Listen (Muted Trilogy Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

workers only, three of them, functional furniture replacing the medical equipment she’d seen in the rest of the labs. They looked bored, normal employees on a break in a job that wasn’t desired as much as needed.
    The next room, again, was empty. The next held a thin blonde woman.
    Jemma’s steps faltered, and the guard pushed her along with a firm hand on her upper back, giving her only another couple of seconds to be sure she was right about what she’d seen, about whom she’d seen.
    Kendall was here, too.
    It should have been something Jemma had considered; if she and Jack were both here, along with others, it made sense that Marcia and Ken would also be in this large, windowless prison.
    She’d only had a glimpse, but Ken seemed to have shrunken in on herself, seemed even worse off than she’d been last time Jemma had seen her, though she looked physically unharmed. She seemed smaller, the scrubs swallowing her. She looked like a child.
    ***
    The door to Jemma’s cell clanged shut behind her, just inches between it and her heels, and she closed her eyes. She rubbed her arm, then stopped, wincing. Jemma looked down, moving the sleeve of her scrubs out of the way, and saw bruises were already forming from where the guard had held her.
    She let the sleeve drop and walked over to her bed, checking for and failing to find her soiled clothing. Jemma sighed silently and sat, her head against the wall, right hand resting above the marks on her left arm.
    Seeing Jack had been…
    Jemma trailed her hand up and down her arm.
    Even though the circumstances weren’t even near the realm of ideal, she’d been able to see him. He’d looked as good as could be expected given the circumstances, the excess facial hair the only physical indication anything was different.
    He’d watched her like he was afraid to take his eyes off her.
    She’d missed him even more than she’d realized.
    She also knew now that she was better off than she could have been.
    That she was lucky to have gotten to see Jack, to have gotten the daily newspaper set up.
    That she was lucky to only be detained instead of beaten.
    Seeing the increased guards on Jack, the shape Naomi was in, how small Kendall looked, all evidence pointed to the fact that she should stop making demands. If she pushed too hard, they might make things worse than they already were. And yet, the days of captivity had no end in sight.
    Jemma sighed again and looked around her cell, as if anything had changed. The room was still small, next to empty, and inescapable, the red light in the camera blinking steadily, the only sounds her muted breath and the ever-present hum of the fluorescent lighting.
    She covered her face with her pillow and screamed.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    FIVE
    Monotony
     
    The days quickly started to blend together, one running into the next. If not for her newspapers each morning, Jemma wouldn’t even be able to guess what day of the week it was or how much time had passed; every day of the nearly two weeks since she’d been allowed to see Jack had been almost exactly the same.
    Early in the morning, she got her breakfast, newspaper, and shower, escorted by a disinterested guard.
    Until lunch, Josh tested her, with Dr. Harris watching.
    After lunch, she sat in her room, alone in the silence, until she was taken for testing with Dr. Harris. Josh didn’t watch the afternoon sessions, but he seemed aware of what happened in them, referring to them the next day.
    Dinner, sleep, repeat.
    Repeat.
    Repeat.
    The meals varied, at least, between different versions of the tiny frozen dinners. Josh made a point of the daily granola bar to help offset the calories she was burning during their tests, but Jemma was pretty sure she was losing weight, anyway, and she was grateful for the snug elastic on the scrubs.
    In the hallways, she watched for any information she could learn, anything new she could pick up, but they kept the rooms between her