Stacey panted, sobbing herself into painful hiccups. It was quiet and silent. At last.
She was so tired. Man, she was exhausted.
"It's alright, my lady. There, there," the man beneath her patted her back while she cried into his chest. "Shhh. It's alright. We've got you. You're safe now. All the people are gone. You can rest now."
Slowly, Stacey's senses began to seep back into place and she recognised who had thrown himself under her in order to protect her from her fall.
"Ning," she croaked. "I'm sor- "
The door clicked open. Stacey's head snapped up in another burst of anger.
Mr Huo's concerned and annoyed voice could be heard demanding, "What's going on?"
As if a switch had been flipped, Stacey snarled and then roared her anger at the man who had intruded upon the peace and quiet in the room.
"My lord, I think you should leave," Jannick's voice said. "You know you tend to trigger her when she's a berserk state."
Mr Huo ignored his assistant and came over to where Stacey was lying on Ning.
"How can I leave when I see my wife lying on a man other than her husband?" Mr Huo snorted, picking Stacey up.
Stacey fought to scratch and bite him, but he ignored her, slapping her face or hands away as if they were just big biting flies. He threw her in the bed and rolled her tightly up in her blanket.
"This has got to stop," he told her. "Snap out of it. Stacey, you need to snap out of it."
When Stacey continued to yell incoherently, struggling to free herself from the blanket, he sat on the edge of the bed, turned her over his knee and spanked her. That only made Stacey yell louder and struggle harder. In the end, she bit his thigh. Hard.
She was going to tear chunks of flesh out of this tormenting liar and bite him to death if she had to.
"Ow. Ow! Let go!"
Stacey was slapped and thrown back onto the bed. Mr Huo held her down with one hand on her chest, while his other hand rubbed his thigh. He rubbed his face angrily.
"What was that for?" he snapped at her. "You were fine this morning. What went wrong? Talk to me, Stacey."
In reply, Stacey screamed wordlessly.
Mr Huo clapped his hands over his ears, looking increasingly irritated. In the end, he couldn't stand it anymore. Pointing at Ning, he glared and strode out of the room. Jannick and Ning followed behind him.
"EXPLAIN!"
Stacey heard him command as the door slammed shut.
With him gone, Stacey's scream faded into a whimper. Restricted by the blanket, Stacey thrashed for a while before she got tired. Common sense returned more slowly this time.
Somehow, she unrolled herself out of the blanket, but in doing so, she fell onto the cold floor. Why were floors all so damned hard? It hurt!
Presumably, killing herself would hurt too. Was there a possible way to kill herself that wouldn't hurt?
Stacey looked at herself and snorted a laugh. The windows in this room did not open, so she couldn't jump. She could barely move and get up, so she couldn't escape. Her brain seemed to already be damaged. What the heck. She might as well make her life worse. At least then it would have been her choice.
Stacey tried an experimental knock of her head on the hard metallic frame of the bed and bit her lips to keep from swearing. That hurt! A bit too much.
Stacey rested her head on the floor and sighed. How could a person who wanted to die be afraid of pain? Anyway Stacey could think of it, killing herself would hurt. Gritting her teeth, Stacey prepared herself and knocked the back of her head on the floor.
White filled her vision and the room spun in a nauseating manner. Her ears were filled with the sound of rushing blood and a high pitched ringing sound.
Sharp pain filtered in through the white pain and suddenly Stacey retched. Rolling over with difficulty and choking on her vomit, Stacey heaved up what little she had eaten for breakfast.
The door flew open and then the room was filled with a myriad of shouting shoes and flapping trouser legs. A breeze carried with it a myriad of smells but Stacey mostly could only smell her own vomit.
It turned out that killing herself this way was also way too uncomfortable. This was not the way Stacey wanted to go. Maybe she should rethink this whole killing herself idea.
Stacey closed her eyes and felt frantic hands open her mouth to dig out whatever vomit was left inside her mouth. The fingers at the back of her throat triggered her gag reflex and Stacey threw up again.
What a disgusting way to die. Scrap that. Try again later.
The darkness of unconsciousness yawned its mouth wide open and Stacey jumped in. It was too embarrassing to face herself just now and her poor attempt to die. It was better to hide for a while.