Somehow, Desmond knows it's blood on the walls. Maybe he's just seen enough of it in the animus by now, but it's like he can hear a voice in the back of his head telling him. It's blood, and he doesn't know whose it is or where it's come from. He feels like throwing up again, and he's glad he hasn't eaten anything since coming out of the animus yesterday. Or is it still today? It doesn't matter, he decides. The blood on the walls is starting to freak him out, not to mention the eagle vision...
He shakes his head sharply, and both the blood and the strange vision fade. Desmond breathes a sigh of relief, glad to be back to normal. He's heard of the Bleeding Effect from Lucy. He doesn't want to start seeing that strange way Altair does. He doesn't want to lose his mind.
Although he doesn't feel like he's losing his mind. Actually, he feels better than he has in a long time. Definitely better than when he went to sleep last night. He's still stuck in Abstergo with no way out. Vidic's probably still going to kill him as soon as he gets the chance. But for some reason, he doesn't feel as alone anymore.
He frowns. It's the same feeling he gets in the animus when he syncs with Altair. Maybe he is bleeding, after all. He paces the room for a few minutes, trying not to look at the walls. He can't see anything there anymore, but the memory is fresh enough to keep his eyes on the floor. He feels restless, and he's just starting to think about going into the main room, the one one with the animus, when he hears something through the door.
He hesitates. It sounded like a thump, like someone tripping or sitting down on the floor. But when he doesn't hear anything else, he decides he must have imagined it, and steps through the unlocked door.
He hadn't imagined anything. He's scarcely taken two steps when he freezes, eyes fixed on the other three people in the room with him. One looks like a cleaning lady, bent over the puddle of sick he left next to the animus earlier, a rag in her hands and a bucket of soapy water next to her on the floor. The other two are men, large and muscled, both carrying guns. They look like security, there to make sure the cleaning lady isn't an assassin spy maybe, and Desmond has half a second to wonder if he can get back into his room before anyone notices. And then it's too late.
One of the guards looks up, and yells, "he's escaping!" Desmond thinks about bolting but there's nowhere to run, and the guard are on him before he knows it. He can't fight back. He's spent days in the animus, inside Altair's body, fighting with him, but he can't do it on his own, and it only takes seconds for his world to fall into pieces, shattering into a million shards of pain and fear. Something breaks and he whimpers, and the guards are laughing now. They don't care if they kill him, he realizes, and he wonders if they'll be in trouble from Vidic or if the old man's just decided that Desmond isn't needed anymore.
He curls up as best he can, but it's not enough. It hurts. He hears screaming but it's not his. Maybe the cleaning woman. Then another voice yells "No!" It sounds like Lucy, but he can't make himself care right now. Everything hurts, and there's nowhere to run except deeper into his mind. He gives up control, and lets his mind fall into blackness.