I felt that big black hole opening up to swallow me, I wondered if I’d ever open my eyes again.
Honestly, I was getting to the point where, each time I lost consciousness, I almost hoped I’d never wake up.
I wanted to move. Every muscle in my body was cramped, but I didn’t have the strength to try to sit up or roll onto my side.
My appetite was completely gone, but I was so damn thirsty.
Luckily, I hadn’t pissed myself, but it was a little frightening that I had absolutely no urge to pee. Right now, I wished I wasn’t a science geek, and didn’t know so much about the human body. It would probably be better to be ignorant about what happens when your kidneys start shutting down.
Not a damn thing worked in the human body without water.
I grimaced as I tried to move my legs to see if I could get in a more comfortable position, but my leg barely moved an inch, and that small twitch created the most horrific pain I’d ever experienced.
The rebels had landed some pretty hard kicks to all of my limbs, probably to keep me from going anywhere. That prolonged beating session, combined with the pain of having my extremities tightly bound in one position, made moving even a single limb pure torture.
I definitely wasn’t a crier, but if I could have screamed and cried over the extreme torment my body was suffering right now, I probably would have.
Unfortunately, my tear ducts were bone dry, and my voice was nonexistent at the moment.
All I could do was squeeze my eyes shut, and hope I lost consciousness again.
Soon.
Very soon.
Because there was only so much agony a person could take.
Tiny dots of light appeared as I prepared myself to sink into another dark abyss.
Possibly the last one?
And then, I heard it—that horrible sound of metal grinding against metal as the guards removed the bars and barricades to the door from outside. I’d learned to fear that sound so damn much.
Because it meant they were coming into my prison for some reason, and their purpose had never been good.
My eyes popped open as I listened, not sure if I was just imagining the sound, or if someone was actually coming in.
Except…the noise was a lot more subtle, and not nearly as loud as the guards usually were when they yanked the steel barricades from the door.
I closed my eyes because those obnoxious little pinpricks of light wouldn’t stop dancing around in front of me, and I was convinced that I was hallucinating…again.
Just when I thought I was having a moment of clarity, turns out, I wasn’t.
I was still hearing and seeing things that weren’t real.
At one point, I’d even believed that Mac was here with me, urging me not to give up. To keep fighting this battle until I was rescued.
Obviously, I was hearing all kinds of crazy shit and seeing things that weren’t reality.
Just like I am right now.
That scraping sound wasn’t the guards coming to taunt me.
Or the rebel leader.
Nobody was coming to beat me senseless again.
It was nothing.
Just my brain playing tricks on me.
Nobody was coming.
Ever.
I couldn’t even remember the rebels checking anymore to see if I was dead or alive, but hell, I easily could have missed it since I rarely had a moment of reason anymore.
It’s time for me to face it. I’m not going to make it out of Lania alive.
Since I couldn’t take care of myself, I was going to die, and stay here until somebody stumbled over my skeletal remains someday.
Reluctant acceptance washed over me as I felt the blackness rising up to shut down my befuddled brain. Until…
“Taylor, can you hear me? I’m going to get you the fuck out of here.”
The voice was deep, harsh, and spoken next to my ear in a low voice that I could barely hear.
I tried to ignore the illusive voice, knowing it was just another manifestation of something I desperately wanted to hear.
It was just a little bit harder to block out a gentle hand on my neck. None of the apparitions I’d conjured up in my brain had ever…touched me. I wanted to swat the delusional sensation away, but I couldn’t.
It felt way too real.
“She’s alive,” the low baritone said.
“She has a pulse, and she’s breathing.” A second male voice said in a no-nonsense tone.
“Taylor, squeeze my hand if you can hear me,” the first voice insisted as he took my fingers into his grasp. “You need fluids, but