They Killed Me in the Lab, So I Woke Up Early novel · Chapter 4 of 24
Chapter 4: Five, Four
The Quiet Room had a recliner, a low table and a window onto the parking lot.
It was a soft room, with a rug and a lamp and a box of tissues placed where a hand would fall on it.
Maren sat in the recliner and kept her gloved hands in her lap.
The man across from her sat down on a rolling stool and did not look at her face.
He looked at her hands.
"This is the sensory baseline," Jonah Pell said. "Pressure, temperature, reaction time. It's about an hour. You can stop whenever you want."
His voice was the one she carried in her skull.
It was lower in daylight than it had been under the lights, and more tired.
She made herself answer in the voice of a nervous woman who needed money.
"Okay. I'm ready."
"Tell me if anything is too much."
He did not touch her once for the first twenty minutes.
He handed her a clicker and had her press it when a tone played. He put a cuff on her arm and read the numbers aloud.
When he had to adjust the strap, he pulled on his own gloves first.
Maren watched his hands. They were careful and a little unsteady, and the pale scar across his left knuckles showed white when he gripped the pen.
Was this the man who had held a syringe over her?
She did not know yet what he had done with it.
She knew only that she had to find out which side of the door he stood on.
"Cold test next," Jonah said. "You put your hand in this basin. Ice water. Tell me when it hurts and when you want to stop. Ninety seconds, if you can."
"How cold?"
"Four degrees."
Maren pulled off her right glove, because she had to, and slid her bare hand into the water.
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