Frostbite

Ten

Entering the room she suddenly felt deathly cold. It was dim and not as big as she thought it would be, it looked like a twisted surgery room. A single light hung from the ceiling above a mechanical reclining metal chair with a tray of syringes standing beside it. She had to watch as they pushed Hal into the chair, strapping his wrists to it. That was horrifying within itself, but what came next was even more terrifying. She had failed to notice a second earlier that the tray held four syringes, one for each drug. They were going to inject him with all of them. She began to fight against Mantelbourne's hold, sobbing and pleading uselessly, "No, no..." The first syringe was lifted, Frostbite, her damned drug, and it was swiftly brought to Hal's arm, sliding into it smoothly. The doctor resisted, but just barely, knowing it was pointless, as he tried to hold in his own, quieter, sobs. By the time the second one was picked up tears had fallen down Anissa's cheeks, she watched as that one too went into the doctor's body.

When it was time for the third one that was when Mantelbourne leaned down close to Anissa's ear, causing her body to go stiff, and whispered, "No one's ever had more than one at a time." He chuckled deeply, his breath hitting her neck, making her break into a cold sweat, "I'm thrilled to see what might happen."

She couldn't watch anymore, so she shut her eyes tight as the fourth one was injected, but even though she couldn't see she could still hear, and hearing the sounds of agony was just as horrible as witnessing the pain. Hal's whimpers grew louder, he wasn't able to control them anymore; now that everything was in him the potions began to work quickly, flooding his body. Anissa could faintly hear him being unstrapped, and then, to her surprise, she was released from Mantelbourn's grip. Opening her eyes she could see Hal leaning forward in the chair, his muscles tense, wincing in pain. It was awful seeing him like that, and she felt so helpless, but even though she couldn't do anything about it she still went to him. She knelt in front of him, reaching up to hold onto his arms, reaching for anything, just so she could attempt to soothe him with her touch. He barely acknowledged her by meeting her gaze with his own, disorientation already setting in. She wondered if he blamed her for this. "I'm sorry..." she choked out in a whisper, tears streaming down her face. She looked him over, noticing that his veins were beginning to grow prominent through his skin and that he was beginning to shake intensely, his breathing was rapid and he felt cold, and when she looked back into his eyes they were starting to become bloodshot. All the side effects, of every drug, he was getting them all at once, and she really feared he'd die right there. It was quite possible his heart would give out. She wanted to hold him, to comfort him, to tell him she was there and she wouldn't let him die, but at that moment she was pulled away from him by one of the guards and the doctor was yanked from his seat. Anissa screamed and fought against the man holding her as she watched another man take Hal to a cage she hadn't noticed before, locking him away like an animal. She could still see him as he fell to his knees within it, but only until she was now brought to the chair. It was her turn to be strapped in, but for a completely different reason.

Anxiety riddled her body as she was dragged to the chair; she resisted the best she could but it was no use, the guard pulled her effortlessly to the chair and pushed her down into it. As soon as she hit the seat she felt a prick in her upper arm and, suddenly, she couldn't move, not a muscle; she was paralyzed. All she could do was look on helplessly, in terror, as the seat was reclined and she was forced to watch as a machine ran along a track on the ceiling towards her, a long, very sharp looking needle jutting out from it. She couldn't move her eyes, at least not more than just slightly, they were glued to the needle as it slowly began to lower, descending itself down upon her horror stricken gaze; then she felt her eyelids begin to droop and the needle paused for a moment as one of the guards pulled an attachment to the chair over her head and used the contraption to clamp them open. It was uncomfortable, it was painful, even though she knew it was about to get much worse, and she could barely even swallow, making her feel like she was going to choke on her own saliva. Her eyes began to dry out as the needle started to descend again, everything leading up to this had only been a fraction of how terrifying this was right now, up until this point she hadn't really been harmed. The needle was close, so close, and she could hardly breathe, both from fear and from the partial anesthetic. Another second passed, the longest second of her life, and then there was extreme pain, utterly and completely torturous and excruciating pain, and she couldn't scream, only small, quiet whimpers escaped her parted lips. The needle moved along the iris of her eye, moving slowly and pressing in deep; she highly doubted anything else could be more painful than, or even as painful as, this. She wondered if Hal had been, and still was, in this much pain, but, as selfish as it may seem, she didn't really think so. Guilt, pain, and terror; that was what currently resided within her. It was now that the impending doom of the situation finally sank in and she truly wondered if she was going to die here, if Hal was going to die here; and if they did, it would be her fault.