Autopsy of a Mind

Evie POV:

I had rarely awoken with such a terrible headache before. I wondered why I felt like I had been hit by a train. But slowly, the splitting headache gave rise to another feeling. A feeling that made me want to curl up and cry anew. I was sure I was being watched. In the absolute darkness behind my closed eyelids, I heard the gasping breaths of others. It bounced off the walls and returned to me, piercing me completely. 

I knew the sound of emptiness well. I had listened to the screams bouncing off it for months. It seemed like ages ago, yet it was also yesterday. How was I back here? 

For a moment, I tried my hardest to focus on the tip of my toes, trying to move them slightly so that the dream would pass. But soon enough, I found myself paralyzed. 

It was a dream, I told myself. How could it be anything else? 

I couldn't remember when I fell asleep or where I fell asleep, but it had to be that… right?

I sucked in a deep, cleansing breath, willing the monsters away as I fought to open my eyes. Heavy. So heavy that I couldn't even try and squint through my lids to see where I was.

There seemed to be light beyond my closed lids and I was sure I was not blindfolded. Then…

I had to think. I had to think about how I got there. Why couldn't I move my muscles? 

Why did my throat burn and my body feel like all the energy had been sucked out from it? I shivered involuntarily despite the heat in the room. 

Evie, control yourself. Use your brain. What happened to you?

Piece the clues together and find the right answer, I screamed at myself. 

Another deep breath. 

Okay, symptoms. What were they? Dry and burning throat. Profuse sweating and shivers. Inability to control the body. Fatigue. Disorientation. Paranoia.

I didn't even know how long I had been there. Or how I had gotten here. So, I added another clue. 

Memory distortion. 

Adding these two together, I could only think of one thing that could make all of these things happen at the same time.

Cool-down from drug use. 

I was not one to take drugs, therefore, I had been injected with it, or somehow forced to have it. But what kind of drug? I didn't know as of yet.

The thing about controlling your mind when your body was rebelling was the greatest struggle. You were lucid, but your brain couldn't send the proper signals to your body. So, I had to focus. 

I had to let the effect of the drug completely wear off.

I didn't know how long it took me to come down, but I finally did.

I blinked before I opened my eyes slowly. The room was dimly lit but just enough for me to see the people. Half of their faces were cast over by shadows. 

I noticed three others in the room. All bound to the chair very tightly. They seemed to be staring at me. I tried to speak but my voice didn't come out. I cleared my throat and gulped a little bit of saliva before trying once again.

"Hi," I said calmly. The faces in the room were familiar. 

The woman from the video was sitting across from me, tear tracks running down her cheeks. The little girl who had gone missing sat on my right side, looking at me with fear. She had no tears in her eyes, which was good. I looked her over and knew for sure that no one had harmed her physically yet.

I looked to my left and saw the man in the white shirt. His eyes acted out fear well, but my weary yet trained eyes could sense that his shirt was a little too crisp despite the obvious attempts at making it look worn. There was a small gash at the edge of his lips and I wondered how he had gotten it.

"How many people are in the room?" I said in a husky voice I couldn't even recognize as my own.

There was silence. 

"Four," the little girl finally said. Though the room looked small, I couldn't see behind me. I felt like I was being watched but I was not sure if there was someone standing behind me or it was just the drugs impairing my judgment.

"There is no one behind me?" I asked again, just to be sure. 

The girl shook her head. I nodded to myself. I took another look around the room. 

"How long have I been out?" I inquired. The woman opposite me looked at me with hostility. I didn't understand it at first, but when I glanced around the room, I could guess that she feared she would be killed with new captives entering the house.

"We've had one meal since you came. So, about six hours," the girl answered.

"Gene, right?" I said with what I thought was a smile. The girl looked at me startled. "Have they tried to drug you?"

I prayed that they hadn't. She shook her head vehemently.

"Good," I breathed in relief.

I turned to the other woman. "Jade Walsh, right?" She blinked, not knowing what to do. "Apologies for taking so long."

I didn't know why I said it. It wasn't my fault, but I wondered if they were under the influence all this time. I didn't even know if that was better or not.

Six hours, was it? That meant Nash and Sebastian knew by now. They would be searching for me. With them on the trail, I knew it was only a matter of time before we were found. The question was, how would I keep these people alive until then? 

Where would this game take me? What did the man in the white shirt have waiting for me?

"What's your name?" I asked, turning to the last person in the room. 

His lips quivered as he responded. "Benny Phillips." He wasn't lying. Maybe if I had asked his name the first time I met him, I wouldn't have ended up here.

"Hi Benny, I am Evie," I whispered. I tried to go through the list of people I had come across at the station and every news article about people in power I had read over the years. 

I know the surname was familiar, but I couldn't pinpoint who it was.

"You… react very violently to drugs," Benny whispered. I sensed a shred of excitement in his voice. "You kept analyzing what was happening around you. Very strange."

I smiled. "Do you know what drug it was?"

Maybe Benny would be helpful enough to tell me what they had used. I could pinpoint and understand the symptoms better. I could estimate my reactions and decide what path to take to help all these people to survive. Including Benny. I wanted him alive.

If my intrusive thoughts got the better of me during a drug-induced episode, I might just end up killing him brutally for tormenting me. I sucked in another lungful of air. The air smelled moldy and I wrinkled my nose.

Drug and health hazard. Excellent.

"No idea," he said shortly but he scrutinized me closely.

"How did they get you?" I enquired. I wanted his official story. Knowing that he mixed the truth with lies, I had to let my mind take hints from his story and put together the events that led to me being here.

"I was waiting for a friend at the given location when they pounced on me and knocked me unconscious," he claimed. I glanced at his bleeding lip and nodded. 

I jogged my memory for a long minute before I came to the conclusion. The old man must have tried to keep her occupied until Benny and the daughter came from behind and overpower me. There had to be a scuffle which resulted in Benny getting a cut on his lip. I had probably headbutted him. Once the other two came in, I would be sure.

"I don't remember how they got me," I blinked and looked around to see the expression of the others. Suspicion, fright, excitement.

"Why would they get so many people?" Jade asked, her voice shaking. 

I stared at her intently. "It's an experiment," I told her. "Don't worry," I assured her. "It's going to be okay. You're going to be okay." My voice was a whisper. 

I heard a heavy door opening behind me and stiffened. I could see the others turn in the direction. A brighter light beam fell on the wall opposite to me but it vanished when the door closed. 

I heard two pairs of footsteps.

I had seen them work on video, now I had to see how they actually interacted without the presence of cameras. They entered wearing masks and I sighed in relief. 

This ensured that they didn't have any plans on killing us. Maybe they even planned on drugging and dumping these two girls after the entertainment was over.

It was better than death.

"Little officer, how are you doing?" the old man asked. The woman remained eerily quiet. She was a step behind like she was waiting for her father's permission to do something.

Not much different from what I saw on the live-streams. The only thing that bothered me was the look in her eyes as she looked at the women in the room. There was hostility and possessive rage in them.

I had thought the father was the main aggressor but never thought that the one who lured the women in would feel a seething rage.