Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 149: But... Still...

Chapter 149: But... Still...

Could you hear it when your heart broke? I wasn’t sure.

But my Rip just shared the secret the two of us had been keeping since this all started with a stranger.

The woman smiled brightly at him and leaned forward to try and take the cat from him. "Mine," he hissed, not letting the cat go.

It was like I was in a completely different dimension. My Rip wasn’t like this....

Right?

This was Hell... right?

Just as the thoughts flashed through my head, humans poured into the women’s area, startling me.

Humans weren’t allowed back here for obvious reasons.

And yet... here they were.

I couldn’t sort out the thoughts running through my head at that moment, and as a result, I could feel myself start to panic.

Since being brought here, my life has been stable.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I knew that it wasn’t something that I should have accepted quite as quickly as I did... but there was a comfort in the stability.

The constant routine made me happy...

I could relax knowing what was coming next because nothing ever changed.

Most prisoners experienced a mental breakdown because they had to maintain a constant state of hyperattention. They never knew what was going on, and that resulted in them being off balance. That constant state of fight meant that they weren’t able to last long.

I didn’t have that.

My state of survival was set on freeze. I didn’t notice the time passing besides the arrival of new women and fighters.

I wasn’t fighting; I had never really contemplated running away; I was just going with the flow.

And what was going on right now was enough to set off everything inside of me.

Humans couldn’t be in here. It was against the rules.

I could feel my heart starting to beat faster, like a rabbit, knowing that a predator was around.

No. That wasn’t right. I still had Rip.

He might not be the exact same one that I knew before this woman showed up, but I still had him. Rip wouldn’t let anything happen to me.

I had to believe that.

Taking in deep breaths, I plastered a smile on my face as I concentrated on my breaths and heart rate. Freaking out right now would do nothing but send me into a tailspin. I could have all the ’big feelings’ I wanted after this was all said and done.

If I survived.

"You might want to move," cautioned the woman from where she sat on her cage. She hadn’t even introduced herself yet. It was like she just expected me to know her name.

I pushed that thought aside, my heartbeat increasing at the idea that Rip would move and leave me defenseless.

"Nope," he said instead, still petting the cat.

That was right. He once told me that he liked cats... he even asked me if I had one...

I said I had a crow.

I nodded my head, remembering that conversation. Okay. That was fine.

I continued to grip the mountain in front of me, feeling somewhat guilty that I had doubted him even for a moment.

But the darkness inside of me pushed me one way or the other... I was either a strong bitch that could take on the world, or I sunk into the depths of Hell, and I wasn’t worth a thing.

It was funny how darkness did both.

"Okay," shrugged the woman, kicking her feet in front of her as if this was just another day at the office.

One of the humans made it to our section of the women’s area, and I could finally see why everyone was screaming.

It was like the skin on their faces had melted off, their eyes were wide, and their mouths were opened in a scream... but not a sound came out.

I watched as more and more of their skull was exposed, and the flesh just slid off like an egg from a frying pan, plopping onto the ground with an audible sound.

As I stared at the creature in front of me... because no human could survive something like that and still be running around, a purple flame engulfed it, turning it to ashes within seconds.

More flames, both blue and purple, came out of the woman, incinerating the skeletons.

I snorted softly, my brain clearly disassociating from the scene in front of me as I thought that I was right. Alpha really was going to regret bringing these people into the camp.

"Someone left the gate open. The guys are sorry," said the woman as she continued to burn those who came too close to us.

"Oh no, that’s fine," I smiled as if we were talking about only having cucumber sandwiches with tea instead of cookies. I was actually quite proud that my smile never slipped for a moment.

The woman nodded her head and pulled out a chocolate bar. "Here, I think you like these," she offered, lifting the chocolate a fraction as if she was expecting me to be able to reach it from inside my cage.

"How did you know?" I asked. I mean, I was sure that everyone would like chocolate right now, no matter what type it was. Especially someone in a prison... but I felt a little strange taking something from someone else that was not Rip.

As if he could read my thoughts, Rip took the chocolate bar from the woman and passed it over to me, but not before inspecting it.

I dipped my head at his actions, my smile going from fake to real in seconds.

Taking the bar from him, I looked at it. Oh Henry. Huh, I hadn’t had one of these since I had lived in Toronto.

"We were friends in a past life," explained the woman, pulling me out of my thoughts. "In more than a few past lives, if I am to be honest."

I nodded my head like that made sense; I mean, I knew that this wasn’t my first life, so it could happen. It would also explain why she hadn’t introduced herself yet. She just expected me to know her because she knew me.

But clearly, she didn’t know my favorite chocolate bar.

"She said the same thing to me when we first met. It’s confusing as fuck," grumbled Rip. He was finally making complete sentences, but... still...

I smiled and started eating the candy bar in my hands. Chocolate was chocolate, and I wasn’t in a position to be picky.