My fingertips and toes tingle and my mouth waters with the taste of sand and static. My eyes slide open and I'm on a cold steel table which reeks of disinfectant, the metallic hanging the thick air. My stomach is flat against the shiny table and I tilt my head so that my cheek is resting on it too.

"You're awake," the lead scientist says, her wicked smile reminding me of Lady's. "Just in time for the show."

"What show?" I ask wriggling my arms and legs against the circulation-cutting leather straps which pinch my fine skin.

"Don't bother struggling," she leans over me and touches the side of my face, "I do wish to keep you alive as long as possible... your genetics could save us all."

"Don't touch me," I snap pulling my face away from her calloused hand, "I'm not an experiment. I'm a person."

"You're a cure and I'm willing to do anything to get my hands on it Jean," she pulls away and slaps her hands together with excitement.

She said name... how does she know it? Does she know me? Does she know Issy or Mom? Does she know Dad?

"How—" I stare at her in vexation, "how do you know my name?"

"You're dad talked about you a lot. He mentioned Issy and his sweet wife too, but his youngest daughter was spoken about the most, Jean. I assumed that was you, an educated guess you can call it."

I struggle against the restraints and slam my fists into the steel supporting me, "did you experiment on him too?"

She smiles and shrugs her shoulders, "what happened to your father may or may not have be my doing, but the details are not suited for his youngest daughter."

"Tell me!" I scream at her as she turns away, my pain, anguish and abandonment convulsing in my skull as my vision begins to blur, molding objects into one another. "Please... tell me."

"I think it's time to begin the extraction," she calls to her associates, "she's beginning to get restless and it'll be hard to hold her down any longer. We need more restraints."

"No," I shake my head as men surround me and wrap a more straps around my legs, arms, torso and head. Moving is useless and the scientists are all now in masks and gloves, taking a needle and sticking it into my arm it sucks out my bright crimson blood which sits still in the glass tube. Resentment and helplessness completely consumes me as they move away to test my blood.

"AB negative," one scientist calls out in the large white room.

"Great," the lead scientist looks down at me touching my face, "we can give your bone marrow to AB negative and positive patients." Looking up she points to a scientist who stands upright and proud, "get a gag, she's going to scream once we start the procedure."

Another scientist who sounds young and inexperienced lowers himself to my eye level, uncertainty rolling in his hazel eyes, "shouldn't we put her to sleep so she won't feel pain?"

"No, we ran out of anesthesia a couple weeks ago." She looks back down at me before grabbing a scalpel, "we have ear plugs to drown her out."

With a quick swipe the side of my hip is cool and damp from the disinfectant cloth before she swiftly slices a small opening in my side, my skin peeling away from the knife and blood seeping out of my cut. Tears rush to my eyes and my scream is cut off half way with a white gag as the hollow needle is inserted into my hip and begins to extract red liquid with white-yellow chucks floating in it.

"Are we extracting from just the pelvis today?Or will we get to do the femur tomorrow?" the young hazel eyed boy asks over my piercing cries.

"We'll be doing the pelvis and femur today, we need to get as much as possible without killing it like the others," the lead scientist replies unfazed with my muffled shrieks and wails.

My body tenses and the pain continues to consume my entire lower back, my body becoming weaker and weaker. The lead scientist takes her time smiling and humming while bobbing her head to a beat as she slowly extracts my bone marrow while explaining what she's doing to her associates.

The door crack open with a loud bang which causes my muffled screams to stumble before an unfamiliar voice filled with terror interrupts the procedure, "there are more of them!"

The lead scientist stops and stares at me with disbelief and excitement, "how many are there that came with you?"

I know it's rhetorical because I'm gagged, crying and am drenched in sweat.

"No Jannette," the man stare at her gravelly, "they broke in and are breaching the doors. They're killing everyone! They aren't confined!"

My heat quickens and I smile, they're coming. I'll be out of here soon. All the scientists stare at Jannette, the leader of my tournament, waiting for a command.

"We need to take all of the prisoners now and find a safe haven. We need to find a cure," Jannette points out the door and yells, "move it!"

Quickly each scientist floods through the door in a disorderly fashion in hopes of surviving the Hollow or their escaped 'experiments'. An alarm begins to blare and red lights flash in each room causing panic and pandemonium. 

Turning to me she sighs and quickly returns to her business before looking at me, "It's just you and I now. I'll finish the extraction and we can continue this elsewhere, where there are no savages to interrupt our experiment."

She continues to pull the syringe back and my cries intensify, my eyelids locking together trying to block out the pain. Abruptly the procedure stops, the needle sticking out of my hip and my cries quite as Jannette screams behind me. An object whizzes through the air, striking her neck and causing her to limply fall to the ground, her eyes wide open.

Screams and cries echo from down the hall and my the bone marrow in the syringe is pushed back into my body. I join the screams, mine still muffled while the leather straps are loosened and taken away.

"I'm sorry," Luke whispers and sits me up removing the gag from my mouth, "lets get you out of here."

I nod my head as mummers of orders, comments and commands spread the hall and echo in my room.

"We need to get out of here."

"Finish killing those people over there."

"Make sure their dead."

"Are all the doors breached?"

Luke picks me up bridle style and I hiss in pain, "be careful."

"Sorry," he apologizes and shifts me in his arms, "I'm sorry it took me so long."

My vision blurs and I shake my head, "I had it under control. If I was in trouble I'd ask Roxy for help."

Luke smiles and kisses my forehead, "thank god you're safe."

I smile and rest my head on his shoulder as he walks out of the room, my grimace growing the more we walk, I know we have to leave but can't we slow it down a bit?

"Since when did you become my Prince Charming?" I ask rhetorically bitting the side of my cheek in order to stop a cry.

"Since you became my princess, Pants." Luke smirks to himself and I shake my head.

"That's terrible," I groan before my eyes shut and my mind grows black. My mind faxing off and my head lightening.

    《《《《《《《《》》》》》》》》

I shift awake and find myself in Adam's arms, blood coating his face and his shirt. He's walking and breathing but his face looks lifeless and cold. His eyes dull and filled with a dark void.

"Adam?" I ask holding my breath as if he's going to lash out at any giving time, "are you okay?"

A lonely tear strays down his face as he abruptly lowers me to the dark cold cement where, miraculously there are no bodies before dropping me. I gasp in pain as I land on the ground and Adam continues to walk.

"Adam!" Roxy snaps irascibly as she rushes to my side, the eyes of the Ballator Clan warriors falls onto me before shifting to Adam who's pushing past them. "What's wrong with you? She just had her bone marrow extracted you idiot!"

"You're right, I am an idiot. I'm an idiot for letting my sister go. I'm an idiot for waiting this long. I'm an idiot for believing she would live. I'm and idiot for trusting Jean that everything would be okay. I am an idiot!" Adam yells and storms off smashing his fist into a steel door leaving a noticeable dent before walking up the stairs leading to the next Layer.

No Adam. You're not the idiot, I am.