Violet's body ached with every step. Every major muscle system was stiff and sore as she limped down the hallway back toward her bunk. She massaged the side of her neck where Davis had cranked on it while Sebastian and Careth had attempted to kick her legs in half at the thigh.

The rest of training had gone about the way she’d expected. Except she hadn’t gotten in nearly as many shots as she’d wanted to. It was a hard-earned but well-learned lesson. When it came to facing multiple attackers, it didn’t matter how fast or strong you were–the numbers always win. Still, she’d managed to split a few lips and crack a nose or two. Enough to further piss off those who were already pissed at her and possibly some new ones as well.

Come to think of it, she hadn’t really done herself any favors fighting back as hard as she had. But in the thick of battle her blood boiled and all she wanted was to punish anyone who dared defy her will.

She tried to convince herself it was survival instinct, and maybe to an extent it was, but deep down she knew it was mostly ego. She hated losing.

She laughed out loud and a bruised rib burned like fire as payment for it. A few months ago, she’d never so much as pushed another person in conflict. But now, she found herself looking forward to the challenge, almost needing it. Like a drug or something.

The heat and humidity from the showers drifted across Violet’s path and she gave them a longing glance. But the voices of her classmates echoed out into the hall and she kept walking. She’d give them time to clear out before returning. She wasn’t ready to face them again so soon.

Violet reached her room and made two mistakes.

One she left the lights off.

And two, she decided to lay down, just for a second, while she waited on the showers to clear out.

There were no dreams to disturb Violet’s comatose slumber. There was sweet nothingness until the needle pierced her neck.

Her eyes flew open to find a stab of light from the hallway beaming in. Black shapes hovered all around her–heads and torsos with fuzzy edges. She tried to rise but struggled to move at all. A blanket was sucked tight against her body, held fast by unseen hands.

Once her eyes adjusted, she recognized the look of hate in the eyes staring down at her. It seemed her bad day was not over yet.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

She saw three pairs of hands lift and something fell from them, hanging. She couldn’t be sure, but they looked an awful lot like socks. And then she knew what was about to happen.

“Not so cocky now, are you?” a heavily augmented voice said.

She opened her mouth to scream and a heavy hand clamped over it, muting her.

One by one the dark figures rained down blows on her. From the feel of them, each sock had a different object that weighted down the bottom. At least one of them was rounded, perhaps a piece of fruit from the mess hall. Another was rectangular. She could tell by the corners. They had to be rounded or else they would have pierced her skin by now. The last one, she couldn’t make out. It seemed to feel different every time it landed. As a way to deal with trauma, Violet split her attention away from her struggle to move and focused her attention at each point on her body where she felt the impact of the beating. It became a game. First she would guess which object had struck her and then she would try to guess which would strike next.

It was a shitty game to play. There was no winning. But it served its purpose of giving her mind a better place to go.

Before she knew it, the hand clamped over her mouth released her and the blows stopped. Her mind returned to her body and with it came the pain.

Violet knew speaking was unwise, but she couldn’t help it. “You’ll pay for this,” she promised as a tear rolled down her face. “Each and every one of you.”

They all laughed at her.

One voice broke off and said, “Not according to what the–”

The augmented voice cut off as the speaker was elbowed sharply in the solar plexus.

“Shut the fuck up, man!” A comrade warned.

Violet noted the small break among the ranks and wondered how it might be exploited moving forward.

The same voice continued speaking, but this time directed at her.

“The only one who’s paying for anything is you.” The speaker bent over, bringing their masked mouth closer to Violet’s ear. She caught a scent of cologne or deodorant; she couldn’t tell which. It was familiar, but she couldn’t place it at the moment.

“I want you to listen real good, Weaver. Keep your mouth shut about this if you don’t want to make things worse for yourself. Stay quiet, keep your head down, and get through the rest of basic training like everyone else here.”

There was something about the speaker’s voice. The tone… it seemed softer than the others she’d heard. But maybe she was imagining it. With the augmentation everyone sounded like a robot.

A pause lingered and Violet had a bad feeling.

The speaker turned to the bigger dark shape next to them and nodded. “Do it.”

Violet saw a dark blur and opened her mouth to protest, but she never got a word out.