Page 9 of Milk & Malice: Vadik

Where were my parents?

“There you are,moy sladkiy,” a man’s voice crooned soothingly.

My sweet.

“You won’t be able to move yet. Only rest. It is very important you rest.”

“Wh—what… happened?” I whispered.

“I’m Dr Novikov, your surgeon. I’ll explain everything soon. Sleep for now,” he said, pulling out a needle.

I felt something in my neck.

“You have an IV in your neck. I’m giving you something for the pain.”

In my neck?

Didn’t IVs go in the arm?

I managed to turn and look at my arm. It was bandaged. I began to pant.

I only had a stump. An elbow.

Where did the rest go?

Where was my hand?

The doctor.

I tried to think, tried to focus—

But whatever he gave me was fast-acting.

His smiling face blurred.

There was pleasure in his cold grey eyes.

Wrong.

All wrong.

???

The next time I woke up, my head felt heavy from the medication and—something else.

My arm!

I lifted it up.

It happened in slow motion.

I had an arm again, but where my wrist should have been there was metal. Where my hand had been was a wide hoof. Split into two and black. As wide as my palm had been. My eyes travelled up the metal to see a white prosthetic attached to my elbow.

What the fuck was this?

“Remain calm, Lena. I will explain. I cannot have you stress and mess up your endocrine system.”

The doctor.