Page 71 of Charged By the Razorbacks
Naomi huffed a weak breath. “You’re annoying.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
She shifted slightly, her stomach turning as nausea rolled through her, sharp and immediate. She swallowed hard against it, her grip tightening on the phone.
“I’m ... not great,” she admitted. “Everything hurts. I feel like I might throw up if I move. And I’m—”
She stopped.
Tamsin didn’t fill the silence.
Naomi exhaled slowly. “I’m scared,” she finished, quieter now. “But I’m pretending I’m not.”
“That sounds about right,” Tamsin said gently.
Naomi let out a small breath, something in her chest loosening.
“You’re safe,” Tamsin continued. “Those men outside your door? Nothing gets past them.”
Naomi glanced toward the door again, imagining their size, the stillness the nurse had described. “Okay.”
“I’ll come see you in the morning,” Tamsin added.
“Yeah,” Naomi said. “I’d like that.”
“Get some rest.”
“You too.”
The line went quiet.
Naomi lowered the phone slowly, her hand lingering there for a second before letting it fall to the bed beside her.
The nurse checked the monitors, gave her a soft smile, and slipped out, the door closing quietly behind her.
And just like that—Naomi was alone.
The silence pressed in. Her gaze drifted to the ceiling again, but the calm didn’t hold. It never did. The memories slipped in without warning.
Cold metal. Restraints biting into her wrists. Voices that never used her name. She was just the test subject.
She could still feel it—the way her body had betrayed her, locking, seizing under something it didn’t understand. The way the pain had gone beyond sharp, beyond unbearable, into something deeper. Systemic. Wrong.
She remembered going under.
Breaking.
And when she’d come back—they’d been surprised. Confused. Like she wasn’t supposed to survive.
They’d put her back in the cage after that.
No comfort. No explanation.
Just more of their insidious tests. Blood, tissue samples, needles and the spinal tap—Naomi’s breath hitched, her body tightening against the memory, a sharp pulse of phantom pain sparking down her spine.
That had hurt.
She squeezed her eyes shut, her fingers curling weakly into the sheets.
