Eden

I was shaken awake by Maddox. Two other men stood behind him. One was Julius and the other was dressed like a doctor. The events of the last day–or was it two days–came flooding back, and I fought the urge to cry.

My head was throbbing and my hands were still bound. A small pool of blood was on the floor behind me. No one had bothered to help me, or to even clean up the blood.

"Bring her," the man in the doctors attire said.

I tried to shrink back into the cells corner, but Maddox grabbed me around my waist and hoisted me over his head.

On the way out the door I forgot to duck and my head clunked painfully against the doorframe. If I didn't already have a concussion from the head trauma, I certainly did now.

"Sorry," I heard Maddox whisper. I ignored it.

After another long count of lefts and rights we reached a room. It looked like a doctors office, only there was a large chair in the middle with metal clasps to hold someone's arms and legs.

My eyes widened and I began to struggle. They were going to strap me down. What would they do to me? Stick needles into me? Torture me?

"Let me go!" I screamed, punching Maddox in the ribs. He barely flinched.

Julius grabbed me from Maddox's arms, and threw me into the chair I so dreadfully wanted to remain out of. Before I could get back up, he slammed down one of the clasps on my hands, making me cry out in pain.

The doctor latched each of my legs in the clasps, even as I kicked him in the face several times. Julius tore the rope off my throbbing hands, and then proceeded to strap each of them down in their separate clasps as I cried out in pain. Maddox only watched, a very blank look on his face.

"You see they are incredible at acting, at pretending. Don't believe her cries for a second. As soon as she gets the chance she will destroy you, just like the rest of the human race." Julius spat. Then he an Maddox left to guard the door, blocking all my plans of escape.

The doctor brought over an empty blood bag, along with a series of tubes and needles. The empty blood bag could only mean one thing, he was going to draw my blood.

He thrust the needle into my arm, took out the end and attached the tube. The tube filled with my crimson life force and slowly spilled over into the bag as the doctor attached it. I only hoped this would be over soon and that it would be the only thing they'd want from me.

•

An entire bag full of blood later, I was already feeling a little light headed. Maybe it was from all the blood I'd lost last night or from the lack of food and proper sleep.

I was a little surprised when he brought out another blood bag, but seeing the four others in his hands made me nervous.

"Please tell me those are for someone else. What are you doing?" I asked, as he attached another bag onto the tube and took the other off.

"Drawing more blood of course."

"I can't lose that much blood! I have roughly 10 pints of blood in my body, and if you take a fifth of it out I could go into shock. Aren't you supposed to be a doctor?!"

"Don't listen to her," Julius yelled from the doorway. "Remember humans are class one liars."

"I'm not lying! I'm being serious! Aren't you guys human too? Don't you know that?!"

"Now now, earthling, you're not going to die. We are just going to extract 8 pints of your blood, not all of it. We need it for testing."

"Eight?! That will kill me! I'll have a hemorrhage and I will most certainly die!"

Julius shouted something else to the doctor, but I didn't listen. I was watching Maddox, who I was hoping would have the authority to stop the doctor, but his face was still blank and unmoving.

As the second pint filled, I was finding it hard to not blink. Every few seconds I had to shake my head to keep my eyes open. I think Maddox noticed this because he finally began to approach me but Julius stopped him.

I felt a small tug on the tube as the doctor replaced the second bag with another empty one.

"Please stop," I begged, trying to reach the needle to pull it out, but it was no use.

As the third bag began filling, I felt myself fall into a cold sweat, and I saw my arms graze over with goosebumps. I could feel my heart thumping rapidly in my chest, trying desperately to pump the remaining blood through my body.

"Pl-please stop," I begged again, starting to shiver. "You're going to kill me."

Julius charged over from the door, Maddox tailing him. By the look on Julius's face he wasn't happy. Before I could register what was happening he had his hand around my throat and was choking me. There was nothing I could do with my hands bound.

Maddox made a quick move to remove his hand but I was already close to losing consciousness. As soon as his hand left my throat, I gasped in air, but it wasn't enough to keep me awake.

"Please," I gasped again, "please stop."

The doctors only response was to replace my third bag of blood with a forth empty one. Julius nodded at the doctor and returned to his post by the door. I looked to Maddox in one last hope, but he only turned away.

I felt my heart quicken, as it was beating in my chest. My shivering increased until it seemed like I was shaking on purpose. My eyelids felt like they were covered in bricks upon bricks.

"Please," I begged, barely above a whisper. "Please, you have to believe me."

Suddenly my head fell back with a thunk, and Maddox's head finally turned towards me. I couldn't even hold my head up anymore. He walked over to the doctor whispering something to him about my heart rate.

Whatever Maddox said made him remove the needle from my arm and put a bandaid over it. I wanted to look at Maddox but I couldn't open my eyes. I really wanted my bed right now.

He opened my clasps and lifted me from the chair, trying to get me to stand on my own to feet. He dropped his hands from my arms, causing me to then drop to the floor. For the second time my head hit the floor with a loud thunk, like a piece of wood. I groaned and felt tears slip from my eyes.

Maddox lifted me from the floor and carried me away. This time he didn't throw me over his shoulder. What was Maddox thinking? I would liked to have known in that moment, but he hardly ever talked. It was clear he didn't like me, and he didn't care for me like the rest of whoever these people are.

"Why?" I managed to croak out once we were far enough away from Julius.

"If you die we can't do more experiments."

I shouldn't have expected differently. I don't know why I thought he'd say something like, "oh, I felt bad."

He dropped me onto the cell floor. I almost rolled over into the pile of my blood from earlier. It was only partially dried to the floor.

"Thanks," I whispered anyways. It was a bit habitual, but I was also genuinely thankful to not be dead.

For a split second when I tried to open my eyes I almost thought I saw a look on his face other than emptiness, but before I could determine what it was, my eyes fell shut again and I fell asleep.