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That night, it took me forever to fall asleep. One, I hadn’t done anything to get tired. Two, the hunger cramps in my belly made it hard to drift off. When I finally did, my dreams were feverish and weird. Waking up the next morning, I dreaded the thought of the door remaining locked again.
I got dressed hesitantly, hoping that I’d be allowed out, but preparing myself to spend yet another day starving to death in my room. Maybe that was the plan? He’d leave me here for weeks until I was too weak to get out of bed, then he’d watch as my body slowly consumed itself. First the fat, then the muscle, followed by the bone mass, and finally, with nothing else, I’d burn off my own organs for fuel until I was nothing but a dried-out husk on a bed.
When the door clicked open ten minutes after I got up, I stared at it in surprise for a moment. Like a spell had been broken, I leapt to my feet and sprinted out the door. The others were shuffling down the hall, still looking half asleep. Drake saw me, and a relieved smile broke across his face. Not bothering to worry what anyone else, much less Sam, thought, I ran to him. He caught me in his arms and hugged me tight. I hugged him back even harder until both of our cuffs buzzed a warning.
Risking pain was worth it to touch him.
Reluctantly, we let go of each other. Drake took my hand and led me to breakfast. Through his fingers, I felt his own device give him another shock. Probably for holding my hand. Thankfully, we were in the dining room before he could get an actual electric shock. He released me and we took our seats.
Across from me, Elise gave me a poisonous smile. “Did someone get in a little trouble?”
Chapter 15
After breakfast, I was sent back to the gym. I was going to work out again. On the walk down the halls, I had time to wonder if this was more of my punishment. Starve me, and lock me away, and then force me to exhaust myself even more.
When I walked in, it was Jeffery and Elise with me for the training session. The mat that the guys had fought on was still there. The blood had mostly been cleaned off it but there was still a pink stain right on the center. Drake and Jeffery both had fading bruises at breakfast, but Liam looked the worst of all of them. His lip was split and his right eye was still mostly swollen shut. That coupled with his injured leg had him in a sullen mood and he hadn’t spoken much at the last meal.
“Oh good. We get a show today,” Elise said as I walked into the gym. The cheerful tone set me on edge. Liam and Jeffery were annoying and dangerous, but Bri and Elise gave off the vibe that they were both teetering on the edges of sanity. If they hadn’t already gone over, that was.
Elise looked like she was way too happy to see me here, in a psycho sort of way. I dreaded what was to come. Drake wasn’t here today to push and motivate me.
Sam told us we had to do a godawful combination of lunges, pull-ups, running, and pushups. When he said pull-ups, my heart dropped. I didn’t think I’d ever even tried that. When the chime went off for us to start, I did my best to try and make sure I didn’t fall too far behind.
After a hundred lunges around the track, we moved to the pull-ups. As we jogged over, Elise ran close to me, and made sure to get her foot caught in mine, sending me tumbling to the rubberized flooring. My cheek struck the ground and sent a bolt of pain through my head.
“Oops, guess you should be more careful,” Elise said. Her voice was dripping with a fake saccharine sweetness.
My cuff buzzed at me. A warning that I needed to get up and get moving. Gritting my teeth, I did as I was asked—getting to the pull-ups bars. I spared a look at the other two. Jeffery was doing a decent job. He was doing one pullup then dropping off the bar to shake out his arms and going right back. To my irritation, Elise was doing four or five repetitions before taking a break. She looked like she’d been doing these her whole life.
I guess being a bitch gave you good upper body strength.
Right as I jumped up to grab the bar, Elise stepped into me. It caused my right hand to miss the bar. My left hand caught it by my fingertips which only caused me to tip off balance. When my fingers slid off the bar, my feet weren’t under me, and I crashed to the ground. The breath exploded out of me. I struggled to sit up and catch my breath, but Bri shot a foot out, kicking me in the side and pushing me back down. My device buzzed again, stronger, almost shocking me.
She looked at me and curled her lip in disgust. “Good god. What does Drake even see in you? Risking himself for some pansy ass whore.”
The only reason I was happy to fall further behind was that I didn’t have to share a station with Elise anymore. After nearly an hour, I was done. My arms were shaking and my stomach heaved and gurgled with nausea, but I’d done it. I thanked god Sam hadn’t given us a time limit for this one. He’d only said we had to go until we finished. Jeffery had gotten done about five minutes before Elise. Both of those two had already gone to the showers and changed while I was finishing. They walked out and passed me as I lay on my back heaving air into my lungs.
I barely had time to shower and change before the chime sounded and my cuff told me to go to lunch. Even after the shower, I was still sweaty when I got there. I was the last one to arrive, and Bri gave me a pissy look as I sat next to Drake. Everyone but Jeffery looked confused as to why there was more tension between the two of us than usual.
Bong. “Good afternoon, everyone,” Sam said. “It seems that during physical training today, one of my dolls took it upon themselves to interfere with another of their housemates. As much as I enjoy punishment, this wasn’t sanctioned violence. Dahlia, please exact whatever revenge you would like against Elise. Lunch will not proceed until this retribution has been completed.”
Everyone stared around in confusion. Elise glared at me, color rising to her cheeks. She had to have known she’d get punished, but she’d done it anyway. All because she was still pissed off about me getting her shocked on my first morning? My god, she could really carry a grudge.
I sat still, hands in my lap, staring back at her. Frozen with indecision and worry. As much as I disliked Elise, we were still in this together. Was Sam doing things like this to separate us? Make us easier to control? If we were always at each other’s throats, we would never have the chance to work together to escape.
“Come on then,” Elise hissed. “Do it. What do you want to do? Choke me out? Stab me, hit me, or kick me in the face? What?”
Sighing and shrugging, I said, “I don’t want to. Haven’t we done and been through enough?”
Instead of looking relieved, the fire in Elise’s eyes grew hotter. “You dumb cunt. You have to. You heard Sam. No one gets to eat until you do. Are you that fucking selfish?”
My own anger flared, if there was anything I wasn’t, it was selfish. I leveled a finger at her. “Maybe your psycho ass likes getting punished. Is that it? I guess I’m not as crazy as you are yet.”
“Crazy? Did you call me crazy?”
Her face was wild with rage now. I must have hit a nerve. Maybe all her boyfriends called her crazy in the real world. Something had set her off, though. She rose half out of her chair, hands pressed into the table, and leaned closer to me.
“Are you a fucking pussy?” Elise asked.
