She felt the cartilage and bone in her nose buckle and tasted copper in her throat. She coughed and gagged and hacked up blood onto the white tile.

The blonde circled her with feline grace and a small smirk. Then the woman typed onto her wrist, the speaker stating, “I have something special for you.”

Gabi spat blood at her tormentor and replied, “I hope you enjoy Naraka.”

The blonde typed, and the electronic voice said, “What’s that? The Hindu equivalent of Hell?”

“Yes, but when Yama, the god of death, judges you, your wretched soul will be thrown into Kakola—the bottomless pit, for those who are eternally condemned and have no chance of reincarnation.”

“That’s fine with me. I don’t want to be reincarnated. One life was enough.”

She grabbed Gabi by the hair and wrenched her onto her knees. The pain shooting through her broken leg was immense, almost unbearable, but she refused to make a sound. She shoved the scream deep down inside and mastered the pain, denying the blonde the satisfaction.

The blonde had the gun aimed at her, but she refused to look at the evil woman. She chose to stare straight ahead. She could see Deb’s body on the floor. Her chest wasn’t rising, and her face was an unrecognizable mess of blood and torn flesh.

In her peripheral vision, Gabi saw the blonde raise the gun again like a hammer. Her head was swirling, and all of her limbs felt as if they were tied down with cinder blocks. She watched the blonde pull back her makeshift hammer, trying to time the blow. Gabi knew that if she could drop beneath the strike, then maybe she could—

She felt the impact before she saw it coming. A strike to the back of her neck that made her feel as though her whole body had been hit at once, like she’d been run over by train.

But then all the pain was gone, and she had no control over any of her body. She fell face forward against the tile. She couldn’t move her arms or legs. She had no feeling below her neck.

The blonde rolled her over, but all she could do was stare up at the perforated tiles of the suspended ceiling. The hum of the fluorescent lights seemed to grow louder, like the buzzing of a great swarm of flies.

She fought for breath, her lungs begging for air, but she could do nothing to quench their thirst.

The electronic voice said, “I just broke your C3 vertebrae. It holds the phrenic nerve, which controls your diaphragm. That’s why you can’t breathe. You’re completely paralyzed and are going to slowly suffocate. It may take ten to fifteen minutes for your brain to completely die, but don’t worry, my guess is that, in your diminished state, you’ll lose consciousness in under two minutes.”

Gabi felt tears roll down her temples and into her hair. She’d never hear her father’s soothing voice again, she’d never see home, never marry or have children. At least, not in this life. She just wished she believed in her religion as much as she let on, but it had simply been what she was raised to believe, she wasn’t sure that she believed it herself. There always seemed to be more time for such things, such thoughts. Always so much more time.