novelraw Chapter 504: Pain
Chapter 504: Pain
504.
Sera bolted upright as wave after wave of electricity poured through her body like a tide she couldn’t stop.
Her mouth opened in a wordless scream as her brain scrambled to catch up with what her nerves already knew.
Pain.
Sharp. Total. Immediate. Pain.
Her back arched violently against the restraints as every muscle seized at once. The sound that tore from her throat wasn’t human so much as mechanical—air forced through a body that had forgotten how to breathe on command.
Wasn’t she just—
Wasn’t she—
The pain dropped out suddenly, leaving her gasping, lungs burning, heart hammering like it wanted out of her chest.
Cold air rushed in and the bright white light above her blurred and doubled her vision.
Hadn’t she just been in bed?
Hadn’t there been warmth, weight... the sound of laughter and kids still echoed in her ears...
The shock hit again.
Shorter this time. Sharper.
Her vision fragmented into static and white, and something inside her screamed in protest as her muscles locked and her jaw clenched hard enough that her teeth clicked. The table beneath her vibrated faintly with the discharge.
Her throat burned.
Her hands strained against the restraints, fingers spasming uselessly.
"Subject is responsive," a voice said somewhere beyond the light. Male. Calm. Clinical. "Neural pathways firing normally."
Another voice, closer. "Pain response present but muted."
Sera dragged in a breath through clenched teeth.
’Not muted,’ she thought distantly. ’It’s there live and in living color.’
The current cut off again.
Her body sagged against the restraints, breath ragged, pulse loud in her ears. Sweat slicked her skin. Her heart felt too fast, then too slow, then steady again as if something inside her had recalibrated without asking permission.
She blinked hard, trying to clear her vision.
Metal ceiling. Lights. Shadows moving behind glass.
A lab.
The memory slammed into place with no warning.
The cages. The men. The cold. The sound of the door closing.
Her creature stirred—not alarmed, not panicked. Awake.
They’re testing response thresholds, it observed calmly. They’re not trying to break you yet.
’It hurts,’ Sera thought, anger threading through the pain. ’Aren’t I not supposed to feel pain?’
Of course it hurts, the creature replied. And in this case, you need to feel the pain. They’re amateurs, but they aren’t stupid. They will know if you are faking it or not.
Footsteps approached.
A shape leaned into her peripheral vision, face half-obscured by a mask. Gloved hands adjusted something near her shoulder. She felt pressure, then a cold prick.
A needle.
Something thick and cold slid into her vein.
She gasped as it spread, not like fire, not like poison—like ice moving through her bloodstream, heavy and wrong.
Her heart stuttered.
A sound ripped from her chest, raw and involuntary.
Her vision went white at the edges.
"Oh," someone said with interest. "That’s new."
The substance burned as it moved, dragging something with it. Not pain exactly—pressure. Weight. Like her blood had become too thick to move.
Her back arched again, body pulling against restraints that bit into her skin.
That’s not right, her creature said sharply. That’s not compatible. We will never accept rot and demon blood into our body. We didn’t do it the first time, and we won’t do it again.
Sera’s teeth clenched as her body rejected the intrusion violently. Her veins flared beneath her skin, briefly glowing with a dull, unnatural blue before fading again. Her pulse thundered in her ears, and her lungs fought for rhythm.
The monitors spiked.
"Heart rate’s jumping."
"Hold it. Don’t pull yet."
"Look at the readout—"
Another jolt surged through her.
This one went deeper.
Her scream cut off into a strangled sound as her chest seized and her vision fractured into shards of light. Her body bowed hard against the restraints, muscles locking as if she’d been wired directly into the current.
Something warm spilled from the corner of her mouth.
She tasted iron.
Then copper.
Then something else—thicker, heavier.
Blue.
Again.
She was really starting to hate that color.
The pain peaked and then... slid sideways.
Not gone.
Redirected.
Her breathing slowed despite herself. Her heartbeat steadied. The agony dulled into a deep, vibrating ache that hummed through her bones.
The room went very quiet.
"She’s stabilizing," someone said, astonished.
"That’s not possible," another voice snapped. "That concentration should have caused neural collapse."
"Check her vitals again."
A pause.
"...They’re normal."
Sera’s eyes fluttered open.
The ceiling swam into focus. The lights were too bright, but she could see them clearly now. The figures behind the glass. The equipment. The cables running from her body to machines that hummed softly, obediently.
Her creature stirred, pleased.
They wanted results, it said. They are getting them.
Sera swallowed. Blood slid down her throat, metallic and warm.
’You didn’t have to—’
Yes, it replied calmly. I did.
The restraints hummed as the table shifted slightly, angling her more upright. Something warm trickled along her temple. She felt it drip past her ear.
"Record that," a voice said, quieter now. "The integration held."
Another voice, sharp with interest. "How long can she maintain it?"
A pause.
"We don’t know yet."
Sera exhaled slowly.
Her chest still hurt. Her limbs trembled faintly. But the panic had receded, replaced by a deep, steady awareness.
She could feel the foreign substance in her blood, moving, testing, failing to take hold.
She could feel her own body correcting it.
You’re being rude, her creature noted dryly. They worked very hard on that.
’They’ll live,’ Sera thought.
A faint sound escaped her lips—something between a breath and a laugh.
The technician closest to her stiffened. "Did you hear that?"
"She’s conscious," another said. "Increase sedation."
The injector hissed again.
This time, Sera turned her head slightly before it hit, just enough to see the syringe descending.
Her eyes met the glass.
For a moment, she imagined the men—Lachlan’s crooked smile, Zubair’s steady presence, Psycho’s cold attention, Aerenyx’s quiet gravity.
The thought anchored her.
The needle pierced her skin.
Pain flared.
The machinery whined as readings spiked wildly.
"Wait—" someone started to say.
The lights flickered.
Sera’s breath hitched, then steadied, then—
The table shuddered.
A sharp alarm began to sound.
"Power fluctuation—"
Her restraints hummed louder.
The sensation inside her twisted, coiled, and pushed back.
Her vision darkened at the edges.
Not unconscious.
Focused.
That’s enough, her creature murmured.
And somewhere beneath the floor, something responded.
The lights flickered again.
A warning tone rose.
Someone shouted.
The current surged and then cut—
hard—