20
Don’t give in, Aura told herself. Don’t cry, don’t beg, don’t bleed.
Don’t let them see what they’ve done to you.
Pressing down with her hands, she arched bare inches off the tile floor, like she was stuck in the middle of a pathetic pushup. Drool slithered out the side of her mouth. She couldn’t stop it. Her arms wobbled. Her left eye twitched.
“Can you not see how entirely futile this is?” Dr. Coutant stood, surrounded as always by the three thugs or bodyguards or accomplices or whatever they were. She didn’t know their official title. But she sure knew what they did.
“Let…my…mother…go.” Her voice trembled, as did her entire body.
“Aura, are you completely delusional? That is simply not going to happen. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you have no cards in this game. Your stupid Shine can’t help you now. You’re just a pitiful little girl with her face covered with slobber, cowering on the floor like a disobedient dog.”
She worked her jaw, trying to make the words come out right. “I…haven’t…done anything wrong.”
“Tell that to the families of the people in Seattle you murdered.”
Each word stung, slicing through her like an invisible knife. “I…am…not…a murderer. I never…meant…to hurt anyone.”
“Then perhaps we should extradite you to one of the Seattle relocation camps. See what the folks there have to say about it.” Coutant bent over, grabbing her hair and jerking her head upward. “Give me what I need, Aura. So I can end this.”
“I…already told you…I’ll do whatever you ask. What more do you want?”
“I want to believe it. I’m a trained psychotherapist. I can tell the difference between someone saying what they think I want to hear and someone who has truly accepted the inevitable.”
“I’m not lying.”
“You’re saying what seems expedient. You don’t want Beverly to suffer. But your heart is not in it. You’ll go back to your old rebellious ways as soon as you see an opportunity.”
“I won’t.” Drool spilled out from her lips, with a little blood. Her jaw was still numb from the drugs, which made enunciation difficult. “I told you that already.”
“I need more.”
“I’m promising you.”
Coutant leaned down till she was eye-level. “Tell me you’ll stop snooping around. Tell me you’ll obey the rules and stop stirring up trouble.”
She wrapped some of the drool up with her tongue and spit it into Coutant’s eyes. “Go to hell.”
Coutant stood calmly, took an electric cattle prod from Joseph, and touched it to Aura’s lower abdomen.
She screamed. Screamed like a helpless child. Which was exactly what she was. She’d lost control of her body.
“Ssssssstop!” Her entire body rocked back and forth. She tried but found she could not stop the spasms.
“Frustrating, isn’t it?” Coutant said. “You can heal everyone else in the world—but not yourself. Aren’t you tired of this? I know I am. This hurts me just as much as it does you. Maybe more. But it’s necessary.”
“D-Don’t make excuses. You’re enjoying it.”
“If you only knew—” Coutant stopped short. “You can end this, Aura. Please do.”
She couldn’t control her lips or tongue any better than she controlled the rest of her body. “Y—You’re the only one…who can end this. You. Witch.”
“I’m not a bad person. I know you think that, but it isn’t true.”
“Then. W—W—Why are you holding a cattle prod?”
“Because I have a job to do. I had the sense to know when I was beaten, and I didn’t insist on futile shows of obstinacy masquerading as strength.”
“You sold out.”
“I gave in to the inevitable. That’s not weakness. That’s intelligence.”
“There’s…no pride in giving in to evil.”
“Says the little girl drowning in her own spit.”
“If you had any strength, you’d be down here with me.”
Coutant’s face twisted. Her teeth clenched.
The cattle prod returned.
The pain ripped through Aura’s body like a barbed wire spine, piercing her most sensitive areas and leaving nothing unburned. Her eyes flew open, wider than she’d imagined possible. She heard a horrific noise and feared it came from her.
The burning sensation spread, and she realized with humiliation and horror that she had wet herself.
“And now?” Coutant asked. “Still feeling proud?”
Each syllable required conscious effort. “I—give you—my—promise.”
“And I still don’t believe a word you say.” Coutant tossed the prod to one of her accomplices. “Do the same to her mother. Continuously. Drag Aura along to watch.”
“Noooo!” Tears sprang from her eyes. “I—won’t—cause—t-t-t—trouble. I won’t snoop. Please!”
Coutant pursed her lips. “That’s the first time I’ve even begun to believe you. And I’m still not convinced.”
“What do I have to do?”
“Well, since you asked, I would like Dr. Hope to conduct a series of tests on you.”
“She already has.”
“These tests will be…more invasive.”
“Like what you’re doing to those girls beneath the stables?”
“No. Those experiments…will not leave much behind. Dr. Hope just wants to learn more about you. We would never do you any permanent harm. You’re a precious specimen, Aura. More precious than you know.”
“F-Fine.” She clenched her eyes closed. “I’ll let your sadist doctor experiment on me. Is that enough? Will you…l-leave my mother alone now?”
Coutant rolled her over and leaned into her face. “If you break your promise, we’ll start in on both of you. We’ll put you and your mother in the same cell and do you both at once. We’ll strip you naked and bring in people to watch. And we won’t use a cattle prod. We’ll use a scalpel. If you can’t fix your brain, we’ll fix it for you.”
“Why? Why are you doing this?”
“I’m doing it for you.” Coutant headed for the door, hand covering her face. “Get her out of here.”
They grabbed her, and another shock wave of pain raced through her body. She tried to clutch her stomach, but she couldn’t make her hands go where she wanted them. The aching radiated through her lower abdomen. She twitched and jerked like a damaged doll, making her humiliation all the worse.