Empty

Chapter 21

Quinn woke up with a start. Her forehead was drenched in sweat and her pulse was racing. She guessed she'd had a nightmare but couldn't remember what had happened in it.

Wrenching her eyes open, she tried to take in her surroundings. The walls were all white and bare, and the furniture was all perfectly polished and positioned at right-angles. Aside from the odd pot of stationary, the room was empty.

She felt something sharp pricking her arm and struggled upright. A pale hand was sticking a needle into her arm, filling her bloodstream with some clear liquid.

Blinking, she struggled to see clearly through the fog that had filled her head. "Did... Did it work?" she heard Adam saying. "Did it wear off? Is it you again?"

She nodded slightly, blinking to clear her vision. Her memory was fuzzy, but she could feel it returning slowly. "What..."

"Oh thank god..." He said. She could make out a grin on his face. "I... I knew it could wear off in theory, b-but in practice the amount of willpower you'd need is incredible..." His mouth twisted up further, grin widening. "B-But I knew you could do it."

She screamed and felt around her for a weapon. Her hands found a cup of water and threw it at the creature.

It yelled out in shock. "W-What the hell?" It spluttered.

She clawed blindly at it, still screaming every insult she could think of, and it scrambled away from her, still clutching the tools tightly to its chest.

She managed to make out someone coming into the room and recognised Luke's voice. "She's awake then?"

It was clutching its face where the cup had hit it. "She-I-I didn't..."

"It's alright, I'll take over. You go clean yourself up."

It let go of her and half-ran to get away. She scrambled to her feet, yelling. "WHAT THE HELL?"

"It's okay, it's alright, calm down," Luke was saying, like it was a situation where not being calm was unexpected. "Just... Just sit down..."

"'CALM DOWN?'" She repeated. "CALM - It... It stabs me with a bunch of wires and you want me to CALM DOWN?"

"Sit down," Luke repeated, slightly firmer this time. "We don't want anyone to get hurt."

"Oh my god... Oh my god." She stared at him, and hastily grasped around for another weapon, a useful one this time. Her hands found a ballpoint pen. Hands shaking, she pointed it at his neck. "I should have known. I should have... You swore to me you weren't with them."

"Easy," he said quickly, taking the pen off of her and putting it on a high shelf. She noticed that a small handgun and her own tranquilliser had already been stored up there along with it. "Nobody moves until we've cleared a few things up." He glanced over at the spilled pens. "Figuratively and otherwise."

"I don't need to clear anything up." She took a step back, but didn't relent, grabbing another. "That thing is a monster, and so are you. And what the hell is that meant to be?" She pointed accusingly at the needle the empty was still clutching.

"Your blood pressure is insanely high right now." The empty took a cautious step forward, speaking in a slow, practiced tone of voice. "Y-You're going to be fairly unsteady for a while. I'm sorry. I-I had to keep you stable long enough for the amobarbital to leave your system, y-you know, because it's all artifical... How are you feeling now that -"

"Get away from me or so help me god you'll be needing that anaesthetic," she growled, before looking back up at Luke. "Where the hell am I? Is this where you take the corpses or something?"