Chapter 209: Special Painkillers
That was the first time something like that had happened, so a sense of foreboding crept into Raylee’s heart. Could I possibly be seriously ill?
After that, she noticed her arms speckled with tiny, deep red spots, akin to needle pricks. It was a familiar scene.
“Isn’t this the same symptom that Jeremiah exhibited when he was struggling with his drug addiction?” Raylee couldn’t help but exclaim in shock.
On the day she traveled to Musmeynia, the moment she laid eyes on Jeremiah, he was in the throes of his drug addiction. He writhed in agony, colliding with the wall. His arms were covered in a dense array of red spots. Based on those pinprick-like red dots, she suspected he had been taking drugs.
At that moment, however, she found herself exhibiting the same symptoms. Yet, she wasn’t taking drugs, and she would never touch those harmful substances. Even if she had been exposed, she had been back from Musmeynia for several days. If it were truly an addiction, it would’ve already taken effect much earlier.
“Could it be that Jeremiah’s unbearable agony that day wasn’t due to withdrawal symptoms, but was caused by something else?” Doubts inevitably began to cloud Raylee’s mind. What was the reason, then? Could it be…
Raylee’s eyes widened in sheer terror. She shared a common experience with Jeremiah: both had been in District Nine Prison. Within that devil’s prison, she had once been a lab mouse for those beastly professors, forced to undergo countless experiments and subjected to an untold number of drugs.
Could it be that Jeremiah was once a lab mouse, too? Could it be that we’ve both undergone the same experiment, resulting in identical symptoms? The suspicion in Raylee’s heart left her feeling restless and unsettled.
If my suspicions turn out to be true, then it’s going to be a disaster! I have no idea what kind of experiment I went through, and I don’t know what kind of medicine could possibly cure it! No… That’s not right. Percival’s special painkillers can cure it! Raylee recalled the night when Jeremiah took two painkillers, and the effect was immediate. If everything was as she anticipated, then the painkillers would surely work for her, too.
The scene before was simply unbearable. The heart-wrenching pain was not something any ordinary person could endure. Comparable to a slow torture, even for someone like Raylee, who had come back from the brink of death several times, it was unbearable. If she were to go through it again, she feared she might end up doing the same thing as Jeremiah—seeking death by crashing into a wall.
Four years of imprisonment hadn’t managed to break her, so she wondered if she was going to die in agony. She was unwilling to accept it, and she absolutely refused to give in.
Almost without hesitation, Raylee called Percival and said, “Dr. Shapiro, I apologize for disturbing you at this late hour, but I need to speak with you. It’s very important.” At that moment, she regarded Percival as her only lifeline.
Immediately upon dressing, Raylee ventured through the pitch-black night toward Percival’s laboratory. As soon as he met her downstairs, Percival couldn’t help but ask, “Raylee, could it be that your information was incorrect? I conducted experiments on several addicts, but my medicine had absolutely no effect on them. Why did it only work on Jeremiah? Are you sure he was on drugs?”
After he finished speaking, Percival noticed Raylee’s unusual state. Her face was almost devoid of color, pale and weak, yet it was drenched with cold sweat. Overall, she appeared incredibly frail, as if she was suffering from a severe, life-threatening illness.
Earlier in the taxi, Raylee had another episode. A piercing pain coursed through her, stimulating every nerve in her body. Every inch of her skin felt as if it was being mercilessly slashed by thousands of searing blades. It felt as though every second, she was enduring a torment akin to death by a thousand cuts.
After the taxi driver noticed that something was off about her, he asked if she wanted to be taken to the hospital. However, her intuition told her that going to a regular hospital would be pointless. She instructed the driver to speed up, racing all the way, determined to hold on until she saw Percival.
At that moment, Raylee’s patience was on the brink of collapse. She could no longer hold herself up and collapsed into Percival’s arms.
“Raylee, what’s wrong? Don’t be scared! I’ll take you to the hospital right away…”
In her hazy consciousness, all that Raylee could perceive was that she was being lifted up by Percival. Afterward, everything before her eyes turned black.
When she regained consciousness once more, she found herself lying in a hospital bed. Percival was dozing off by the bedside. She stirred slightly, and Percival jolted awake abruptly. Seeing her regain consciousness, he became instantly elated, as if he’d been invigorated by a stimulant.
“Gosh! You’ve finally opened your eyes! If you lie down any longer, I’m going to start thinking you’re going to be in a vegetative state. Do you have any idea that I’ve been here watching over you for two full days and nights? I even postponed two surgeries, terrified something might go wrong with you!”