novelraw Chapter 208: At Least We’ll Know
Chapter 208: At Least We’ll Know
It had only been a few hours since they dragged her back to the plexiglass cell.
The overhead lights hadn’t changed. The white walls hadn’t changed. Even the smell hadn’t changed.
In fact, if it were for the hum of the vents overhead, Sera might have become... off.
The atmosphere was completely different from Adam’s labs. White instead of black. Large openness instead of small cage. But in the openness, Sera was beginning to feel... uneasy.
She wanted to take out her blankets, take out Oogie Boogie, each a chocolate bar. But she didn’t dare. Instead, she stared at Luci like every breath that he took was one more thing keeping her tied to this world.
She breathed out a sigh when she saw that Luci was stirring now. His paws were twitching in dreams he couldn’t wake from, his ears flicking toward every sound like instinct alone was trying to keep him alive.
He still wasn’t all the way back yet, but Sera refused to think about any other options.
She hadn’t moved from the corner of her cage.
She didn’t pace. She didn’t speak. She waited with her knees drawn up, back against the plexiglass, staring at Luci.
When the door finally opened, she slowly blinked before turning her head toward the sound.
It wasn’t the guards this time. Not right away.
Instead, it was him. The one man that she had ever truly loved.
The one man that she had compared all others to and found wanting.
The one man she would have done anything to make happy.
Dr. Alaric Davis.
Her father.
Or maybe just the man who had raised her while keeping notes in the margins.
Either way, he wasn’t going to survive whatever came next. There was no way she could accept his betrayal without getting some form of revenge.
Sera let out a soft breath of laughter. She thought she was above revenge. That being this far away from Adam meant that she didn’t have to live her new life still in his shadow.
But fate was funny that way.
Or maybe it was just Hattie.
Either way, after she had dealt with her current situation, she was going to have to pay Adam a small visit.
Hearing someone clearing their throat in front of her, Sera slowly brought her attention back to the man in front of her.
Dr. Davis had entered the room with her cell with one assistant behind him. There was no Dr. Orhan, no team of technicians with clipboards. Just the two of them in white coats, carrying metal cases that clinked faintly when they set them on the table bolted to the floor.
"On your feet," Davis said.
No good morning. No how are you. Not even a good evening.
Afterall, it wasn’t like Sera knew what time it was.
A clock would help with that, but she doubted they would be so kind as to accommodate that request.
The guards moved in after that, all clean precision and quiet force, pulling her upright and locking fresh restraints at her wrists before she even decided whether she wanted to resist.
For the record... she didn’t.
The creature inside her shifted but didn’t rise to the challenge. It was just as curious as she was as to what was going to happen next.
It wanted to watch.
"Where are the others?" Sera asked as they walked her down the hall. She didn’t know if she was asking about the guys or where Dr. Orhan and the rest of the assistants were.
Dr. Davis made the decision for her.
"The KAS team that you were brought in with are in their cells," Davis said without looking at her. "You won’t be seeing them again. Although, I suppose I should thank them for saving you. You wouldn’t have survived the tsunami or the beginning of the ice age without them."
Sera hummed, but didn’t say anything.
Let Davis believe that the only reason why she survived was because of them. It would make the plot twist that much sweeter in the future when he found out the truth.
The assistant keyed a panel, and the door slid open on a room much smaller than the imaging lab.
A single chair sat under the lights, its legs bolted to the floor. Metal trays on tiny tables lined one wall, already set with syringes, scalpels, electrodes, and things she didn’t have names for.
She glanced once at the restraints around her wrists, once at the machines warming up, then at the man who had raised her on birthday cakes and field trip forms.
"No Dr. Orhan?" she said lightly, this time making it more of a pointed question.
Dr. Davis snapped on a pair of gloves, still not bothering to look at her. "She has what she needs for her baselines. I’m interested in something else."
"Do I need to guess? Play 20 questions? Or are you just going to hurry up and tell me what you have planned for me?"
At her light tone, Dr. Davis looked up from what he was doing and studied her face. "You always talked more when you were nervous about something. It was like you had to fill the air instead of enjoying the silence. It was annoying, to say the least. Are you nervous Seraphina?"
To his question, Sera burst out laughing. "No, daddy," she purred, watching his eyes crinkle just slightly in the corners at her words. "I’m not nervous. Are you?"
He didn’t dignify her question with an answer. He simply nodded to the guards, and they strapped her down at wrists, ankles, across her chest. Tight enough to hold. Loose enough to make her wonder why.
When they stepped back, Dr. Davis met her eyes the way a surgeon might look at a patient already under anesthesia.
"We spent twenty years trying to see what you could do," he said calmly. "Turns out it wasn’t much. So now we find out what you’re good for."
The assistant powered on a console. A soft electronic hum filled the room.
"And if the answer is nothing?" Sera asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Then at least we’ll know."