After a very long hiatus, without further ado, here's chapter 20.
Summary: When Macey is kidnapped by the Circle while defending Cammie, can they rescue her in time? Or better yet, will Macey survive the ordeal?
Author's note: Unless otherwise mentioned, this story will take place from Cammie's POV.
Chapter 20
"Blame It On Bad Luck"
MACEY
You want to know what I've really started to love recently? Sleep.
Sleep is nice, sleep is good, sleep is… ugh, sleep is being disturbed. A steady, shrill beeping began to cut through the fog in my senses to pull me out of this blissful sleep and back into the bruised, achy-ness of my body. But as the steady beeping became louder and clearer, a splitting headache came along for the ride. A dry-throated groan escaped my lips.
"I think she's waking up," someone said. Footsteps drew nearer to… well, wherever I was. They seemed to echo. Just like in my prison cell…
No… no, not again. I'm not going to let them take me again. Anything but that!
"Ms. McHenry?"
My eyelids quivering slightly with the effort, I forced my eyes open slightly, squinting at the painful white light around me. Blurry forms filled my vision as though I was underwater. I became aware of the fact that I was laying down. A cold mass was on my forehead. Something was in my throat, almost activating my gag reflex. Were they trying to drug me now?
A few painful blinks and I forced my hands into fists, immediately regretting doing so to my broken and battered left hand as the broken segments cracked and popped slightly, but I'd need both of my hands as a weapon. I couldn't feel any restraints. Countless P&E maneuvers came to mind, the motions of them automatic and trained into me during my time at Gallagher. I knew I wasn't anywhere near Bex's level, but it would do for now. I've learned that adrenaline, desperation and fear made punches harder, faster. In the real world, you don't spar. You hit to injure and incapacitate.
Heart pumping in my ears, I tried to use the panic to fuel my energy for escape. I knew the hallway now: immediate right out the door, thirty-four feet straight before taking a sharp left and then-
"Macey, are you alright?"
My thoughts slowed. Why are my captors asking if I'm alright?
No. It must be another trap of some kind.
Right?
I blinked rapidly to clear the fog from my vision, the faces above me slowly beginning to focus. They seemed familiar…
A soft but firm hand grabbed my own left one. It gave me reassurance. "You won't be needing those, dear."
I realize now that it was Cammie's mom who said that as she came fully into focus, urging me to unclench my balled up, shaking fists. Her eyes were alert and focused on me, her face quizzical and cautious at the same time. Abby hovered behind her, glancing back and forth from a medical chart to me. She took a step forward as I hesitated, looking ready to spring into action if necessary.
I quickly unclenched my fists, taking a relieved gasp of air in the process. The oxygen mask covering my mouth and nose fogged up.
"I'm sorry," I croaked, my voice echoing in the mask. I relaxed back into the bed I was lying in. BED, not metal chair or table. Knives shot up my throat as I coughed. Shaking, I lifted up my bandaged hands slowly to my eye level, looking them over as though they were brand new to me. "I just… reacted. Overreacted. I thought I was still… that you were…"
I trailed off and didn't finish. But I think they got the hint.
Cammie's mom nodded, smiling slightly. Her eyes held a slight sadness in them. "I understand."
She moved her hand up to my wrist and began taking my pulse. Her touch was light, soft, and accurate. Nothing like my own mother's. It made me envious of Cammie. Of her upbringing. Of her family. Of her life.
"How are you feeling?" Abby asked.
I tore my eyes away from Ms. Morgan to look at her. I thought for a second, my thoughts sluggish. As weird as it sounds, I was embarrassed by all of the attention. "My head hurts."
Abby nodded. "Any dizziness?"
I thought for a second, tuning in with my body. "Yeah."
"Tingling?"
"I don't think so…"
"Nausea?"
"A little."
She jotted down some notes on the chart as Ms. Morgan dropped my wrist. "What do you remember?"
"Ummm…" I racked my brain.
"Since when?" I asked. I paled thinking of re-telling the story from the Roseville Day Parade again…
"Before you passed out," Abby clarified.
A blank immediately came up, but I forced my aching head's gears to turn, to think. "You woke me up in the infirmary chair. I had passed out doing schoolwork," I explained sheepishly before continuing. "Then we starting doing the checkup and then… and then…"
Abby nodded with focused eyes, urging me to continue, but my mind had gone blank again.
"What did we do during the checkup?" she asked, trying to encourage me in the right direction.
"What we normally do," I answered. "…and then the light test. You kept swinging it back and forth… and then…"
I bolted up into a sitting position, reaching to pull the oxygen mask from my face despite suddenly feeling unable to breathe. Abby held up a hand in reassurance. "Breathe, Ms. McHenry. You're alright."
"You put me back in that cell," I managed, not wanting to slow down, not bothering to pause. I had to get it out before I lost it. "I was back in that cell in Norway and then… the numbers."
"Numbers?" Abby and Ms. Morgan were both focused on me, no doubt memorizing every word, every inflection of my voice, reading every facial movement and eye twitch.
"So many of them…" I stammered, the edges of my vision starting to blur. "Too many of them… in my head…"
Suddenly, a headache nearly split my skull into two pieces, the pain blinding me. I squeezed my eyes shut and grabbed my head in my hands, hoping the physical touch would somehow transfer the splitting pain from my head to my hands, anything to make it stop!
"Ms. McHenry?!" Abby's voice sounded very panicked and very far away. The shrill beeping of the machine I was hooked up to got faster. Hands grabbed my upper forearms. "Macey, I need you to focus on me, alright? Focus on your breathing."
I could faintly hear Ms. Morgan shouting for an additional nurse.
Through the pain, I tried to somehow switch my brain off, to stop thinking about it. About anything but my breathing.
Slowly, painfully, the splitting pain slowed to a dull ache. The shrill beeping calmed to a slower (but still fast) flutter.
"'M sorry," I managed, panting. "I don't know… w-what's h-happening."
Cautiously, fearfully, I cracked my eyes open to the worried face of Abby, who was still holding my forearms supportively. I took comfort in the touch.
"It's like, whenever I try and remember what they were, it's like it's—"
"Blocked."
I looked at Abby, who had finished my sentence with an air of knowing something that I didn't. Don't get me wrong, I pick up on that air quite a bit at Gallagher. I just never knew how much until I found out the exact reason for them letting me in in the first place.
Abby was still looking at me expectedly as she waved off the additional nurses, who seemed stunned by the young girl sitting at her bed in a panic (a.k.a. me). "Y-yeah… blocked," I confirmed. I felt safe enough to let go of my head, and did so cautiously, slowly dropping them back onto my lap, leaning over them in exhaustion. Tiny spiders seemed to be creeping through my veins, making my whole body tingle. I shivered involuntarily.
Abby pursed her lips. "Did you happen across any intel during your captivity? Anything at all relating to these numbers you're talking about?"
I sighed. We had been through this all before in the de-brief, and I didn't particularly want to re-tell everything again. But I thought about her question. Hard.
"I don't know," I said slowly. Fear settled into the pit of my stomach, right below the still-gaping, burning hole in my side.
I lifted my head to look her in the eyes. "I don't know."
There are a lot of things I don't know, but of all the things I didn't, those words scared me most of all.
Hello all! I apologize for the absurdly long time it took for me to update this. I was quite busy with a number of things, including college and graduation, and thankfully I've gotten back to writing again after finding the Gallagher Girls books on my shelf again.
Expect this chapter to update itself soon! I'd like to expand on it more but was also itching to give you guys something. Let me know your thoughts in a review or private message! Every review is always read and appreciated!
Best,
Author