Chapter 54

FIFTY-FOUR

Victoria comes to lying on her stomach in her own waste. Her hand hurts and she tries to move it, but it seems frozen and throbbing with excruciating pain. Her captors have left the light on. She rolls onto her back and attempts to sit up but the hand hurts too much to use. She examines it and where her hand should be is a stump wrapped with a filthy red bandana. First they took her finger and now her whole hand. She uses her good arm to sit up and cradles the injured stump in her lap. She can't stop looking at it. She can feel her hand, her fingers. How is that possible? She's heard about ghost pain from an amputated limb.

"My hand!" she cries out. "You bastards!"

Her breath is coming in hitches and screaming has made her nose bleed again.

"Dear God. Please save me. Please. I'll do anything you ask but please make this all go away. I want to go home," she says, and her throat feels like it's closing shut.

"Calm," she says. "Calm."

She coughs and blood spatters the top of her thighs.

She assesses her situation for her mind to have something to focus on besides her injuries. It doesn't help much but she is calming down. She tells herself not to scream. Not to draw attention because they'll come back.