Niko Page 4

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  A Slither pinned her down. It giggled madly as it pressed a hand over her face, its claws biting deeply into her skin. She struggled beneath it as it slowly tried to shove her head underwater. She grabbed its hand, cutting her fingers to ribbons as she gripped its hand, slowly pulling it away from her face.

  She pulled the clawed hand away to reveal Sam’s face grinning down at her. His teeth were crooked.

  He laughed like a Slither. “You bitch.”

  He slammed his head into hers and she went under.

  Niko woke submerged in thick blue liquid. It was cool against her skin but who knew how long that would last. She kicked frantically but that only seemed to drive her deeper downward.

  Her lungs burned but she didn’t dare take a breath. How did she get here?

  Her flailing left foot hit a glass wall and the sound reverberated dully around her. She let out a gasp of pain and inhaled the watery blue gel. She coughed violently, the world erupting into a cloud of foamy bubbles and she accidentally sucked down more of the stuff.

  She kicked the wall again. She was in a tank and she was going to drown.

  “She’s awake.” The voice was muted through the tank's glass walls.

  “Again?”

  Niko’s hand smacked against the glass. She slammed her body against it, screaming. She was going to die in here.

  A bespectacled face appeared on the other side. He pressed both hands against the glass she was trying to break. “Breathe. Breathe, it’s okay, you won’t drown. Take a breath.”

  “We need to up the dosage again.” There was another voice further beyond the glass.

  Niko stopped fighting, stopped sinking. She hung suspended in a frothy blue cloud. The face smiled at her. Then a clear length of tubing floated between them. She stared at it in confusion then followed the line down to the crook of her arm. She frowned and reached for it.

  “Ben, you’d better hurry. She’s found the IV.” The face twisted away from her.

  “Shit. Tell her not to – ”

  She yanked it out. Blood seeped out of the wound, floating upward like red tendrils of smoke. They tinged the water around it purple.

  She kicked, driving her body into the wall. Her head smacked against the glass and she blacked out.