Excerpt from Lab Rats

Amanda never made it to the examination. She was too busy having the worst day of her life.

When she woke, it felt like her skull was splitting open. Like the skin on her head was tearing apart from the inside.

Demi had no idea what to do, so she sprinted out to get help, only for help to arrive in the form of multiple guards crowding into the room. The one place Amanda should have felt safe, now utterly violated.

“Something’s wrong with her head,” Demi said.

“Zero-Seven-Five, Zero-Seven-Nine, it’s time for your next dose,” one of the guards replied.

Amanda managed a weak “no,” before Demi cut her off.

“She needs a doctor,” Demi insisted.

If the guards felt anything, they hid it perfectly.

“Nothing interrupts the injection schedule. We can take her to the emergency room after her treatment.”

“God, please no,” Amanda whispered.

Then the guards reached the bed.

“Leave her alone, you fucking animals!” Demi shouted.

Her voice faded behind them as if someone had dragged her out of the room.

There was nothing Amanda could cling to except the sheets, and in desperation she knotted her fists in them.

“Please… it hurts.”

Her worst nightmare resurfaced as hands closed around her ankles and dragged her halfway off the bed. Their dirty, unwelcome hands on her body.

Anything but being touched. Please, not that. Not again.

Then they grabbed her arms and hauled her upright, the sheets ripping away and falling to the floor.

Pain had never been the worst part during her days of abuse. It was the loss of agency. Being too afraid, too weak, to control anything about her own life.

No one dared intervene. The only one who even tried was Demi, and she was no match for them. Her pleas fell on deaf ears as they carried Amanda to the injection room.

“No, no, I can’t take it anymore,” Amanda begged as they strapped her down to the table.

This was her reality now.

Injections would continue until the doctor had his fill—or until Amanda simply stopped breathing.

Medical care was still denied after the needle was pulled from her back. Instead they shoved her into the deprivation tank and locked the door.

It felt like someone was grinding sand into her skin. Burning all along her scalp. Amanda reached up to rub it and the pain exploded, flaring white.

Why won’t it stop? Please. I just need a break. Anything.

Desperate, she plunged her head as deep into the water as she could. It was like pouring salt into an open wound—an entirely new level of agony.

She didn’t know how long she screamed before they dragged her out, only that it was long enough for her to beg God to let her pass out.

Once the treatment ended, the guards finally carried her into the ER. Medics surrounded her instantly.

“How long has she been like this?” someone asked.

“We found her like this at eight A.M.”

“You waited forty minutes to bring her here?”

That voice was outraged, but Amanda didn’t care. Let someone be angry on her behalf—just make it stop.

A hand touched her shoulder. More touching. Always the touching.

“Where does it hurt, hun?” a woman asked.

“My head,” Amanda choked between sobs. “Like a ring of fire around my head.”

Someone injected her with something, and the world mercifully slipped away.