Greetings and salutations to all. Thank you so much for the kind reviews. I was so afraid that no one would like my story, but I have yet to received one bad review. Then again, I haven't completed the story yet! I hope this chapter is also well received. BTW, ignore any spacing errors. That's not me, that's the damn document manager! Grrr!! Anywho, enjoy....and please remember, we writers live for reviews!
Nia could not completely wake up but she was aware enough of the unfamiliar sounds around her to know that she wasn't in her apartment. She was lying flat on her back on a soft bed in a dimly lit room. Her clothes had been removed, but her body was covered with a smooth fabric. She tried to move her arms and legs, but they felt like weights had been tied to them. Fortunately, there weren't any restraints across her chest, arms or ankles, but what good would restraints do anyway if her extremities felt like boulders?
She heard heavy footsteps approaching and her body went rigid with fear. Seconds later the creature from the alley was standing on her left. The bed was waist- level to the creature and she could practically feel its strength and superiority. Nia braced herself for imminent torture.
The sizable hand of the creature gripped her arm and lifted it off the bed. A cold wetness touched her skin, startling her. Nia tried to pull away, to scream, but her body was not cooperating in the least. The monster was about to amputate her arm and there was nothing she could do about it!
The cold began to fade into a dull sting, then suddenly Nia remembered that she had been shot in that arm. But what was the creature doing to her? She felt a velvety cloth being encircled around her arm several times and then was tied off. Was he tending to her wound? Why in the world would he do that? Nia felt the stinging wilt away until there was no sensation at all. She wished the effects of the drug would wear off as fast so that she could make an escape attempt.
The creature began smoothing the sheet flat over her belly, snapping Nia back to her current problem. She then felt a box-shaped device being pressed lightly against her abdomen.
Now what? Nia wondered as the gadget was swept side to side across her body. She felt a soft vibration on her flesh wherever it moved over her. The creature worked its way down her lower torso, even sweeping over her pubic area. Nia cringed, glad that there was a sheet between her nakedness and the machine. When the creature removed the box from her body and stomped away from the bed, Nia allowed herself to relax a little.
So far the torture had been painless, if not unnerving, but the worse part was that she didn't know what else he had in mind. She tried again to move her limbs, but she could only wiggle her fingers. Even her eyelids wouldn't stay open for long. What kind of drug did he give her that could immobilize her body, but not her mind?
Focus, Nia, said the little voice of survival in her head. You have got to get out of here! But how? She couldn't move and she could barely stay awake!
The creature returned shortly and Nia heard a clanking noise at the foot of the bed. The coverlet was pushed up her legs to her waist, and then her left foot was placed in a stirrup, followed by the right foot, causing her elevated knees to bump together. Nia's fear factor was rising. She tried to squirm about on the bed but couldn't keep the motion up for very long. She felt her toes wiggle in the strange stirrups and her lids fluttered, but that was about all. The drug still had a potent effect on her.
She wanted to get a look at her surroundings, maybe find the exit, so she tried again to open her eyes. It took more than one try, but finally her lids remained open and she could get a view of the room. It was dimly lit. The lights that she did see had a strange orange glow to them. There were holographic monitors in the peripherals of her vision, high up on the wall, but she couldn't see what was on the screens. Her vision was starting to go hazy, so Nia stopped trying to see to her left, blinked repeatedly to clear her eyesight and glanced up. The darkness above her was so thick that she couldn't even make out the ceiling. Maybe if there was a light above her she could focus on that instead of the panic that was bubbling up in the pit of her stomach.
All of a sudden, the darkness slid apart to the right of the bed and her gaze automatically traveled in that direction. An orange-white glow shone into her eyes, temporarily blinding her. She blinked the stinging sensation away and discovered that a set of doors on that side of the room had opened. Three beings similar to the one in the alley were exiting through those doors, only these were slightly smaller in frame and more graceful in their movements. Nia guessed that they might be females, but why were they leaving? Was that good news or bad news for her? And she still hadn't figured out why her feet were in stirrups, yet alone why she was naked from the waist down.
The doors slid closed with a soft hiss, but Nia could still sense the presence of one individual still in the room. Her pulse began to race. She didn't even know that others had been in the room with the creature from the alley, but now that they were gone she was scared out of her mind as to what would happen next. Several anxious minutes droned by, although Nia had no way of knowing how many. But when she heard the heavy footsteps coming her way again, she wished the minutes would tick on forever as she lay on the bed by herself. She wanted to scream, kick, spit- do something! But all she could accomplish was a grunt of aggravation.
The footfalls stopped right next to her and Nia found herself staring up at the same creature in the alley. He was still wearing his mask and that odd netting, but all of the gear that had been strapped to his back and arms were gone. He stood staring down at her, not moving for a short while, assessing her, Nia supposed. She wished she could look in his eyes, if he had any, and deduce what it was thinking, but regrettably, she could see nothing through those dark eyeports. She saw his arm raise again, then his big hand rested on her forehead. Nia's brows crinkled in confusion. If she didn't know better, that gesture seemed an awful lot like a caress. No, a monster like the one that had killed Donnell so viscously couldn't possibly be trying to set her at ease.
Nia forced her neck muscles to obey and she tossed her head to the opposite side, causing the creature's large hand to slip off her forehead, but it replaced his hand where it was before and this time he stroked her hair. Nia wanted to shake him off again, but she was too drained to move again, but she did manage a whimper of grievance.
The being turned away from the high bed and stalked away, only to return a bit too soon than Nia had hoped. His hand went to her neck and she heard a hiss and felt a familiar sting of pain.
Not again, Nia thought.
But no sooner than the words were out of her thoughts, her limbs began to feel heavier than they had before. He must have given her a bigger dose because the drug was working faster than it had previously. Nia let the medicine have its way with her. She new it would be useless to fight. Besides she didn't want to be awake while the thing tortured her for its unknown purposes. Her sense of touch was still working, however, because she could feel him stroking her forehead and hair again, which he continued to do until her fist unclenched, her muscles slackened and her mind drifted into another slumber.