Dying For You

Chapter 5

A light shines in my eyes, waking me up. I open my eyes to see the woman sitting in the other room; she called it my bedroom, where I could see her thru the open door. She is just sitting there watching me and crying. She cries a lot.

She notices that I'm awake, and her eyes go big as she stops wiping her tears. She picks up something to write with and then shows me when she is done. I lean forward and squint some so I can read it; since she wrote it so small, I have to lean forward on my knees, getting a little closer.

'I didn't mean to scare you. I was going to get you when dinner is ready, but I didn't want to disturb you; then I started thinking about how much I've missed you.'

The man suddenly appears, looking down at me, standing between us. I back up as far as I can until my back hits the wall behind me. He sighs, looking at me, then walks over to the crying woman.

He squats down next to the woman, putting his hand on her cheek, but she doesn't seem to be in pain. Why does the crying woman come around more than the man? Who are they?

"Wh-who are you?" I ask.

They both look at me for a moment. He stands up, suddenly walking towards me. I pull my knees into my chest, preparing for his anger. He stops outside of the door, though. The woman waves at me, getting my attention. I glance at her to see she has written something else.

'Where are you ok with him being?'

"Sitting with you," I answer. The man walks over to the woman and sits on the floor next to the woman. They are obviously talking to each other. He reaches out, grabbing her hand as she looks at him. "Let go of her; don't hurt her," I beg.

The man lets her hand go and looks at me with a sad smile. The woman starts writing again.

'He is your father. Remember how I told you I am your mother? Well, he is your father.'

"I-I don't know what that means," I admit. They look at each other before she starts writing again.

'We are your parents. We gave birth to you, and that's why you're alive. We are your family, and we love you more than anything in the world. Do you understand?'

"No." I shake my head. "I don't understand what experiment this is. Tell me what you want so I can be done." I beg.

They look at each other, and the woman starts crying, leaning into the man. He takes the writing thing from her and writes with one hand as he rubs her back with the other. He shows me when he is done writing.

'This isn't an experiment. We are your parents, and we love you. Some bad people took you from us when you were very young, but we looked for you and prayed for you every day since. But we found you a few weeks ago at a Hunter Facility where you were sitting in a silver-lined hole in the ground with a grate over it. But you're back now, and you are never going back. We are sorry it took us so long to find you. YOU'RE SAFE NOW.'

I read what he wrote and sat back against the wall. I don't understand what they want from me. I want to sleep! A tear escaped my eyes as my vision started to blur. I wrapped my arms around myself for comfort as I began to cry, too.

The woman stands up, moving towards me, and I whimper and sink into the corner. She kneels down in front of me, reaching toward me. I try to hit her hands away, but she catches my hands. I'm screwed. I start to cry harder as she sits down next to me. She tugs my hands, pulling me towards her. She wraps her arms around me, putting my head on her shoulder as I start to sob. I'm so tired, just leave me alone!

My body starts shaking from crying so hard. The woman rubs my back, puts her other hand on my cheek, and holds me to her. I must be going crazy because it's oddly comforting, and I'm too tired to move.

After a while, I run out of tears, and my eyes close on their own, no matter how much I try to fight it.

~~~~

I feel someone rubbing my head, and my eyes slowly open. I see feet out in front of me, but they're not mine. The hand rubs my hair again; it doesn't hurt; it's soft. I see that my head is in the woman's lap, and she is softly putting her hand in my hair.

She shows me something she wrote down.

'There are people here wanting to meet you, and they brought food. Will you come with me?'

Food? I don't know that I can eat anymore, but I don't know when they will feed me again. I nod and quickly agree while sitting up. She stands up and walks out into the bedroom. I stand up and slowly follow her in case it's a setup.

She leads me out of the bedroom and into a room I saw when I first got here. I don't like this. It's too big of a room; there are too many hiding spots. She hooks her elbow around my arm and starts leading me toward something that smells delicious. We turn a corner to see a bunch of people. My 'father,' three other men, and two women. Nope.

Not going to happen. I start pulling away from her to run back to safety, but her grip on me tightens, preventing me from getting away. I don't care about the food anymore. I just don't want to get hurt.

One man comes towards us but stops short. Then he holds up a piece of paper for me to read.

'I'm Reid, your oldest brother. I'm 29. This is my mate, Amber. She is pregnant with our first pup. We are so excited to have you back in time for the baby.'

I look up at him to see a woman now standing next to him as he looks at her. I want to go back. I don't want to be here anymore. They take a step back, and another man walks up to me. He also holds up something for me to read.

'I'm Eric, your second-oldest brother. I'm 26. My mate is a nurse and currently in the pack hospital, but she saw you when you were there.'

He steps back, and the last guy that I don't know steps towards me, holding something up for me to read.

'I'm Brad, your third-oldest brother. I'm 23. This is my mate, Nora. She is 22. We're glad you're back.'

A woman walks over next to him, and he puts his arm around her. Then the man who says he is my father holds something for me to read.

'They are your brothers. They visited you in the hospital a few times while you were there. They brought you dinner. Will you eat with us?'

I don't want to make them mad, but I don't want to be here. I don't want to be here at all. What do I do? All the men brothers start moving towards the food as I back away. The woman mother stops me from running away right as a man brother brings a plate of food and holds it out to me. I look at it for a second. If I turn it down, they might not feed me, but I don't want to eat with them; it's too dangerous.

The woman mother takes the plate and leads me over to a table, making me sit down on a chair. I don't like this. I don't want to be here. I can't- I need to go. I need to get out of here. I don't know what this test is, but I hate it. I don't know what to prepare myself for. I don't know- I need to leave.

Everyone sits down around the table with food. The woman mother sits to my right, and the man father sits down to my left. They slowly start eating. It looks like they are talking to each other, and occasionally a few of them look at me.

I start eating my food as fast as I can. I don't know what they are planning, and I'm not giving them chances to attack while I am distracted by food. I eat the last bite of food and stand up, leaving them and running back to the bedroom. I get to the room with clothes and dive on the floor, expecting someone to chase me, angry for running from their experiment. But nobody comes.

I wedge myself into the corner, watching the door, ready for someone to barge in at any point.

Suddenly my stomach turns, and I feel terrible. I run to the bathroom and turn on the sink, trying to drink some water out of the faucet.

Nope. Nah uh. That didn't help. I run to the toilet and immediately get sick. I throw up until I feel like I can't breathe. Tears run down my cheeks as I lay on the cold floor. The floor is good. The floor helps.

Before long, the world fades away.