Page 42 of Wynter's Bite

The doctor withdrew his stethoscope from his bag and placed it below her collarbone. As he listened to her pounding heart, she glanced over his shoulder at the window. The tension in her shoulders eased as she saw that Justus was gone from view.

“And your heart rate is accelerated.” Keene made a clucking sound in the back of his throat. “This is most alarming. Were you imagining a voice speaking with you?”

She shook her head rapidly. “I was only lonely.”

“But that laughter was abnormal, I’m told. Deep, as if you were pretending to be a man.”

Bethany glared at the doctor and the guard. Damn them for intruding when she was on the verge of freedom. “Perhaps it is Greeves who is imagining things.”

Greeves spat. “I am not the loony here, you are.”

A low growl sounded from the window, but the men in her cell didn’t hear as they were too occupied voicing assumptions on her mental state. Keene with his usual pedantic lectures, Greeves with more crude sentiments.

“Either way, it is clear that you are overwrought,” the doctor finished. “I’m afraid I have no choice but to take you to the quiet room for a spell. That way all that is stimulating you will be suppressed.”

“No!” she shouted. If she went to the quiet room, Justus couldn’t get to her. “Please, no! I only need some rest.”

Doctor Keene looked at Greeves as emitted a tragic sigh. “It is as you say. She is in complete hysterics. Now if you’ll assist me?”

Bethany tried to lunge away, but Greeves and Keene seized her by the arms and hauled her out of the cell. For the first time in years, she kicked, struggled, and screamed at the top of her lungs. Perhaps Justus could then hear the direction she was going. Or perhaps her heart was merely breaking at being so close to her dreams being fulfilled only to have them cruelly torn from her grasp.

When Doctor Keene released her to unlock the door of the quiet room, Bethany broke free and ran down the corridor. If she could only make it down the stairs and out the front door, Justus could meet her in the lawn and carry her off with his preternatural speed.

“Justus!” she shouted, hoping he could still hear her. “Justus!”

As she rounded the corner, she crashed headlong into Nurse Bronson. The nurse emitted a garbled cry as they tumbled to the floor.

Before Bethany could utter an apology, her arms were seized and she was roughly yanked to her feet and dragged back down the corridor to the quiet room. Nurse Bronson followed behind with the enormous ring of clanking keys, her lips clamped in a severe frown.

Bethany struggled and called out Justus’s name, but it was all in vain. As the nurse unlocked the door, a sharp needle pierced the tender flesh of the crook of her arm.

“No,” she whispered, horrified. Some of the patients received injections to subdue them when they grew unruly, but Bethany had never been subjected to one. She was only given Keene’s tonic.

A wave of dizziness buckled her knees and her jaw went slack as she tried to call out. Only a feeble moan emerged, and to her humiliation, a stream of spittle trickled down her chin. Greeves squeezed her bosom painfully before shoving her into the dark, padded cell.

Keene looked down at her with quizzical, pitying eyes. “I’ll look in on you before I depart for my holiday. In the meantime, you must strive to calm yourself.”

As the door slid shut, She heard Greeves ask the doctor, “What do you suppose she meant when she was screaming for justice? Does she imagine she’s been subjected to some criminal mistreatment? This lot is pampered like spoilt children, I say.”

Keene sighed. “Who can fathom what goes on in the minds of the insane? We can only do our best to keep them calm and protect them from themselves and others.” His voice faded as the door latched and the lock clicked. “Now, let’s see to the poor patients that Miss Mead disturbed with her episode.”

Darkness pressed around Bethany like a leaden blanket, ominous and suffocating. She shifted only slightly and her back met the wall. Only the size of a closet, the quiet room was the most hated thing in this asylum. Its purpose may be to calm people, but the cramped cell made Bethany feel like a trapped animal. Her heart pounded in terror and she always felt like she couldn’t breathe.

Under the sway of the drug Keene injected her with, it was even worse. Her muscles felt like jelly and she couldn’t control even the most basic movements of her body. And Justus was out there.

Another grievous wail escaped her lips. If she was going to be locked in here until Keene’s departure, there was no way Justus could free her before Greeves fulfilled his dastardly promise.

Bethany closed her eyes as an unnerving spinning sensation engulfed her. But that only intensified the topsy-turvy feeling and made her stomach lurch. Her eyes sapped open, but the darkness pressed on her eyelids like lead weights, making her feel sleepy. Shaking her head, she willed herself to stay awake, just in case Justus would be able to get inside the asylum and find her.

But it was no use. The drug pulled her down into a pool of black unconsciousness.

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