The Tens, Vanessa Jones [i like reading books .TXT] 📗

off herself as if they were the answer to all the pain relief left in the world.

'Alright, settle down,' Everley yanked back the bottle, not letting Sophie finish it. 'And here, drink this also.' She lifted an old milk bottle filled with syrupy blonde liquid, which slanted in the neck of the bottle with each movement.

'What is it?' Sophie could smell something rancid escaping from the neck of the bottle; like sour milk and metal.

Everley looked like she was already fed up with Sophie and the treatment had not even begun. She hit a sigh hard. 'It's a remedy we make. It will numb your body and will dull the pain enough for you to get back to your senses.'

'What's in it? Just give me more whiskey. And surely you have some fucking codeine or something?' The alcohol had eased her headache and sent the slightest buzz through her skin but with the courageousness of whiskey Sophie's voice catapulted a little louder.

'Honestly, this stuff is better than codeine or booze. Really, I don't care if you don't have it but you best stay still when I apply the treatment,' Everley said pointedly.

'Bullshit! What treatment do you think you're putting on my arm? You should be getting me to a burns unit!'

'Sophie. Relax. The treatment will have your arm repaired by the time you wake up tomorrow. That is not an exaggeration. My advice, because I actually know what I'm doing, believe it or not, is to drink some of the elixir and shut up. And then I'll give you more whiskey.'

Sophie, without much to lose, was frantic for more whiskey to help ease the dazzling agony that shot from her elbow to the centre of her chest. 'Fine. But please assure me that this isn't poisonous and won't kill me?'

'It's not going to do either of those things. You've had it before anyway. You just didn't know it.'

'Is this the shit that's been put in my tea that has paralysed me?'

'Yes. A modification of, anyway. This is a special batch that is made for strong pain relief. It works. Trust me.'

'Why in the fuck would I trust a snake like you? You're all a bunch of poisoners!' Sophie spat at her.

Everley went to grab Sophie's arm to squeeze a little more sense into her but she stopped. Yanking her sleeve toward her elbow, she shoved the underside of her arm a few inches from Sophie's face. 'There. That's why you should trust me. You want the pain gone? Drink it. You want it healed quicker than you can believe? Let me do my thing.'

Sophie looked at the bubbled lilac flesh where Everley had been burned. It had puckered into a small circle and lacked the anger that should have been there. 'Will I get paralysed?'

'Yes. For a short time. It wears off after a few days. Sophie, we're definitely not going to kill you if that's what you're worried about. You're far too valuable to us. You'll see.'

'I don't know what any of that means but I really, really just want the pain to end now.'

'Good girl.'

Everley lifted the bottle of yellow goop to her mouth and started to pour, Sophie took a tiny sip that barely covered her tongue and waited.

'You'll need a little more than that. Have three big gulps and wait.' Sophie followed her instructions nervously and shut her eyes tight and waited, praying to nothing that she would be okay and that someone would find her soon.

Before she even finished her prayer, her body started to slacken and her mouth lost its grip. Like being washed in the shallows, the pain, the muscle tension, the headache... it all just left her body and was superseded with relief. The agony had been so damming that the reprieve was as sweet as the morning sun. Endorphins shot through her, making her feel invincible. Until she remembered that she couldn't move anything but her head. She tried to mumble something at Everley but her lips were wonky so she gave in to the sweet freedom while Everley worked away at her arm, concentrating hard and carefully selecting items from her basket.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Sophie slept through the night like she was on a tropical paradise vacation and all the stress had left her body. When she awoke the next morning, she held her breath as she waited for the pain to rush back in.

But the pain never came. She could move her arms slightly, even with stilted joints. Her legs, however, were as lifeless as the dead birds by the door that awaited Sophie back at her home. She jiggled out of the blankets, eager to look at her injury. The blanket fell away and she looked at both arms with confusion. Her injured forearm was covered in a slimy clear film, shining like plastic. And underneath was the tiniest small star-shaped etching, the size of a gumnut. It was pink, like the raw skin of a dog nose. But there was no anger to it. No trauma, no peeling flesh. Barely any hint of burn at all. Whatever Everley had done, had worked. It had worked so well, in fact, that Sophie doubted she was even awake and stuck in some kind of bliss dream that would end all too soon. She summoned her limp fingers to pinch at her face to wake her from her spell but they did nothing but grab at her grimy face and slip off. Sophie felt her fingers on her cheek like she did any other day.

Someone had put a jumper on her and she looked to the ground to see the bottle of whiskey empty, tipped over, the neck hovering over a dark wet patch.

As she was scanning the ground, Everley appeared. 'You're awake. How's the arm?'

‘It’s… fine actually. How did you do that?’

‘We have our ways.’

‘What happened to Abigail? Can you send her in to me?' Sophie