Sheri groaned, twitching slightly as she slowly came to on another hospital bed. Alarmed, she gave a hard jerk, and upon meeting some resistance she gave a mental yank to the restraints holding down her right arm. Pain followed, as well as a rush of loud, unfamilliar voices.
“Hey! Hey, calm down, you’re fine!”
“Someone go get the doctor, quick!”
“Need some Ativan here, stat!”
Sheri thrashed harder in the bed, fighting first the straps holding her down and then the hands that followed, desperate to get up and away from Scrivens and The Company. She gave a mental shove, hearing the clatter of a metal tray loaded with instruments falling to the ground and several frightened cries followed by hurried footsteps and someone prepping a shot. Before she fell back into unconsciousness, the thought that she’d never escape was the last thing running through her mind...
“I was starting to wonder if you’d ever wake back up.” A familiar voice twisted it’s way into her conciousness. Sheri’s eyes snapped open, revealing not Derrick Scrivens looming over her, but Deadblood who was seated next to her hospital bed.
“D-Dead...? Deadblood? Where am I? What’s going on?” Sheri slurred, shifting in bed trying to sit up but again meeting resistance.
“Hospital. Don’t mess with any of that stuff they have on you, leave it alone. I heard you gave those nurses hell earlier. They thought it was a good idea to restrain you, and I agree.” Deadblood replied flatly, leaning back in his chair. “How do you feel?”
Sheri frowned, memories starting to return slowly at first, like she were viewing them through gauzy cloth.
“I hurt all over, and I don’t remember anything after Scrivens brought me into that room telling me about some Company procedure. How did you find me, Champ?” Deadblood’s eyes narrowed at the mention of The Company.
“Procedure? Sheri, what happened? Is that where you were all that time?” Deadblood prodded, his anger towards her slowly dissapating. If The Company were indeed involved, it explained all of the previous night’s event and all the other strange things he’d noticed about her. Her dissappearance, the way she had stared off into space and acted so strange, why she felt like she’d been hitting the gym like a fiend and maybe it even was somehow behind that fire that had broken out back at the school.
“I don’t know, Deadblood. All I remember is Scrivens telling me horrible, fucked up things about you, and mentioning that procedure. I don’t remember anything after that. I thought I was still there when I woke up, I guess that’s why I went after those nurses like you said.” Sheri frowned, noticing the terse look on Deadblood’s face. “What’s wrong?”
“Sheri, I can’t really think of a easy way to say it, so here goes. So yeah, you tried to kill me last night, after you caught a school on fire along with Red Spyder.” He finished, crossing his arms over his chest. “You don’t remember any of that?”
Sheri’s mouth dropped open, giving him a look of utter horror.
“I guess that’s a no. Well, you did. I managed to get out of there before the roof collapsed, just in time to see him on top of you with one hand around your neck screaming about how he was planning on fucking you to death. I was able to get him off of you before he could start in on that, thankfully. Other than that I don’t know what you two did while I was out, besides apparently beat the shit out of each other while torching the school. Red looked like a fucking bucket of extra crispy by the time I got there.”
“Deadblood, I don’t remember doing any of that! What the fuck is wrong with me?!” She shouted, desperately trying to pull something, anything from her memories of the night before before bursting into tears. She couldn’t for the life of her remember doing any of those things, but the proof was all there, from the pain in her body to the nasty bump on Deadblood’s head.
“Hey, calm down,” He said, uncrossing his arms and leaning in. Now he felt bad, whatever procedure that The Company had ordered apparently had not only compelled her to attack him, but left her without any memory of doing so. Part of him wanted to ask her just what terrible things this Scrivens character had said to her about him, but he brushed that off for the moment.“Look, it’s okay, come on, stop crying. You’re okay.”
“How can you just sit there and tell me I’m fucking okay? I don’t remember one bit of any of that stuff! What did they do to me?” Sheri sniffled, as a grim thought struck her. “And how do I know it isn’t going to happen again?”
Deadblood didn’t say anything for a minute. She was right. How did either of them know that it wouldn’t?
“I think you should just go, Deadblood. Apparently I’m just a giant fucking ticking time bomb, and I don’t want to be around you if I go off again.” Sheri turned her face to the wall, choking back a sob. Deadblood shook his head, reaching out to put a hand on her arm.
“Sheri, look. I don’t know if it will happen again, but I know that if it does, I want to be there with you. If you go off on your own, then what? There’s no telling what would happen, who you’d hurt or what you’d do. If I’m there, I can handle it. I can stop you from hurting someone else or yourself. I can help you.” He said, as she pondered his words.
“I don’t want to hurt you again, Champ.” Sheri faltered, still feeling like she should leave him for the sake of safety. “I don’t see how you could ever trust me again, either.”
“I told you, you won’t. I won’t let you. And as for that...” He replied, leaning in to give her a long, deep kiss. “I’d still rather keep you close, for plenty of different reasons.” Glancing towards the door, satisfied that they were alone for now, he decided to further illustrate those other reasons for her.
