"And you are certain no animal got to him? I'm not a vet but these gashes are deeper than most self mutilations I come across." The doctor calmly asked my mom, who is high strung and irrational, convinced I did this to myself. I can't necessarily tell her that a hot cat-lady jumped out of a magic portal in my room and tried to kill me. If I were her...I don't think there would be another logical explanation so I stay quite, it's better to wait for a convenient opportunity to clear my name than to hastily try to piece together a lie.
"I told you before and I will tell you again, he was in his room and we do not have any pets, no dogs, no cats, hell, we live in the suburbs, I don't think I've ever even seen a bear in real life. There is no way he didn't do this to himself." My mom sounds rude but I can tell that tears streak her face and emotion has made her voice thicker and deeper, her words coming out more like huffed moans between crying fits. I turned away from the door they left ajar, and the sliver of my mom's face that I could see, and read the boring health posters about 'shocker sugar foods'. I may have turned my head but my attention never leaves them as my heart seems to be gone, sunk to the bottom of my stomach. I have felt this cold stiff fear since I heard my mom scream and cry at the sight of my arms.
"It's my fault...We-we had a-a fi-fight just before and I-I yelled at h-him. He was a-acting wild and he's just n-never been li-like this before...I don't kn-know what to d-do." Her thick voice turns into violent sobs, I feel like throwing up at the sound, knowing it's my fault and knowing I've hurt her so much.
"Shhhh, It's okay Jill, I've got this, go get a coffee okay, baby?" Calvin comforts my mom and a knot of anger tightens in my stomach because I know what he's doing and I can't stop it or I'll look like even more of a bad guy. I strain to listen as he uses his more charming tone to speak to the Doctor, his words dripping with a falsified concern, pity, for me. "The boy's sick, Doc. He attacked our party guests just before and his primary doctor, Dr. Bleken, has a detailed record of his psychotic tendencies. Jill, has been trying to treat him normally but...he's just not a normal kid, Doc. To tell you the truth, he sees me as a villain, I think it may be my fault he's having fits like this, maybe he found out about Jill becoming my fiance, he's struggled in school lately too, I brought up Club Sunsh…."
Fiance. Fiance! The word just keeps repeating in my head, rattling around like a bomb. Heat suddenly returns to my body like an angry fire. I tune him out to process the rage filling me, this guy doesn't know my mom at all, how could she say yes to that dirtbag!I ball my fists and feel the gauze tighten around my arms, I can feel the slight discomfort from the stitches below it.
I am about to get up, about to scream and yell when I hear my mom's deep sigh and it stops me in my tracks. I hear her footsteps, calmer than before, and all that rage turns to shame. Whether I like that jerkwad or not, I was just about to make my mom cry all over again. So I just stand there, listening to words and lies and manipulations fall from him lips.
" I went there once, it helped me a lot, even though I didn't want to be there it allowed me to move forward in life afterwards and led to some pretty amazing thing for me. I know that my entrance into his life has been difficult for him and I hoped that time would help but ...those cuts are so deep, I didn't know he hated me that much."
For a moment, I almost believe him. I almost let my heart sink into my stomach, I almost care about what he's saying...but I don't because I know better. I know it's just a manipulative tactic that will somehow lead to what he wants.
"Well, it's possible that this has triggered some PTSD from your fiances ex-partner, your fiance explained it to me before you had come in, that sort of abusive experience can cause an array of effects. It is in my professional opinion that, given the self-harm and erratic behavior you and your fiance described, I would recommend the Rising Sun Psychiatric Hospital, if Jill agrees, I will write a referral and see how this will work with the insurance. "
Ah...there it is...exactly what he wanted. I gave him every excuse to get rid of me and with the doctor on board...I don't have any hope at all to escape this. I can feel the tides changing in the world as my blood runs cold. I would normally cry or scream but there is no point to either- I know now, with the doctor on his side, that my fate is sealed. The following hours pass but to be honest it's like I just blink in and out of reality. I blink and my moms arms are hugging me, explaining softly how I'll be going to hell tomorrow, the next time I blink I'm in the car and I can't remember how or when I got there. It's like nothing matters, I've lost it all, even my mom. She, for the first time, picked someone over me...accepted that I'm crazy and passed me off to a nurse. It's like everything I've tried to be normal for is gone as a beautiful and pitying nurse puts a band on my wrist and leads me to sad little room.
The brunette nurse is nice but I can't bring myself to react to any of her words. I find myself begging to be alone but I'm not sure if that will be possible. The walls are a chalky white, the bed is sad looking so I find myself drawn to it. As I sit on is crisp sheets I hear it creak, the sound echoing through my loneliness, and breaks through my barriers like the last straw on a camels back. I cry loudly and uncontrollably, like the world has entered a tailspin and there is no path to follow or light at the end of the tunnel, everything is in chaos and I am helpless to stop it, so I cry without any concept of stopping or of time. I just cry and cry and for the first time, truly wish I wasn't alive, wish I had offed myself when I had the chance, wish I had never been born if this is what it led too. At some point, I'm not sure when, I fell asleep between my gasps for air, between my salty sobs and broken pleas, only my dream brings light.
A girl, beautiful and alluring, stands in a tower in the sun, her features petite and angelic. She looks out longingly, weakly at the sun which dances on her golden hair and pale glimmering skin. Her blue eyes hopeful though her lips are chapped and her frame appears weak. In her hand, resting on the outside of the window, is a peculiar necklace, round and holding something small and shiny, the frame looks to be made of diamond and gold, what an odd combination of strengths. I feel my brows pucker as I stare curiously at this scene. She signs and closes her eyes before falling back into the tower, clenching the necklace to her chest as loud sobs echo her dull room. As I float from my place in the clouds into her room, I notice this is not her room at all, but a prison cell, I see now why the girl leaned so far out the window. She clenches the necklace like it is her only reason, her only hope and she sits on the floor in a dress made of sheets to cry. A bang sounds on her door and she shuffles to her feet, placing the necklace between her breasts out of sight from whoever is about to charge in. Instinctively I go to stand in front of her but a part of me knows this isn't real, or at least that I'm not really here.
As a dull large man enters the room, I feel cold, like there is something unnatural about him. His face and body are covered in metal armor but as he walks towards us, I can see his dead pale eyes as he grabs through me and pulls her forward. Her yelp cuts me with guilt because I am helpless and unable to step between them. It is now that I see how bruised her body is, her arms are littered with purple marks. Aside from the yell, she doesn't fight him, as if she knows its no use, and he doesn't speak...part of me thinks he is unable too. He drags her from the room like a rag doll and I pursue, rather I want to or not, to follow them to an even smaller empty chamber, filled with only a single page of a single book.
As he tosses her in, she scrapes her palm on the rough stone floor and stifles a groan.
She looks up with tears in her eyes as she is locked in with three more guards exactly like the first. She crosses her legs on the floor and begins to mumble in an odd language, the pages content must be in her memory as she doesn't look to it at all as she begins to levitate and glow with a purple aura, as her spell comes to an end, a golden sphere of darkness, like the one from my room, appears along the wall and the girl begins to scream in pain and torment. I can't take my eyes off the girl and the men move past her, ignoring her pain, to enter the void. the purple from around her is being sucked into the darkness and as it does so, she looks weaker and weaker, her skin becomes a shade paler and her eyes dim, her screams are earth-shattering and strike me like a knife. It is only a few moments before the portal begins to destabilize and the two men come out, this time with more creatures, not like them but clearly living beings, somewhat like people, they fight and beg in an unknown language. I see a strange looking weapon in the metal mans hand, some sort of confiscated gun. The creatures are unlike me but they are nothing like the metal covered guards, their odd, triangle shaped eyes, hold fear in them as they are taken out of the room and the girl collapses along with the portal. The last remaining guard picks her up by her arm and drags her back to that cell, he leaves her there with only a cup of dirty water.