They came for me that afternoon. There was no sign of Cain this time. It was a couple of black-clad thugs, people I’d never seen before. When I heard the door creak open I stiffened, backing into the corner of the plastic cage.

Two fuzzy black figures approached. I wanted to press myself even further into the corner, but my back was already flat against the wall. There was a sharp click and then the side of the cage slid silently open, revealing the two men who’d come for me.

They were both tall, dressed in the same black t-shirt and jeans that Cain always wore. Neither of them were Cain though, and I felt my stomach sink. He’d obviously passed this part of the job onto someone else, but what did that mean? 

The man on the left gave me a wide, nasty looking grin and combed thick fingers through thinning blonde hair. “Time to go, sweetheart.”

His teeth were crooked. I don’t know why that detail stuck out to me in that moment, but it was what I thought as he leaned in and reached for me. I jammed my back against the plastic, instinctively leaning away from him. It was no good though, the man with the crooked teeth caught my shoulder and yanked me forward, dragging me towards him. My fingers squeaked against the surface of the plastic as I tried to grab at it, to hold on to something that wasn’t there. The guy tightened his grip, wrenching my shoulder in its socket, and his partner grunted at him in annoyance.

“Careful, doc will kill you if you damage her before the operation.”

Operation. The word sent a bolt of terror through me, and I struggled harder, kicking both feet at them.

“God, I can see why Cain begged off on this one.” The man lurched forward and hooked one arm around my neck, shocking me, nearly cutting off my air. My hands flew to my throat, trying to tug his arm away in order to breath. He used this distraction to drag me the rest of the way out of the cage, looping a clothe bag over my hands even as ice began to form at my fingertips. My feet didn’t even touch the ground before he hoisted me up and slung me over one shoulder. He’d done this before.

It felt like he’d corned me and then manipulated me into doing what he wanted, like a caged animal. Rage made me lash out, beating my fists against his back, screaming a string of profanities that would have horrified my mother.

Of course, they were Jotun insults, and neither man seemed to be that insulted. In fact, the one with crooked teeth laughed as he continued down the hall. “This one’s got a dirty mouth.”

“She won’t be feeling quite so lively after tonight.”

What did that mean? I tried to claw at his back through the thin t-shirt he was wearing, but he shrugged his shoulder violently, jostling me. “Stop that.”

His tone was so threatening that I froze, instead taking a moment to lift my head and look around, trying to get my bearings. I needed to memorize my surroundings in case I was able to get free. The second guy was walking behind me, and for a second we made eye contact. He leered at me, and my stomach turned. Why was he looking at me that way?

Dropping my eyes, I darted a quick look at my surroundings. We were moving down a long, bright corridor, lit with electric lights overhead that flickered and hummed. I recognized it as the same corridor Cain had dragged me down, but then again…maybe all the corridors looked the same. Maybe we were going somewhere different this time.

We turned a corner and then stopped, and I tried to twist around on his shoulder as the other guy moved past us. A squeak of door hinges, and we entered a room off the corridor. This one looked almost the same as the last one had, same stainless steel surgical tables, same glaring white lamps and sterilized, shiny tools laid out on the counters.

The same doctor and nurse who had visited me earlier were there. The doctor was just pulling a second latex glove on, and the snap it made when he let it go made me stiffen. Growling, I reared back, arching my body so much that the guy with crooked teeth gave a cry of annoyance, and his grip tightened around my waist. I wasn’t going to be able to get out of this, whatever it was, but I was sure as hell going to make it difficult.

“Hold her still,” the nurse said coolly. She swept towards me, and the needle in her right hand glittered under the light.

“If you kill me the Jotun will know.” My voice was ragged with fear. “They will avenge me. You have no idea what you’re doing—”

“Pete, make sure to gag this subject next time.” The nurse sounded bored as she reached forward, closing her finger around my upper arm, pinching my skin as she held me in place. The needle bit into the fleshy part of my arm, making me scream, more out of anger than pain.

“She’ll be fine now,” Pete protested. “And I wouldn’t need to gag ‘em if you let me show a little more persuasion once in a while.”

“We will not have our test subjects black and blue when they come in.” The nurse looked at him scornfully. “Now put her on the table.”

The room spun as the man with crooked teeth – Pete, I guess – leaned sideways, tipping me off his shoulder, lowering me slowly onto one of the metal tables. My vision was fading fast, growing fuzzy around the edges. Faces hovered over me, blurring so that I couldn’t tell who was who. Two of them were in white, the nurse and the doctor. Their voices began sounding further away, as if they were speaking at the end of a long tunnel.

The click of the recorder was followed by the icy voice of the nurse. “Prepping subject twenty-three.”

Something cool pressed against me wrist, rubbing in circles. I tried to move my hand away, feeling bile rise in my throat. I didn’t want her to touch me, but my limbs were so heavy. I couldn’t move my arms, and when I tried to lift my left leg, as a test, it felt like it had been tied down. It hadn’t, it was whatever drug they’d given me beginning to kick in.

Another sharp pinch in my wrist made me flinch, and then a steady beeping sound started up. They were still talking, but now their voices seemed to fade in and out, and I could only make out snippets of what they were saying.

“Subject…put her here…”

“Prepping…twenty-four…”

The urge to give in to sleep was overwhelming. I had no choice. Blackness was completely blanketing my vision, and my thoughts were slowly becoming nonsensical and fragmented. The last clear thought I had was, subject twenty-four?

“…transfusion…successful…do you?”

“…heart monitor…”

“Sorry, Doctor.”

Scraps of conversation were drifting past me, floating like a river, too fast, too foggy. Where was I? My eyes fluttered open gradually, just the slightest bit, and for a brief second I saw the table across from me, just a snapshot of something. A glimpse.

The girl on the table opposite me was dressed in the same white hospital gown I was. Her hair was spread out around her head like a dark halo, and attached to her arms were dozens of red tubes.

Kalda.

“…Nurse, her sedative…”

“On both of them, doctor. Look, she’s ripped the tube out….”

“Attend to her first.”

Another pinch in my arm, and the light began to fade. The room slowly dissolved into nothing.

Slowly the blackness faded into light. I blinked, trying to open my eyes. It felt like they were taped shut at first, but they opened after I tried again. Was I strapped to the table? No, I could move my left hand. It was just that my limbs felt heavy. My head was spinning, and when my eyes finally opened fully the ceiling swung in lazy circles over my head. I shut my eyes.

“Wakey wakey, twenty-three.”

I tensed, anger swelling inside my chest. The voice belonged to Cain. When I moved my lips they felt numb. “You’re a coward.” My voice was a painful rasp.

A long pause followed this. “Why?” His voice was flat, unemotional.

“Because you come now. Now that this…whatever it is…is over.”

Whatever it is. Terror was paralyzing me. I didn’t know what they had done to me, it felt like I could barely move. The light was still stinging my eyes, making me squint. Cain’s face swam into view very slowly. He was staring down at me. His face might as well have been made of stone.

I blinked, and slowly turned my head. The operating table beside mine was empty now, the straps were hanging over the sides. Kalda was gone.

In the center of the table was a large, glistening pool of blood.

My insides froze. My lips moved, but I couldn’t form words. I stammered and choked, and Cain turned to look at what I was looking at. At the empty table. At the slick blood glistening crimson under the operating lights.

Kalda.

Her name kept repeating in my mind, pulsing in time to my racing heartbeat. I shut my lips, pressing them together so tightly they went white. I wasn’t a doctor, but was there any way that someone could lose that much blood and survive?

When I looked up again my stomach plunged. Cain wouldn’t look at me. He looked everywhere else, at the ceiling, at his feet. “We should get you back to your box,” he mumbled.

He knew I’d spotted the blood, and he knew I was wondering if she was alive. And he knew something about her. And it obviously wasn’t good.

“Where’s Kalda?” It came out in a shuddering gasp.

“Get up.” Cain turned to me, sliding one hand under my back and pulling me into a sitting position.

“Tell me what happened to her. Where is she?” Even though my entire body felt completely drained, I curled my hand into a fist and punched him as hard as I could, the blow glancing off his shoulder. He ignored it.

“Tell me!” I was screaming now, even as he pulled me up into his arms, cradling me against his chest, and began to carry me out of the room. He stayed silent.

“Kalda!” I threw myself back, arching my body, trying to tear myself out of his grip. He only tightened his hold on me. “Kalda, where are you?” It felt like my screams were ripping themselves out of my throat, echoing down the hallway over the hum of the electric lights.

“She won’t answer…”

“Kalda!”

We were going past the plastic cages now, rows and rows of them, box after box. Some of the fuzzy shapes inside moved, I could see hands pressing against the glass.

“Kalda, answer me! Kalda!”

Cain stopped at one of the empty cages, trying to hold on to me while he slid open the entrance with one hand. I was still screaming, and now my eyes were blurry with tears. He had to fight to get me in the cage. I lashed out in every way I could think of, kicking him, hitting him in the face, biting him. Cain took it all without making a sound.

Finally he half threw me in, and I went sprawling, hitting my shoulder against the plastic wall. The trap door slid shut with a sharp bang. Cain turned away.

“Wait!” I sobbed, crawling forward, pressing my hand against the plastic. “Wait, Cain!”

The blurry figure on the other side paused, but didn’t turn around.

“Please,” I choked out. “Please just tell me. Is she alive?”

His shoulders were rigid, and his voice was tight and controlled. “Sacrifices are sometimes necessary, for the cause.”  Then Cain walked away, leaving me to crumple to the ground, feeling like he’d just reached in and yanked my heart out.