Page 63 of Darling Wildfire
Survive.
Why I suddenly wanted to survive and not die, I wasn’t sure. Revenge? Human nature? Maybe it was simply the fact breathing was something tangible to focus on because anytime I tried to grab onto a thought it left as quickly as it came. So I simply took one breath after another and let my eyes fall shut as the darkness dragged me under.
30
THERON
I woke up to water being splashed on me. I sputtered and choked on the onslaught but then frantically tried to gather what I could as it ran into my mouth. I welcomed anything to ease the intense thirst plaguing me. A man came over and released my wrists leaving me unrestrained but I didn’t even have the strength to sit up. Vetticus walked over and stood with his hands shoved into his pockets, a smirk on his face.
“We’re going to play a game,” he said. “I’m going to give you an order. If you obey, you get rewarded, if you disobey, you get punished.”
I stayed where I was on the ground; the anger towards him flared again, but it gave me less strength than last time and it was hard to hold on to. My body wanted rest and didn’t want to entertain my frantic, volatile mind.
“Sit up,” Vetticus said.
He stared at me for a long moment when I didn’t move. A slow and cruel smile pulled at his lips and electricity shot through me. It originated from my spine and locked up my entire body in a painful rigor. When it stopped, the pain left immediately, replaced by a deep soreness. I glared up at Vetticus who pulled a device from his pocket.
“We put a chip between your shoulder blades,” he said. “It has many uses—GPS, identity marker…but also delivers a nasty shock whenever I press this button. Now, I’ll ask again—sit up.”
Before I could think about it too hard, I struggled to my knees.
“Crawl to me,” Vetticus said.
I looked at him through narrowed eyes. There was an evil hunger there as his mouth curled into a smirk. He made a show of it as he lifted the device and hovered his finger over the button.
I didn’t move.
He pressed the button, and I collapsed again.
“Crawl to me,” Vetticus repeated.
I rolled onto my stomach and laboriously got to my knees again. Istared at him, my stubborn nature refused to give him the satisfaction of my submission. He shook his head in amusement and shocked me again. It seemed to go on longer this time.
It stopped, and I groaned as I pulled myself once more to my knees, only to topple sideways as the room spun. I caught myself on my forearm and waited until the room grew solid once more.
“Pride has no place here,” Vetticus said. “Crawl to me.”
Again, I refused.
Again, he shocked me.
This time when it stopped, I fell forward with my face pressed against the concrete. The tears poured down my cheeks as my eyes watered. Every muscle was sore, and I turned my head and rested my forehead against the ground. I pulled one laborious breath after another into my aching lungs. My body screamed at me to stop this, to just submit, but my mind broke down every reason not to.
He could not win.
“Crawl. To. Me,” he demanded.
I sucked in breath after breath and refused to lift my head. The chains shivered against the concrete as my body shook from shock and fatigue but still the small voice in my mind refused to obey him.
When the shock came again, I passed out before it ended.
I don’t know how long I was out for.
When awareness slowly came back to me, I was alone and they hadn’t restrained me again, which told me they didn’t think I was a threat. I didn’t blame them. I was barely coherent. I rolled onto my back and that effort alone caused me to break out in a sweat.
My mind tripped over itself as I struggled to form any kind of thought about my situation. I would not win like this. My body would give out before my mind ever did and if I had any hope of taking out my rage on this man, I needed to be able to at least stand on my own. At the moment, I wasn’t even sure I could get to my knees.
I closed my eyes and took one deep breath after another drifting in and out of consciousness. I hated to admit it but Vetticus was right—pride didn’t have any place here. As much as it physically made me ill to think about—I needed to play his game. I needed to focus on survival. Time didn’t exist anymore, just the amount of breaths I took as I willed my body to stay with me.
