator over the phone I dropped to the floor but I’m too busy screaming to answer. Without thinking, I raise my hands to my face but as soon as I make contact, the infection spreads to my fingers.
I burst out of the bathroom looking for somebody, anybody to help. But the first person to see me, Sandra from research and development, screams and drops the files she’s holding.
“Help,” I try to say, but my throat is burning.
I collapse to my knees and that’s when I realize I’m dying.
A slow clap comes from the corner. I lift my face, that now feels like an inferno, just in time to make out Adam’s satisfied smirk as he stands and claps, as if me dying in front of him is some sort of performance art.
I lunge for him but someone else catches me in their arms.
“Logan!” Daphne tries to catch me, but I’m too heavy, and we both topple to the ground.
No! The only possible thing that could have made this worse is having her witness it. But I’m wrong, so wrong. There is something worse.
Because when I finally managed to pull myself off of Daphne, I see her looking at her own hands in confusion. Seconds before they too begin to redden and then start to disintegrate before my very eyes.
Her ear splitting scream of terror and confusion is the last thing I hear before—
My eyes shoot open and I bolt upright. Or at least I try to.
I barely make it an inch before the restraints strapped around my body on all sides keep me in place.
Because I’m strapped down to a fucking hospital bed. And this isn’t a kinky game of power exchange with my Daphne.
I don’t know where I am but I know I don’t want to be here.
Especially when the door opens and an orderly pops his head in. Then I hear a whispered exchange.
“It’s your turn. I don’t want to have to deal with that crazy fucker again today. Did you see what they’re giving him in his drug cocktail? They should be sedating him but instead they are giving him—” he mentions some drug I’m not familiar with. I guess the other nurse isn’t either, because then he clarifies, “It’s basically LSD. I don’t know what the hell they’re thinking. That shit’s just going to wind him up and make him twice as crazy while he’s all strapped up like that.”
“But we get hazard pay and a half,” says another male voice. “And I got bills to pay.”
“Yeah, I guess,” the other guy mutters, though he doesn’t sound happy about it. “Don’t know what good that’s going to do me if I got a broken neck. You see Nick? That guy’s a giant, right? But even Nick got two of his teeth knocked out bringing this guy in.”
My own teeth grate as I strain against the restraints, looking for any weakness I might exploit. But there’s so many damn straps up and down my arms and legs, even if I got one free, how the hell am I going to get out of the rest?
Because I have to get back to Daphne. Fuck. Daphne. She can’t handle this kind of stress right now. It’s literally one of the worst things for someone in her condition. How long have I been here? How long since the…the wedding?
My hands fist. I am going to fucking kill Adam Archer for ruining that moment for Daphne. The memory of him clapping while I disintegrate from flesh-eating bacteria in front of him… Bile burns up my throat.
Of course, that’s not exactly how that day went down. I went to the bathroom, saw the redness and swelling, and a couple hours later when the stinging continued, I went to the doctor. And after some tests came back, was immediately admitted to the ICU.