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THE LAST THINGthat Aspen remembered before her body fell limp and lifeless, was running towards the library doors, her hands wrapping around the handles, ready to barge in and help Scott with whatever he was facing.
Now, as her eyes very slowly fluttered open, the first thing she noticed, or felt— was the painful ache that spread all throughout her body.
She let out a low murmuring grunt of pain, her body still immensely weak as her eyes continued to blink in and out of consciousness.
There was a thumping pain in her head, making her feel dizzy and faint. She squinted her eyes in reflex to the head pain, and then just as she was about to raise her hand up to her head— she realised she couldn't.
Because her hands were cuffed down to a chair.
As soon as she noticed the restrictions, she jumped awake in reflex. Her eyes widened for good as an adrenaline of fear kicked in, making her alert of her surroundings.
She looked down, seeing her hands cuffed down with brown, leather restraints.
She'd seen these restraints before.
She'd been in them before.
"No..." she murmured as her heart rate peaked in pace, her head snapping up as she tried to writhe her hands out of the cuffs. She pulled and pulled on them, but it was no use— she was so weak.
"No, no, no..." she continued to murmur, thinking this had to be a bad dream, a nightmare. Sometimes, her dreams were so vivid she couldn't tell what was reality and what wasn't— so she prayed and prayed she was going to wake up any second and find herself in her bed at home.
"This can't be happening..." she began to cry hopelessly, her head spinning around left and right as she observed her surroundings.
She was in a cell. A cell with white walls, a floor with countless blood stains on it— and a clear, impenetrable glass wall straight ahead.
This wasn't the same cell they put her in last time, it was different, it felt different.
It felt even more isolated.
It was hidden— away from all the other closed-unit patients. And little did she know, but this particular cell was even soundproof.
So no one could hear her screams, no one could hear her cries for help.
Not even her brother.
The panic soon really started to set in for Aspen. One thing she feared more than losing control of her body by the nogitsune again—was being here. Back here— back at Eichen House.
She didn't know what happened to Scott— if he was okay, if he was even still alive. The last time she saw Stiles was when he was turning his back on her and leaving her all alone in the pouring rain.
Not knowing if her friends were okay would be what drove her to a state of pure insanity.
Her brother had sacrificed his freedom so that she didn't have to end up here.
He'd done the most selfless act by handing himself over instead of letting her, and now it was all for nothing.
Because she ended up here anyway.
To be their next lab rat, their next supernatural experiment.
She'd heard it all before—she was valuable here. They waited seventeen years to get their hands on a Bellator.
Brunski might be dead, but he wasn't the only one in this institution who was begging to experiment on a Bellator. When he died, there were dozens of others waiting in line to continue his work.
And apparently one Bellator sibling wasn't enough.
Because here she was— restrained down to their torture-device, surrounded by white walls that were bound to drive her to insanity, drained of all her strength.
All thanks to Theo Raeken.
After she spent hours of denial and panic, relentlessly trying to writhe her wrists out of the restraints, desperately trying to muster up any strength she had left— eventually she grew so tired she gave up.
And reality set in.
She was trapped here.
And she knew better than to think or hold out hope that she'd ever get out again.
And the worst part? She never got to say goodbye.
And it was in that moment— as Aspen Bellator clenched her jaw hard with rage and a hunger for vengeance, that she swore a promise to herself.
A promise that completely disregarded what anyone would think of her, she didn't care if she could never come back from it.
She swore to herself, that if miracle did happen, she ever did get out of this place again—
