Her eyes flickered from behind her eyelids as awareness started to seep through her clouded mind. Fluttering them open, her surroundings were nothing but a blur, the light sending a dull pain through her straining eyes, making her close them again. Groaning, she went to move her hands to her head, but they resisted. Strange, she tried to move them again but to no avail.

Frowning, she forced her eyes to blink open; her mind slowly caught up with her causing her to yank on her hands insistently. As she looked down, she noticed her hands and legs were restrained with thin silver chains pulled tightly against her skin, making the areas red and itchy; the chains were wrapped well around the wooden chair she sat on, making it impossible for her to free her limbs.

All at once, panic kicked in, images from the night before flashed across her eyes, how she went for a run, was chased by not only wolves but men, and then she was hit over the head not once but twice with a fricken baseball bat!

Kidnapped. She has been kidnapped.

Well done Aila, you have royally screwed yourself this time.

She started to yank her hands and legs continuously, causing the chair to make creaking sounds as her shoulders and chest shook from the amount she moved. Letting out a frustrated yell, she slouched back down into her chair.

Think, Aila, think!

Her body suddenly felt exhausted and weak, her strength diminishing. She did not realise moving so much would cause her to feel so frail. Wait, had she been drugged? There was no other possible explanation of how she was feeling right now, even a hit to the head would not make her feel like melting and being one with the chair.

Aila’s eyes searched the room maniacally. To her side stood some bland, brown cabinets, and on top of those cabinets lay syringes and glass tubes. Looking above the surface, she saw torn posters of the human body stuck to the walls, and across from her was a moth-eaten single bed with leather straps attached to it.

Her nose crinkled at the faint smell of antibacterial and cleaning products. Realisation dawned on her; she was in some type of a hospital. Looking back at the bed, she assumed it was a mental institution because no hospital would restrain their patients, surely?

Chuckling to herself, a thought crossed her mind; maybe she was in the right place, after all, what happened to her couldn’t possibly be real. A gun, wolves, crossbow-man, then baseball-bat man, why would they want to kill her then want to kidnap her? Maybe she was overworked and tired, dreamed the whole thing up, and lost sight of reality, and well… here she was. If she ever got out of this place, she might take some time off for herself.

Before her thoughts whirlwind any further into that rabbit hole.. the door swung open. A bold-headed man stormed into the room, slamming the door shut behind him as he grabbed another chair and twisted it around, so he sat on it back to front. They sat there in silence for what seemed forever in Aila’s mind, but she did not back down from his searing, intimidating gaze.

His jaw started to twitch after a while. Nervousness began to bubble up inside her as the overbearing silence became too much in the bland hospital room. Aila gave in and spoke up,

“I am a poor student. I don’t have any money.”

The man smiled menacingly at her, “We don’t want money.”

Aila frowned at his response, then panic set in as her heart started to thud loudly again. If they didn’t want money, then they wanted her body? Her crystal blue eyes widened before tears began to form in them, blurring her vision of the man in front of her.

“Please-“

“Stop with the waterworks mutt. It won’t work here.”

She involuntarily gulped, blinking her eyes, so her vision was clear once again; she searched his eyes for any form of humanity, but there was none, just blank eyes stared back at her, devoid of any emotion. There was once again silence filling the room, and she became nervous, she wanted answers, and she wanted them now. Feeling courageous, she tilted her chin up and stared back at her kidnapper,

“So, what DO you want?”

His lips twisted in distaste,

“To get rid of you. But orders are orders.”

“Rid of me? So, this is just some extravagant way to fill your killing tendencies, kidnap an innocent girl, then kill her. I’ve watched crime shows. I know how this works. Psycho!” She spat back at him,

“Innocent! HA! You are no innocent. You are an abomination to humankind.”

“I will have you know I am a veterinary student. I help animals and people alike. You are the abomination here-“

SMACK

Her head abruptly turned to one side; the force of his punch was so hard she nearly fell over, bringing the chair down with her. But she kept herself balanced and glanced timidly back at the man who now stood tall in front of her, his own chair dashed to the side with a loud crash. He grabbed her by the front of her hoody, bringing his face closer to hers as he pointed a single finger to her face,

“I am a hunter. There is no greater honour than killing mongrels like you. You should be fucking lucky right now that I haven’t put a silver bullet in that pretty little head of yours.”

She sucked in a breath, eyes wide as she stared into the bottomless pits that were his eyes.

“I may have orders not to kill you, but they didn’t say anything else about torture.”

He started to walk to the cabinets at the side while Aila began to visibly shake at the thought of being tortured. When she read books and watched shows on these situations, she always thought that if she were in their place, she could bear through the pain, but he wasn’t trying to get answers out of her; he was going to torture her for enjoyment. Her eyes widened as he brought a syringe towards her.

“What.. what’s in that?” She stuttered.

His eyes gleamed with delight as he held the syringe up to his face; eyeing the clear contents, he pulled on the lever to squirt a bit of liquid out.

“This right here is wolfsbane.” He said as a malicious grin spread on his lips.

He held up another syringe with silver liquid in it, “And this is liquidised silver. With a few other components to make sure it stays a liquid,” He said dismissively.

He looked back at her waiting for a reaction, and when he saw none, his smile disappeared, and he lunged towards her, shoving the syringe harshly into her neck.

“Ahh!”

Aila clenched her teeth together after the syringe’s initial shock of sharply piercing her skin in such a delicate area. But the pain was nothing compared to what was next; he pushed the clear liquid into her. A hot, burning sensation shot from her neck and riveted through her body; she felt herself start to shake as her face scrunched up in pain. She felt as though she was on fire. Her veins in her neck were ready to burst, she could feel it. Tears fell down her cheeks as a scream finally escaped her lips.

Her kidnapper smirked at the sight in front of him, “Stupid fucking mutt.”

She took another right hook to the face and then to her stomach, making her breath escape her lungs in a loud gasp as she leaned forward from the impact. Her kidnapper pulled an unpleasant look at the proximity of their faces, grabbing her by her ponytail; he yanked her to sit back in the chair. Although his punches were painful, her body was still ablaze on the inside. It took all of her energy to stay awake and see through the cloud of pain.

“Why?” She gasped out; she couldn’t understand such a horrible man.

Instead of answering, he landed another blow to her face; stars danced in front of her darkened vision now as she blinked slowly. Just as he was about to strike her again, the door opened, stopping him from his assault. Aila inhaled deeply, trying to get as much oxygen back in her body as she felt winded from his attack. Her thoughts swirled chaotically in her mind, not paying heed to the newcomer in the room.

“Why’s this bitch got special treatment?”

Aila sluggishly brought her head up to see what the interruption was. Hell, she was not complaining; anything was better than having that psychopath beating the living daylight out of her. But his comment caught her attention. There was a reason she was here and why she was being kept alive. However, she could not make out what the newcomer said.

She assessed his looks instead while she strained her ears to listen. The new kidnapper was wearing a white lab coat, his brown hair messy with stubble going across his jaw, and his circular glasses kept slipping down the bridge of his nose that he kept pushing back up as they continued in a heated discussion. Their voices were loud enough now that she could hear what they were saying.

“I thought she was a rogue!” The first kidnapper snapped

“She’s the one.”

“She can’t be. I can’t even see the wolf in her. The only way she has shown she is one of those mutts is how the wolfsbane affected her. She has to be a rogue.”

“If she were a rogue, do you really think the boss would stop you from killing it? They look exactly the same, Connor. We will be rewarded handsomely for this.”

The bold-man, Connor, shut his mouth at ‘lab coat’s’ last comment. Aila’s interest was piqued even more after hearing, ‘she’s the one’ and ‘they look exactly the same’ from their hushed debate.

“Hey,” Her voice came out sluggish, her interruption not gaining their attention, she cleared her throat, “HEY, I hate to interrupt a lovers quarrel, but if you are talking about me, I’d rather it be to my face.”

They both turned to look at her. The man in the lab coat pushed his glasses up; as astonishment shone on his face. Whereas Connor came towards her and backhanded her. He turned around to face ‘lab coat’ again, unbothered by his actions.

“She is still alive. I don’t see what the big deal is”

“We need the results to be as accurate as possible. You are causing delays by weakening the specimen before I get started. You have orders, now take it to a cell, the boss will not be pleased if it is still in this state when he arrives” Lab coat’s voice was direct before he looked down at his clipboard, muttering to himself about numbers, before turning around and leaving the room.

A sigh of relief left her as she realised she was not staying in the room with Connor but to be taken to a cell. It was still not her ideal situation, but anything must be better than being Connor’s punching bag all the time.

He looked back at her and sneered at her reaction before spitting on the floor by her feet,

“You will wish you’d never been born after he has experimented on you.”