Page 73 of Gemini
It took me a second to realize what had happened. That we had been hit. Pain shot up my arm, and I gritted my teeth as I slid the helmet off my head, letting it roll away. Before I could even sit up and look for Leslie, a group of men surrounded me. They took my arms and dragged me up, ignoring my cries of terror and pain. Panic overtook me as I searched around wildly.
Leslie. Where was Leslie?
I cried out as they pulled me toward the SUV. Then I saw the bike where it had smashed into a sign. Leslie lay limp beside it.
I managed to scream out his name before the men yanked me into the car, arms around me in a painful grip that I couldn’t hope to fight out of. They shut the door in my face, and the SUV took off. I got one last look at Leslie on his side before I was tugged back by my hair, a gun pressed to my face.
“Shut the fuck up and shut your eyes, sweetheart,” said a familiar voice in my ear. “Or your pretty head won’t be so pretty anymore.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Leslie
I was having a nightmare. One I used to have a lot as a kid but hadn’t experienced in years. I was lying on a cold metal slab in nothing but a pair of white boxers, my body frozen. I couldn’t move, but I was awake, my eyes staring at a bright light, unblinking. At the edge of my sight, I could see blobs of people moving around me. They got closer and looked down at me, studying me.
I was certain they were aliens, and they had abducted me. I could feel their tools poking and prodding me, their knives slicing me right down the middle. I couldn’t scream but I felt the searing pain in my abdomen as they moved my organs around, dissecting me like an insect.
The terror usually shocked me right out of the dream. When I was a kid, I’d wake up in a little room and find the nightmare was real. Except it wasn’t aliens but adults experimenting on me, hurting me. Sometimes when I woke up, I got sick and an old nurse would come in, force me back into a corner like an animal while she mopped it up, leaving my room wet and smelling likebleach. Sometimes I’d hear a tapping on the walls, either from Dom or from someone else. Other times I’d hear the cries and screams of the other kids.
This time, the nightmare and memory blended into one fucked up dream that I couldn’t escape. I pleaded like I was that kid again, begging for it to stop.
Stop.
Stop.
STOP.
LESLIE.
The voice was familiar but distant, screaming in my head. I jerked awake, and everything went dark.
I laid there staring at the ceiling, panting, body shaking, hot and cold at once. That didn’t bother me, I’d woken up like that plenty of times. It was the voice and the confusion, because I knew I wasn’t in my room and that scream had given me a feeling of dread.
It took my brain a second to fire on all ends before I started to realize why. I shot up, pain crawling up my back, my head throbbing, my stomach turning like I might get sick, but I forced it down.
Dom. Dom was in a wreck. And Lena…
The last thing I remembered was her being separated from me at the last second as that car hit my bike.
I was in the hospital. I wasn’t strapped down which was a good sign and I could move my limbs, another good sign. My left arm was wrapped, and it ached to breathe a little but I couldn’t find any other trauma. I was lucky in that, but I remembered how Dom had taken that roll. I had a bad feeling he hadn’t been as lucky.
He had to have gotten out. Because he was strong like me. I needed to find him. Then we needed to find Lena. She had to be okay. She better be okay. If she wasn’t…
That dread brought on the beginnings of a panic. I shifted off the bed, putting my shaking legs on the floor. I tugged off the IV in my arm and tried to stand, getting hit by a wave of dizziness.
Fuck.Fuck.
I forced myself back down and gripped the side of the bed, my body damp with sweat as I shut my eyes, trying to ride out the wave. I heard voices outside in the hall, feeling bad for whoever walked in and had to try and fight me first, because they would need a SWAT team to keep me here. I just needed to walk straight, just one step at a time, so I could start looking for my brother and girlfriend.
Footsteps approached and I waited for the squawk of surprise by some nurse at seeing me up then berating me, sending me over the edge.
The footsteps stopped. “Hello, Leslie…”
I opened my eyes and glared at the woman in front of me. A familiar red-faced blond with a disappointing look.
“What are you doing here?”
Andrea fixed me with a sad little smirk. “I work here, remember?” She approached me, looking over at the monitor. “Your vitals are better already, no surprise. Had a nice nap?”
