Page 63 of Retribution

I think it's been days, anyway.

I inspect the Stinger on my thigh again. I never messed with the one at The Heath. They’d have noticed too quickly if Ihad, but if I can get a hold of some tools, open the box somehow, and disconnect the battery, maybe…

I uncurl my body from the position it’s been in for several hours, stretching my limbs and sitting up slowly. I don’t look at the dress Joe made me wear that’s in the corner in a heap. I don’t think about what happened this morning or what it means, nor the fact that the only clothes I now have to wear are the gray prison-like ones.

It hasn’t escaped my notice that Joe is transforming my life back to the way it was before I left England. Worse, even. He’s getting a sick and twisted pleasure from all of this, his absolute power over me…the fact that he can now correct me just like he used to watch on the videos that were sent of me.

Besides the general horror of everything that’s happened, it grates that Joe is, for all intents and purposes, my master. I have to do whatever he says now, or the consequences are very real and their effects are lasting. This Stinger is so much more powerful than the one at The Heath. I’ll bet it’s at the very limit of the voltage a human body can take.

I hear a noise in the hall and put the diary away quickly, knowing that Nasty Nurse will take it just because she can. The key in the lock has my body tensing. The door opens and the nurse stands at the threshold for a moment, surveying the room. Her eyes land on me.

‘There you are, sweetie.’

‘Where else would I be?’ I ask. ‘I’ve been locked in here all day.’

Nasty Nurse smiles. ‘An oversight. I’ll let you out in a minute and you can go read one of those boring books you love downstairs.’

I stand up, anticipating being out of my room.

‘But first I need you to drop your pants.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘You’re excused,’ she chuckles like she just made a joke. ‘Pull your pants down or I’ll just call Jacob. Or,’ her eyes gleam as she takes out a black keychain.

My stomach bottoms out and my legs almost give way. Joe gave her the button to zap me.

‘Maybe correction is in order?’

Head swimming, and now feeling very ill, my fingers find the drawstring of the gray pants and I unknot it, letting the pants fall and pool around my ankles.

Nasty Nurse steps forward and pulls the long shirt out of the way. My lip is quivering, so I bite the inside of it so that she doesn’t see my fear.

She inspects the Stinger slowly and tells me to turn around while her thumb plays with the button.

I do as she says, focusing on the trees outside the window as I feel her sharp acrylics graze the skin of my thigh.

‘He had this made especially for you,’ she hums. ‘Off the blueprints of something he found. But he made it better. Smaller. More powerful, he says.’ She titters a little. ‘He was telling me all about it while he was fucking me earlier. He’s very proud of it.’ She gives another little laugh. ‘You poor little thing. Your face when they held you down and you saw it. I thought you were gonna pee yourself.’

Without warning, she grabs my hair and wrenches my head back, forcing a cry out of me.

‘And then you bit my hand, you little bitch!’

She steps back quickly, making sure she’s not touching me, but keeping hold of my hair and, holding the remote out like she’s turning on the TV, she pushes the dreaded button.

Pain shoots through me like a rush of fire, making my back bow and my muscles lock. My hair being pulled from my scalp becomes an afterthought, a whisper in a cacophony of sound. I can’t even fill my lungs toscream.

When it finally subsides, I’m on my knees and the hateful cow is still holding onto my hair tightly.

‘New rules, Marguerite,’ she hisses. ‘When I correct you, you don’t make a fucking sound, or I do it again. Understand?’

She shakes me when I don’t answer.

‘Yes,’ I croak somehow.

My hair is finally released, and I slump forward, grabbing the sheet to stay upright.

‘When I correct you, I want you to say, ‘thank you, Nurse Smith.’ Can you do that for me?’