Page 109 of Mind Maze

Offered.

Fuck.

A wave of dizziness washes over me. I stumble across the hallway, crashing into the other wall this time.

I have to get out of here.

The elevator feels like it’s a thousand feet away rather than twenty or so. With sluggish steps, I try to make my way over to it without falling face first to the floor.

Voices echo from behind me.

Shouts of concern? Commands to stop?

I reach the elevators and clumsily mash at the button to call it up. Darkness creeps in my vision. This time when the worldspins around me, I miss the wall, landing hard on my knees instead. My chest is tight and feels like it might explode.

Am I having a heart attack?

No, I’ve been drugged.

Fuck.

The last thing I remember before everything going dark is the burn of the carpet tearing at the flesh on my check when I go down with a hard thump.

“I’ll take care of Calista.”

I hate him. I hate him so much. I want to leave and never come back. But what about her? I have to come back for her.

My sister—

The girl staring at me now is not a little girl at all but a grown woman who wears hickeys on her neck. That’s not how this happened. Everything’s all messed up. My brain is mixing up my memories, combining them into something wrong.

Wake up!

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I open my eyes, glad to be out of the twisted dream. I’m not in my bed, though, at the hotel or at home.

At home, I don’t have an oxygen line strapped to my head.

A desperate need to rip it away from my nose consumes me, but my body is completely numb. I can’t move. It’s like I’m so relaxed, my limbs don’t work.

Just my mind.

And it’s going a hundred miles per hour.

I start to panic, which makes my heart race. It takes considerable effort to calm the hell down.

What happened?

Where am I?

I was drugged.

And now I’m in the hospital, unable to move or speak.

My eyes feel heavy and it takes great focus to make them scan the room I’m in. It’s your typical hospital room, so there’s nothing to report.

I need my phone.

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