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Behind roans I look over e on my other side is another beast, curled up in fetal position with his back to me He is a broad-shouldered male, his skin covered with scabs and bruises and half-moon teeththe air like a dog dreae and sit with e’s exact center, neither beast will be able to reach ranite, face forward, I breath shalloisps of air that hardly e move The female beast lurches for me, her hand ives up

Sloith the passage of tiain Withoutmy head, I look at it and whimper At the sound of ainst the bars separating her cage fro the bars shudder I scoot an inch toward thenore the panting co from the female beast

Minutes or hours pass I don’t knohich But er has doubled in size and turned purple, and the fee And I smell food

From the corner of , lean body and sits, staring out the front of his cage Feet thu squeaks For the first ti es--like an anies are occupied But instead of holding stray dogs and cats, they hold beasts and Fecs The cage across froma cart with a squeaky wheel walks slowly in front of the cages, pausing before each to slide a plate under the two-inch gap beneath the door before duets to Arrin’s cage, she doesn’t e and dumps it onto the floor by her head

One by one, he feeds all the caged things on the opposite side of the room and then starts on my side He slowly e beside e Cautiously, he slides a plate under the cage, dumps the contents onto the floor, and then yanks the plate back lightning fast The fe atata heap of greasy rease-stained floor He doesn’t e but watches me like he did the feain and adds a second helping to my first

"You eat up," he whispers with a wink My lower lip tre me compassion I try to smile at hiret it!" My smile turns to a frown

He stands and pushes the squeaky cart to the e Theattention to his dinner His face is pressed against the bars as if he’s finally noticed so eyes--eyes I have known asp

The memory of pain burns down my back, fire beneath my skin, and Bowen’s words come back to ers down ernails"

The walls hite tile, and light glared from them

A man with thick white hair put his face in front ofto feel a little prick, and then everything will fade You’ll be at peace" He wore a white doctor’s coat with a nae

I lay on ainst a cold round into my ankles, the backs of my knees, my bare hips, my lower back, my shoulders, even across ht Sedated, naked, and strapped to a stainless-steel table just like mine Drool dripped from his slack mouth and pooled beneath his cheek

"I don’t want this!" I yelled Theit hard to talk The strap onon behindaround--the doctor and someone else

"You uardian Her decision outweighs your wants She’s doing it in the hopes that you’ll survive long enough for us to find a cure," Dr Page said from behind me "It’s what’s best, Fiona" He walked around to where I could see hiht intoive up on"

I snarled and lunged for hi my table-bed lurch, yet I hardly moved beneath the leather straps The doctor jumped away from me and frowned

"Jonah," I cried "Help me!" But he didn’t stir Didn’t even close his mouth

"Needle, nurse The sooner we sedate her, the sooner we can induce the coloved hand, and a hefty syringe was placed into it "I’ to inject this directly into your spinal tissue, and then you’ll go to sleep It will only hurt for awill go nu as er, and screaloved hand onprickedof a bee, and then pressure built aroundits way between ain and lurched, fighting against ainst bone