Among The Stars: Phantom and Mercenary

Chapter 18 - Outcasts

⚠️ Trigger warning: this chapter contains non-consensual sex/gang rape. Turn away if this isn't your cup of tea. ⚠️

The loud voice persisted, no matter how hard Jane tried to ignore. Even Jack Campbell stopped his reading and complained. "Will that guy ever shut up?"

She frowned, letting out a displeased grunt. "I'm going to shoot him."

Jane fluttered her eyes open with great effort. Suddenly, she took a startled breath as she sat upright, gasping for air. Her stomach lurched, mouth tingling with saliva. She threw up on the floor before she could move out of bed. Clear liquid mixed with stomach acid.

"You made it."

She winced while turning her head to the source of the voice, noticing Michael stood near the transparent wall between them, looking at her. Then Jane groaned in pain when she heard that same, loud voice calling her again. She rubbed her temples. "Stop shouting, Gahtan. You're giving me a terrible headache."

"Paya, you are awake! Do you have any idea what I have been through? Not knowing if you were going to make it or not." Gahtan said in a fearful voice as he stared at her. Days of pent up emotional stress was slowly drifting away. He heaved a heavy sigh of joy, letting go of his fear. "I thought I lost you, Jane."

"You never had me." Jane replied feebly.

Feeling despondent, a bit of joy left Gahtan's face. Not knowing where to begin. He stared at her for a long moment before asking. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got hit by a dreadnaught." Sharp jabs of pain filled her body. She climbed out of the bed, staggered to the small water fountain in her cell and splashed the cool water in her face. Immediately the fog lifted from her mind. She scooped some water to wet her parched lips, then gulped. "How long have I been out?"

"Almost three solar days." Gahtan answered.

"Oh dear Christ! It's been that long? No wonder I'm starving." Jane dragged her body back to the bed. She curled up in a fetal position, hands clutched her stomach fighting the ache and hunger pain.

Oddly enough, Michael spoke to her again. "Do you remember what she did to you?"

Jane sat up and looked at Michael, her mind was reeling. She remembered being tied to the operating table. She remembered the injection Dr. Moreau had administered, anesthesia, perhaps. All else was a fog. And as she searched in the deep recess of her brain, a pounding headache assailed her.

"No. I was unconscious the whole time." Jane replied. "Maybe it's the same experiment the doctor performed on you."

"No. Not the same. You don't have this." Michael said as he flung back his hoodie that obscured most of his face, revealing what was hiding behind it. Like he'd predicted, he saw her sucked in a sharp breath with wide eyes. "She put something in my head. I can hear it talking to me. Even now."

She is so hot. Let's get out of here and kill her.
Michael flapped his hands at his head, trying to silence the insidious voice.

The first thing to catch Jane's sight was the gruesome surgical scars stitched across his forehead, which extended all the way around. And there was a round, metal device attached to the side of his shaved head, glinting. The rest of it embedded in his brain like he had some kind of cranial surgery. He had heterochromia, which was quite unique, with his left eye blue and right eye brown. Right now those eyes looked listless, filled with nothing but pain and despair.

"I'm going to kill Dr. Moreau." Jane muttered as she stared at him in horror.

Michael put on his hoodie under her gaze, feeling ashamed for what he had become as he shrank back to the corner, away from her. He murmured something, shaking his head violently.