Page 119 of Mind Maze

Oh my God.

I know her.

I know the body on this table.

LuLu. The failed young woman from the yacht that Solomon beat and raped. She’s dead now.

Who killed her?

How did she die?

A sob escapes me and I tenderly stroke her hair. “I am so sorry, LuLu.”

Her eyes open.

I shriek in terror. Wild brown eyes meet mine and she says, “Shh.”

Am I hallucinating?

Did they give me drugs to make me see things?

I stumble back, knocking into a table, overturning a tray of small metal tools. They hit the floor with a deafening clatter.

The door to the room opens and I know I’m caught.

I scream, thrashing against two men—Doc Junior and Seth—until they’re able to sedate me. Despair drags me under.

“…more before the Stem Lock procedure.”

“I disagree, Seth. I think she’s ready now.”

“Rushing the process could mean failure. We’ve put too much of ourselves into this to fail now. Trust me.”

I blink away my numbing, defeated thoughts and take in my new surroundings. I’m back in my room, strapped in, and staring at the blank wall.

More messed up videos.

My cheeks are still wet after my run-in with what I thought was LuLu’s corpse. But she opened her eyes and hissed for me to be quiet.

She’s alive.

And I’m, once again, unable to help her.

I’m disgusted with my life and how I ended up here.

This is what they want.

For you to give up.

My thoughts drift to the day I found myself in the box on the floor at the Crowne’s lunatic lodge.

I was scared, overwhelmed, and thoroughly confused.

But I got out.

I’ll get out again.

Seth comes into view and smiles at me. I shudder when he brings a tissue to my cheek to dry it. I’m locked into the head device, so I can’t move away from his touch.

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