What She Thought She Knew (Rachel Moore Mystery Book 1), стр. 58

eyes as a burning sensation passed through them briefly. Once it went away, I saw nothing but darkness. I had no idea where I was, or how I even got there.

At first, I thought that I had gone blind, but then I was able to make out some detail of the cold, tiled floor.

The next thing I noticed was the intense headache that pounded in my head. I was about to rub my temples, but I realized that both of my hands and legs were tied up behind me.

I struggled to free them, but the movement caused the pounding in my head to increase, and I suddenly vomited.

I wrinkled my nose in distaste as the smell bothered me.

I abruptly tensed as the sound of a door opening echoed in the quiet.

I hushed my breathing in an attempt to remain hidden, however the disturber of the silence opened the door to my cell, and stood at the entrance.

My eyes winced as light came into the cell and illuminated me.

Unfortunately for me, all I could see was the person's outline.

I wasn't sure whether I should have been grateful that the figure closed the door to shield my eyes from the glaring light, or to feel panicked.

The figure took a step towards me.

Despite how hard I tried to push myself away from the figure, my bounds were too tight, so I didn't get more than a good centimeter away from my initial position.

The figure made a noise of disgust, and I instantly froze.

"Ugh, nasty." The figure commented.

I figured that he was referring to the vomit on the floor.

The figure made a sniffling noise, before he shuddered and made a "heh" sound. "You're a spunky little one, aren't you?" The figure said.

I stared at the ground wordlessly, and focused on calming down my breathing.

I heard shuffling above me, and when I lifted my head up a bit, I was staring eye to eye with the figure.

His face was mostly covered by the darkness from the room, yet I could make out his eyes which were glowing an electric blue color.

I felt my face pale at the sight.

The figure chuckled. "I suppose you now realize who I am?" He asked.

Unable to reply, I found it hard to do anything but stare at his eyes.

It was the first time I had ever seen a Phantom's eye up close. The shades of color swirled like a hurricane, and what little light there was present glowed through the pupils.

The Phantom stared back at me, not blinking even once.

Eventually, the staring got too much for me, so I ended up looking down, and rested my head against the cold floor.

Apparently the Phantom agent had other plans as he pressed two fingers under my chin and forced me to look up again. "That was rude of you." He commented. "Didn't your mother ever teach you to not stare at a person for too long?"

Once again, I didn't answer.

The Phantom then squeezed my cheeks slightly. "Oh wait, that's right. You don't have a mother." He said as he grinned maliciously.

I narrowed my eyes, and spat at him.

For a moment, the Phantom agent tensed before he slowly wiped my saliva from his cheek. It seemed like an eternity had gone by before the Phantom reacted.

I didn't anticipate the strength of the blow as he slapped me with incredible force across my cheek.

It knocked me down so hard that I saw stars in my blurry vision.

My face rested against the ground, and I saw the Phantom get up and wipe imaginary dust from his cloak. "That was also rude." He finally said. "Looks like I'll have to teach you manners, young lady. Luckily, I know just the trick."

His tone caused shivers to crawl down my spine, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end in apprehension.

The Phantom agent chuckled quietly. "Well, there's nothing that I can't do once I set my mind to it. Don't worry darling, I'll have you back to good in no time."

I could practically hear the smirk in his tone.

Abruptly, the Phantom knelt down again, and forced me to look at him. "Do you want to know why our eyes glow?" He asked almost excitedly. "You see, once a person is taken in by us, their eyes are retrofitted to allow them to have night vision, hence the 'glow' that you see. Why is it that you think that no one sees us, yet we always see them?" He grinned at the last part.

I stayed mute as I struggled to control my vision and the dizzy feeling that I experienced.

The Phantom huffed in disappointment. "Agent Moore, why must you continue to rebel? Don't you see that we only want your cooperation? No harm will be done to you if you do as we say."

I inhaled sharply. "Over my dead body." I quietly, but firmly said.

The Phantom agent looked at me for a moment before he shook his head. "You leave me with no choice, Agent Moore." He replied.

I tensed as he got up, and shuffled through his pocket. He took out a thick collar with spikes on them.

As he approached me, I instinctively tried to move away.

The agent laughed briefly. "There's nowhere to go, Agent Moore. You're stuck here until you decide to cooperate. Until then, we'll be keeping an eye on you with this."

To emphasize his point, the Phantom agent knelt down, and pushed me to the wall.

I gritted my teeth as the movement caused the bounds to tighten and peel into my skin.

The Phantom agent dismissed my hiss of pain, and proceeded to put on the collar around my neck.

I winced as the short spikes pierced into my skin to firmly attach the collar.

The Phantom