The Prison-Made Queen novel Chapter 944

"Good. Now take your medication and get some rest. Don't waste your energy fighting me."

"When you finally wrap your head around the situation and decide to be a good boy—taking your pills and letting me run my tests—then we can talk about next steps."

Without sparing him another glance, Zeus turned on his heel and strode out of the basement.

The heavy thud of the deadlock engaging echoed through the space. The crisp, final sound was utterly devastating.

It sealed Clive and his fragile hopes of returning to the normal world inside this dim, suffocating cage.

Clive stood frozen, the tray in his hands suddenly feeling like it weighed a ton.

He stared down at the perfectly round, white pills, then snapped his gaze up to the unyielding door that stood between him and everything else.

Despair crept up his legs like freezing vines, tightly wrapping around his heart and squeezing until he couldn't breathe.

The realization was crystal clear: Zeus was entirely unhinged. Completely irrational and deeply paranoid. And Clive was just a bug caught in his twisted web, his future and very survival entirely out of his own hands.

After being locked up for several days, Clive's grasp on reality began to slip.

There was no daylight down here. Time melted into a thick, blurry concept.

Clive could only track the passing hours through the agonizing hunger twisting his stomach and Zeus's twice-daily visits.

Now, the mere sound of a key sliding into the metallic lock was enough to make his whole body seize up. Fear gripped his nervous system like a violent reflex.

At first, he still had the energy to be angry.

Being locked in a box easily frayed a person's nerves, and Clive was already running entirely on adrenaline and resentment.

The two muscle-bound strangers easily overpowered Clive, handling him like he was nothing more than a ragdoll.

He would be pinned violently against the freezing iron bed, his kicks and screams completely useless.

Zeus would step forward, snap on a pair of medical gloves, and casually pinch Clive's nose shut.

The second Clive opened his mouth to drag in a panicked breath, Zeus would shove the pills deep into the back of his throat, immediately chasing them with a massive pour of water, forcing him to swallow.

After going through that nightmare a few times, a brutal truth sank in: fighting back didn't bring him any closer to freedom. It only resulted in absolute subjugation and humiliation.

So, broken by the repeated torture, Clive gave up.

Eventually, when Zeus brought the tray in, Clive no longer lunged. Instead, he would shrink into the furthest corner of the bed, trembling uncontrollably, his eyes wide with profound terror and pure hatred as he watched his brother's every move.