Harding seizes my face, tilting my head back so that my neck screams from the strain. Lifting his other hand to his mouth, he bites the lid from a vial of silver Compliance and holds it over my mouth. “Open up, Kyla.”
I clamp my jaw shut, staring him right in the eye, and shake my head. Or at least, I try to—his hold on me is so firm that I can’t move an inch.
He gives a satisfied grin, as if this is exactly the reaction he wanted from me. Some kind of rebellion to brighten his day. He pushes me to the ground and straddles me. “I just knew you’d be a stubborn one. I said—” he squeezes my cheeks harder, pressing the flesh against my teeth, pulling down on my jaw, “—Open. Up.”
The moment my lips part, he shoves the vial into my mouth and clamps my jaw shut again. “Ike, take a walk,” he mutters before turning his attention back to me, keeping his hand over my mouth.
Ike mumbles something to excuse himself and leaves hurriedly. The door slams shut, leaving us in almost total darkness.
Cold glass clatters against my teeth as burnt toffee and charcoal coat my tongue. I hold my breath, I struggle, I pull and push against Harding’s beefy arms, but it’s no use. As each drop of Compliance slides to the back of my throat, I feel my muscles give in.
“I would give you an order,” Harding says, still pinning me down, “but it’s so much more fun to watch you squirm.”
A tug in my stomach and my body reacts, wriggling and writhing against his hold, pulling away until he chuckles and holds me back down. The glass in my mouth thankfully stays intact, but the thought of it shattering on my tongue fills my throat with bile. All it would take is one order, one word, and Harding could have me inhaling glass shards.
“Alright,” he says suddenly, letting me loose. “Stay still.”
Another tug deep inside me, like an icy rope tying itself around my legs, my arms, and I freeze. Harding grins, standing upright and brushing himself down.
“Looks like you’re pretty resistant to this stuff.” He takes a second vial of Compliance from a pouch on his belt, and waves it in the air above my head. “Maybe I should dose you a third time, just to be sure?”
I stare at a fixed point on the ceiling.
“What’s the matter? Should I give you another dose? Answer me.”
Alarm bells ring in my skull as my mouth opens, and the glass vial bounces on my tongue, briefly touching the back of my throat.
“Wait—” my body freezes. “—how silly of me. We should clean up after ourselves.”
Harding orders me to stand and open my mouth. The vial drops from my tongue to the floor, smashing on the concrete. He nods at the shards at my feet. “Aren’t you grateful I didn’t let you swallow that?”
My eyes meet his.
“Well? Tell me you’re very grateful.”
I fucking loathe you. “I’m very grateful.”
He paces back and forth in front of me, blocking my path to the door—as if I’d be able to leave. “Tell me you deserve to be here.”
Asshole. “I deserve to be here.”
Harding stops pacing and turns to me, his eyes piercing mine. He leans in closer and lowers his voice to a dangerous whisper. “Tell me you know where Frank is.”
NO! I choke on the words as they tumble out. “I know where Frank is.”
His eyes crinkle at the corners. “Tell me where Frank is.”
“Frank is…” I swallow, unsure what to say. “Frank is…”
Why haven’t I answered already? Then I realise the question is too open. Where Frank is, when? At this very second? Where he lives, or works? It’s too vague. Harding doesn’t know about Lena, so I don’t need to give up her location. He just wants Frank. Well… Frank isn’t hiding. “He’s at Emotiv.”
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“Don’t get smart with me, Chase.” Harding lifts the vial of Compliance up to my face again. “I’ll dose you until you do anything I ask. Anything. You hear me?” His eyes flash dangerously. “Tell me where Frank is.”
“Frank is at Emotiv.”
“Tell me where he lives.”
“I don’t know.”
Harding grunts in irritation. “Tell me where he sleeps.”
“I don’t know.” You clever sod, Frank.
He never told me about himself. Nothing—he was my boss, not my friend. But even when I started helping him, when I fell in with his schemes, he never told me anything personal. Because he knew this was a risk. He knows the tactics wardens use to get what they want.
“Maybe your pretty friend knows?”
Dani.
“Oh, yes.” Harding nods solemnly at my expression. “I’m sure he told Dani everything.”
I grit my teeth and stare straight ahead, determined to give away as little as I can manage, although I never had a good poker face. I’m fairly sure no amount of Compliance could get Dani to talk coherently right now, but I’m not about to tell Harding how to fix the mess his goons have made for him.
He clicks his tongue and straightens up. “Perhaps I’ll have a chat with them next. Follow me.”
My feet shuffle behind him, through the storeroom doors, and back into the pit. He marches me through the aisles, over to an assembly line, and stops in front of my bunkmate with the grey bun. Harding grunts something to her, and she walks off towards Bennett and the vats of boiling sugar, giving me a filthy look as she passes.
“Assembly duty, Serenity, thirty grams of powder in every bottle. Then cork and shake.” Harding rattles off the list to me without emotion, and the tug in my stomach tells me that somehow, without questioning it, my body knows what to do.
Invisible icy hands control my wrists. I reach for the box of powder to my left—not purple as I expect, but a pristine white. A half-filled bottle stops on the conveyor belt, and I transfer a scoop of powder to it. A display screen on the belt reads the weight: thirty grams. My other hand jams a cork into the bottleneck, then I shake and replace it. The liquid fizzes, and the conveyor moves one step forward, presenting another bottle.
My body continues to move without input from my brain, scooping powder into one bottle after another.
Harding leans over my shoulder. “See you later,” he says, and walks away.
“It gets easier,” a gruff, shaky voice says to my left.
I glance sidelong and find a man—he looks old and frail, and the poorly shaved stubble shadowing his chin only ages him further. His eyes crinkle at the corners as he smiles at me, and the light catches his pupils, illuminating the brightest, most piercing blue—
My blood pounds through my skull, deafening me as I stare slack-jawed into my recent past. How could I ever forget those eyes? He was there, right at the start, just when my entire world began crumbling into the sewers. And yet, a tiny spark of joy flames in my chest at the sight of him, at knowing that he’s alive, relatively unhurt, and whole.
“John?”
He beams at me for a split second, but a look of panic crosses his features as he looks down at my hands. “Uh, young miss—”
I follow his gaze and see the number on the scales—my body has continued my work without me even needing to look, but without reading the weight, I kept on scooping. I cork the double-strength solution, shake it, and send it along the conveyor, where John applies a label. He gives me a conspiratorial wink. “Not a word.”
----------------------------------------
After a gruelling shift, we march back into our chilly cubicle in single file. Once Dani reaches their bed, they sink to the floor, the Oblivion finally taking over from the day’s orders.
I move closer to them, holding out my hand in front of me like I’m taming lions again. “Hey you. It’s me.”
Dani looks up at me from the floor, eyes unfocused and bleary with tears. My stomach sinks.
“I wouldn’t bother,” Bennett grunts from her bunk. “They’re as good as dead now. Worse, if you ask me.”
“Bennett!” Grey bun hisses.
She shrugs and drapes an arm over her face. “Only sayin’ is all.”
Ignoring them, I gently stroke Dani’s shoulder until I’m satisfied that they’re calm enough to help up.
It takes a few minutes and a lot of gentle coaxing—much to Bennett’s distaste—but eventually I get them into their bunk and cover them with the thin blanket. Their hands are burned and covered in patches of random colours. I kneel at their side, take a corner of the sheet and try to clean them off, but without water or a clean rag, it’s useless.
Dani recoils when I wipe a sensitive burn. I pull away, worried that they’ll punch me again, but they only hug their blanket and nuzzle their head into my chest. I hold them and murmur softly until they fall asleep.
“It’s okay. One day down, and I’ve already learned something. I met John today. You remember old blue eyes?”
Dani holds my hand and strokes it repetitively, like they’re petting a cat.
“Well, I didn’t get much chance today, but I figure he must be in the dorm with Caleb, right? So I’m going to talk with him some more tomorrow.”
Bennett snorts, and we both turn to regard her coolly.
“What?” I ask, not controlling my tone anymore—I’ve long given up my original plan of befriending her.
“They post us at different stations every day. You’ve got no chance.”
I grit my teeth, disappointed that I’ve already hit a brick wall. I don’t answer, instead turning my back on Bennett and focusing on Dani.
As I pull them closer, stroking their hair till they drift off to sleep, I watch the dormitory over the top of the cubicle wall. In the distance, I spot Ike on his evening patrol, walking along the corridors. A smile creeps on to my face for the first time all day.
No chance, huh?