Chapter 16

Author Notes: Hey guys! I gotta send out a quick apology to you all. I had intended for this novel to have a new chapter posted twice a week and while I have a general plotline sorted out, I had actually hit a writer's block on how I should go about writing the following chapters to lean into the next arc. I ended up writing multiple versions to try to work it out but nothing really flowed very well. Because of this, I hadn't posted any new chapters in a while. You've all been wonderfully patient while I wrack my feeble brain into figuring out how to tell the next segment of this story as well as work on my own ineptitudes as a nubile writer.

_

"Are you sure this information is correct?" 

A somewhat elderly man tossed an electronic tablet onto the desk and sat down into his chair in a disgruntled fashion. Pinching the bridge of his nose between his eyes seemed to be the only way to suppress the incoming headache from the stress of the situation. An assistant placed more papers down and slid them his way, avoiding a hot cup of coffee that also adorned the desk.

"Yes, it seems the woman survived the rift. We've traced her location to a recovery ward in the St. Jaimson Hospital in the eastern city district."

The man pulled up the printout of the hospital records and mulled over them. 

"Does she have any surviving family we need to worry about?" 

The assistant paused and handed him another document. 

"About that sir. She is an orphan, but she has an extended family that lives locally. They actually came to our office during the rift when they found out she had been sucked inside. They were trying to proclaim her dead in order to claim insurance and the girls inherited wealth."

The man paused and a smirk came across his face.

"Invite them back to the office. I have an offer they won't want to refuse…" 

The assistant left the rest of the documents they were holding with the man and bowed out to carry forth his orders. 

"We can't have people talking about what transpired… "

A sip to enjoy his coffee wasn't much to alleviate the stress of the situation, but the news of the victims family made him think that things would turn in his favor after all. He turned to gaze out the window lost in thought. The tablet on the desk had a video of security footage from the intersection of the rift paused on a single frame. In that frame showed the protester who had a management role in the association pushing Marcie towards the rift amongst the panic.

Whispers broke through the silence of the recovery ward in the hospital, which stirred Marcie from her sleep. Most of the lights in the room were darkened with only the faint glow of necessary lights from equipment, with the majority of the light coming through from the hallway. Half asleep wasn't the state she wanted to be in, but the preceding day had been scheduled to the brim with tests, exams and treatments. 

With eyes barely open, Marcie noticed some nurses approach the sides of her bed. They were talking at the quietest they possibly could, to not disturb her sleep? No, it seemed weird. Their movements were rushed and slightly clumsy. She also didn't recognize any of them. By now, she had gotten used to the faces of the staff that regularly rotated this floor and these were new faces. 

Thank goodness the darkness masked her face enough that they hadn't noticed her alertness. One nurse fumbled with a clear liquid vial and added it to Marcie's IV drip. She could barely make out what it was called however. Etomidate? What is that? What were they giving her? Just as quickly as the bottle emptied, they had removed it and vanished. 

~Ding!

*Poison resistance has been activated. Attempting to cleanse the poison that has entered the body.

Wait what? Since when did I obtain poison resistance? She tried to think back during her time in the dungeon. The time in the spider nests was all she could think of. She remembered that the monkeys wouldn't go near it, she thought that it was because of the spiders themselves, but the area did seem to have a faint hue about the atmosphere that made it harder to breathe. At the time, Marcie was so focused on surviving that she didn't have much time to really inspect her surroundings. 

Marcie felt her vision blur and twist as the chemical had begun to set in.

~Ding!

*Due to the potency of the substance, your level was not high enough to fully clarify it. Some minor effects will still be applied.

No matter how much she fought the effects, her eyes became heavy. Just in the last moments of her passing out, she caught the silhouettes of some very large men entering her room.