Page 192 of The Sinner's Bargain

He didn’t understand.

“I don’t want to leave Thoran,” I whispered. “I’m happy for the first time in my life and I want to have a family with him. That’s all I want. I won’t tell anyone about your experiments. I won’t. I don’t care. I just ... I just want to be with Thoran.”

He lowered his arm and for a heart fluttering moment, I thought maybe he would agree.

“I’m sorry, Naya. I really, truly am. I wish I could make you see that I really don’t want this, but I have a responsibility as a scientist to help the world. Now,” he started around the table, syringe in hand, “I’m going to inject this under your toenail, okay?”

My adrenaline took that moment to spin into overdrive and I bounded out of the chair. Oliver seemed momentarily startled, but that didn’t last when I snatched up the back of the chair and swung. The piece of wood would have collided with his face if he didn’t backhand it at the last second. The needle slipped from his fingers and hit the floor. The chair sailed into the corner and hit the wall before crashing to the ground.

“Naya!” he snapped in the tone of a disappointed father. “Now it’s filthy.”

Exhaling, he bent down and scooped the poison up. Rather than chase me down, he went back to the other side of the table and found a small packet of alcohol wipes. He shook his head while he cleaned the needle carefully.

I didn’t wait for him to come at me again. I tore off in the direction of the wall where the door was ... somewhere. I ran my hands up and over the cold stones, pushing and pounding and finding nothing.

“You’re going to hurt yourself,” Oliver warned gently. “Don’t put bruises on you that will make Thoran wonder. We want him to think you died naturally.”

“I’m twenty!” I snarled over my shoulder. “There is no reason for him to believe I just died naturally.”

“That’s why we need to make sure he suspects nothing out of the ordinary.”

He was truly and utterly insane. He had to be.

Satisfied, he started towards me once more and I scrambled to the opposite end of the room.

“Naya, please don’t do this. I’m trying to help you.”

“You’re crazy,” I retorted.

I raced towards the alcove and drums, thinking I could use one of the lids as a weapon.

“No! Don’t touch those!”

Oliver barreled towards me with a mad urgency that had me tightening my fingers around the icy metal.

It was heavy and took all my strength, but I heaved my body into the side and upended the entire thing across the dirt floor.

Putrid, rancid water burst from the top and arched into the air as the lid popped off and the contents congealed over my feet and flopped lifelessly in a puddle of blood stained urine.

I screamed.

I screamed even before my brain could register the horror wrapped around my ankles.

I screamed as it twitched and rippled.

I stood paralyzed as all I could do was expel the air from my lungs and shred my esophagus.

It moaned and slithered, and I threw myself away as my motor skills finally kicked in and I could move. I was clambering onto the second table without even realizing as Oliver dove to scoop it back into the barrel with his bare hands.

It was human.

It wasn’t human.

It had a head on its shoulders and tentacles for arms and no eyes, but two noses and one ear, and long, straggly hair and no lips and a tail. It had breasts with a tiny, shriveled penis and pussy lips. It had two legs in different sizes and colors. It was moving, but dead. It was dead. The human was dead, but the animals moved and writhed.

I threw up.

I hit the table on all fours and emptied everything including my stomach lining. It splattered over my hands and ran down my front. I was crying and still screaming, and it was moving and struggling as Oliver wedged it back into the bin.

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