Chapter 96.

Hah. What? Wait. It’s different? Isn’t it too different from my memories?

Her blunt words with no trace of warmth… how should I describe it? Perhaps it was like a bucket of ice water had been ruthlessly dumped on my head? It suddenly sunk in just who I was dealing with and I understood the errors in my earlier train of thought. She was someone with countless secrets to hide. If she really met a stalker who she wasn’t aware of, she would definitely take care of them just to be safe. Even if there was a slight doubt in her mind, she would certainly silence me.

“It was a joke. I thought if I pretended I knew you I could get lucky and maybe get in a beautiful doctor’s pants.”

“Then how did you know my name after only just regaining consciousness?”

“I heard it when I was in a semi-lucid state of consciousness. I figured it was likely your name, so I took a gamble and got it right.”

“Dio, do you mind if I call you that?”

“Eh? Why?” Did I ever tell her that nickname back then?

Her intense atmosphere momentarily vanished as she casually walked over to my bedside. She leaned forward a bit with a warm smile that suggested she was about to whisper sweet nothings to a lover.

As she peered directly into my eyes, her facial expression reverted to indifference when she said with scary wide-open eyes, “because Dio, I do not like liars.”

Ugh.

I looked down and found the tip of a syringe lodged into my wrist. I immediately froze up. When I looked back up after a minute in shock, I realized I’d fallen into a trap. Her face distorted and rippled strangely. I didn’t even have a chance to react to her actions. I never thought she’d be so wary of me no matter what I said to her.

“What... did you just… inject me with?” It was fast-acting and had taken effect immediately. 

“It’s an experimental drug that is said to make people a bit more honest. Well, it’s fine if this one doesn’t make you spill the beans. Luckily for you, I have many others I’d like to try out as well you see. Honestly, this is actually much more convenient for me. I originally planned to help you recover and fatten you up first before I turned you into an ideal experimental lab rat, but it appears there will be no need for that. Seeing how your mental state appears to be perfectly intact, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“I’m really... your ex-boyfriend from the future.”

I absolutely did not willingly say that again. Did her drug really work?

“Tch. Looks like this one’s a defective product.”

“It’s really not defective, it’s the truth!”

“Dio. You’re quite cute. To struggle to keep up that lie when you’ve been drugged. I’m starting to like you a bit more. It really just makes me want to try out all sorts of drugs until I can break you down and get the truth out of you.”

Her smile taken out of context could be considered one belonging to a top beauty, but under these circumstances, she was definitely a devil.

She’s one of the reasons I disliked hospitals and why I avoided them at all costs. After I escaped Maria’s clutches, hospitals only triggered the worst sort of memories whenever I thought back to my relationship with her.

Even though I was fairly sure this was a dream, for some reason I couldn’t control the flow as I desired. I wanted to change the scene to something else, but the dream felt unbearably realistic.

She placed her hand on the side of her cheek with a drunken smile. Her eyes were intoxicated as if she were drowning herself in pleasure at the peak of euphoria. She simultaneously hummed a content tune before she said, “Hmm hmm hmmm hmmmm hmmmmmm. Dio, my self proclaimed ex-boyfriend from the future, whatever shall we try next?”

I shrunk back in my bed terrified of what was to come. She pulled out a few syringes strapped to her thighs under her lab coat and grinned sadistically.

“Well, how about we start with this one my beloved guinea pig, Dio?”

I wasn’t able to put up a fight after I was drugged the first time. The second syringe expertly pierced my vein as I weakly looked on in horror.

“Hiiiiih. Haaaaaah. Hiiiiiiiiih!”

I clawed at my throat in pain when I realized how excruciatingly difficult it was to breathe. I couldn’t suck in any air.

“This one is quite interesting Dio. It’s supposed to partially paralyze your diaphragm and leave you teetering on the edge between life and death as you desperately struggle to breathe. Each breath begins to feel like it’s your last, but what’s great is that this drug allows the person to just barely suck in enough air to survive right on the edge. They aren’t even given the opportunity to die even if they want to. What do you think of this one? It’s pretty good, right? Right?!”

I shook my head left and right as tears accumulated at the corner of my eyes. It was painful, unbearably so.

“Do you feel like telling the truth now?”

I nodded up and down signaling I’d obediently tell her everything. I wanted to tell her, but I wasn’t able to say a word.

“Such a shame. It looks like you still don’t want to tell me the truth. Well, that’s okay, we’ve just started after all. Hahahahahahaha.”

I was shivering all over when I saw the deeply rooted insanity in her eyes. She’d clearly used this one so I wouldn’t be able to say anything just so she could enjoy herself for longer. She didn’t actually care to hear my answer, this was just the sort of sick thing she got off to.

A third syringe shot into my arm. When it took effect, my eyes started to burn up. It felt like a flame was placed directly on my eyeball. I could only look in horror through a small opening between my eyes as she immediately followed up with a fourth syringe.

“Khkhkhhkhhhkaaaah!”

Once this drug kicked in, it felt as though pins and needles had punctured into every pore of my body.

My body convulsed from the unbearable pain the drugs wrought on my body. I entered into a seizure-like state. My head was throbbing violently, it felt like my brain had been split in half cleanly down the center.

“So cute! I want to see more, but what should I do? If I go too far too quickly, you’ll break on the first day. But it’s so hard to resist.”

Why was I in this nightmare with her and why did everything feel so damn realistic!

It’s scary. 

Too scary. 

It’s painful. 

I’m dying. 

Please…

No more.

“P-p-pllllle-eeee-eeeaas-sssss-sss s-ss-ss-ss-st-oooooopp-pp-p-p-pp.”

“When you ask me to stop so passionately, you know I can’t hold myself back. If you survive this one, I might really just make your ambitious delusions a reality.”

God damn it! I don’t want that at all! I want absolutely nothing to do with you! I definitely don’t want to be in any kind of relationship with you EVER!

With the fifth syringe, came an intense pain that left me clawing at my chest. My heartbeat became erratic and irregular. It felt as if the blood flowing through my body had suddenly reversed in direction.

Soon after the pain struck, my mind went blank and I fainted.

…