Chapter 3

3: 3

"No... it isn't like that..." I fought to explain, but my throat felt like I'd swallowed a razor, and no words would come.

"Still lying?" Ralph's eyes went cold and vicious beside me, and then he traded a look with Violet.

"Every bit of that beauty, all that easy life, you bought with your teammates' flesh and blood. Time you paid it back to everyone."

"You want to stay on this team, you drop the princess act!"

"Don't..." I was shaking, but Ralph grabbed a fistful of my hair and shaved it down to the scalp with a blade.

In no time my long hair was hacked away in patches, bald in a dozen places, like something a dog had chewed.

Then Violet's gaze dropped to the finely made dress on me. Even soiled and filthy, it couldn't hide how exquisite and expensive it was.

Why should a dress like this be worn by this piece of garbage?

Only someone like her, someone who actually contributed to the team, deserved a dress like this.

Jealousy and spite flooded her eyes as she took Ralph's dagger and slashed my dress open with a rip.

In moments the dress was torn away, leaving me in nothing but a plain camisole and undershorts, barely enough to cover the private parts of me.

Several of the men watched me with ugly intent, some of them even whistling at me. The humiliation was unbearable.

Satisfaction flickered through Violet's eyes, and then, in a great show of mercy, she threw a blanket at me.

"Wrap up. Conditions are hard here. From today on, no points, no contribution, don't even think about getting supplies."

I looked at that blanket. It was the one they'd used yesterday to wrap a teammate's corpse.

It was streaked with blood and filth, carrying the reek of rot.

People killed by an anomaly leave dark energy behind in the body.

And once that dark energy seeps into a talent-holder, the ability slowly fades away.

"No, I can't wear this... please, I need clean clothes and enough food."

The next wave of anomalies would only be stronger. Without a charm ability to disrupt them, the team wouldn't hold at all...

"Show you mercy and you spit on it, you ungrateful little bitch. Don't want to wear it, then don't."

Ralph spat on the ground beside me.

I struggled with everything I had, the rotten stench of the blanket turning my stomach.

But Violet only drew on her cigarette and watched as the women on the team forced me into the blanket.

The dark energy burrowed into my pores, and the last thread of ability inside my body finally vanished for good.