Kathryn

7

It's a while before Bastien returned. He looked pleased to find me sitting on the bed. He didn't look at all surprised to see me there.

"I did think about running, but Henry scares me."

"Henry should scare you." He gestured for me to get up and follow him. We walked down the hallway and took the steps that go straight down to the basement level. He unlocked the door and ushered me ahead of him. Right back into that room and my waiting cell. It had been cleaned out at least. Considering how much blood I'd been wearing, it had to have been all over the floor and the walls.

All the girls were wearing fresh, clean clothes and their cells looked scrubbed as well. None of them were happy to realize what their instincts had turned them into when they first awoke either. I was still reeling from the knowledge myself, so I understood their horror.

Bastien locked me in my cell and turned back to address the room. "You will meet our host tonight. Dominic is a no-nonsense man who will kill you as soon as look at you, so for your own safety, do not give him a reason to look too hard at you."

Bastien handed out trays of food through the bottom of our cells. There was a slot big enough to put it through. I squatted down and picked mine up. It looked like grilled chicken and some kind of salad.

"This food will help you. It might make you a little nauseous, but your body needs it. Once the transformation is complete, you won't need it. Eat and prepare yourselves."

With that, he took his leave and I stared down at the chicken, my stomach queasy. The plastic utensils he'd provided were not sharp enough to actually cut through the chicken so I picked it up and took a hesitant bite.

My stomach revolted and I tossed the chicken back onto the tray and put it back down on the floor. Bastien could be right about the food, but I'd wait until later to try and eat. I did not want to throw up again.

"Are you okay?" my neighbor asked. "When he took you away, I was worried."

"I'm fine. He put me somewhere Henry wouldn't try to get to me while I slept. My mind freaked a little and I needed time to let it heal."

"Nichole freaked too. Her sister is the one that got sent away. Not as bad as you, but he made her sleep too."

"Did you guys get showers?"

"Yeah. He took us one at a time to clean up and gave us fresh clothes."

"Bastien doesn't seem so bad," another girl said.

"He's the reason we're here," Loretta, the smart mouthed girl from last night said. "He turned us into this thing."

She wasn't wrong and as mad as I was about that, I couldn't bring myself to hate him. I wanted to. God knows I did, but I didn't. It was weird and it scared me. I didn't want to feel the things I was feeling when it came to our captor. I was not one of those girls who fell for their kidnapper. I wasn't.

But deep down, maybe I was.

"Is everybody okay aside from the obvious?" I asked, trying to distract myself from my own thoughts.

"Yeah," my neighbor said. "I'm Sherry."

"Kathryn."

"You know Loretta and Nichole. The other two girls are Ana and Gina. They're not talking to anyone."

"Probably shock," I murmurede.

"I think we're all in shock." Sherry moved closer. "We've been talking about ways to try and escape."

"I wouldn't talk about that out loud," I warned. "They're listening to us."

"You think?"

"I would if I were them. Easiest way to thwart plans before they get started."