Memories are the worst form of torture

Chapter 9

I wake up in a hospital bed with Charlie and Nova around me. I reach my hand up to block the bright light and notice the iv in my arm.

"Hey. Are you okay?" Charlie says, standing up and grabbing my hand.

"No. No. No. Please don't. Please. Please stop." I yank my hand away and shake my head as a nurse walks in the room.

Charlie moves his hand and looks concerned. Nova strokes my hair as the nurse says words I can't comprehend. My vision blurs and I fall asleep again.

I wake up and sit up a bit. I look around and see Peyton walk towards me slowly.

"Hey, Thana." They softly say and I lay back down.

"Hi." I reply with a lazy smile.

It's real. I'm not hallucinating it, I was actually saved. I feel tears stream down my face. I see Nova walk over with the same nurse from before.

"Thana, your up." Charlie quietly greets me as he walks in the room.

"Yeah." I reply tiredly.

"Are you okay?" Nova asks me as she cocks her head to the side.

"Yeah." I reply, nodding. "St-steve? Where's Steve?"

"Bastard got away." Peyton says angrily.

The nurse walks to my side and checks the iv. My eyes widen. No. I'm not being drugged. I'm not being drugged. I'm not being drugged. My heart starts racing and I can't catch my breath.

A doctor walks up as Nova begins stroking my hair again. Peyton softly shushes me, insisting it'll be okay. The nurse tells me to breathe and checks my heartbeat. I take deep breaths and try to calm down. The doctor says only one person can be in the room right now.

"I'll go." I say and start to sit up.

I hear Nova and Peyton laugh.

"No, you can't leave. I need you in here so I can make sure your okay." The doctor explains.

"Oh." I mutter.

"Me and Nova will leave. We'll be back though." Charlie says softly before leaving the room.

I watch Nova leave right after him.

"My name's Dr. Julie. I'm gonna see if everything's alright, okay?" The doctor says and I nod slowly.

"Okay so I need you to follow the light with your eyes, okay?" Dr. Julie says and I nod again.

Dr. Julie grabs a small light and moves it over my face. I follow the light with my eyes and she says I did good. She does other tests and schedules an x-ray for my foot. I give her permission to talk to Peyton about my medical things. She talks with Peyton and then leaves the room, soon followed by the nurse.

I nod off again and when I wake up their getting ready to take me to get the x-ray. There are a lot of bright lights and people touching my foot and this big machine thing. After a while they take me back to my room and Dr. Julie says that my foots not broken.

___________ 2 weeks later___________

I stand in the bathroom of work looking at the mirror. Most of my injuries have healed and I've been hiding them for a while. When someone asks me if I'm okay I smile and tell them I'm good and that seems to work.

I don't want them to realize the torture was worse than what I told them it was. We're so close to catching Steve and I don't want to ruin it. If they find out they'll think so little of me.

I walk out of the bathroom and grab my gear like I was supposed to. We got a tip that Steve was meeting someone at a store in the middle of no where. It sounds like a trap but we're going anyway.

"Hey. Are you sure you wanna do this?" Eddie asks me as he walks by.

"Yeah. I wanna help." I assure him.

We get in the car and pull up to the place. It seems suspicious. We pile out of the car and rush to the store. Eddie in front, Charlie behind him, Peyton behind him, Nova behind them, and me behind them.

We have bullet proof vests on and our guns raised high. What we didn't expect was for the store to go up in flames before we got to it. My heart races once again as I get a flashback. Nova looks back at me to see if I'm okay and I give her a thumbs up.

Steve starts walking away from the flames and none of us know where he came from. We surround him with our guns and we call for backup. I make sure not to make eye contact with Steve.

"Drop any weapon you have right now, or I'll shoot you in the face." Eddie says angrily.

"Oh, somebody's angry. Are you angry because I tortured Thana? Because I wouldn't stop beating her until she begged me to stop? Because I drugged her so much she didn't know what's real and what's not?" Steve asks and Peyton looks at me, shocked.

I didn't tell any of them it was that bad. I told them it was barely even torture at all. It makes sense why their shocked. It makes sense if their mad at me.

"That-that never happened." I tell them and they sigh, knowing I'm lying.

Everyone's looking at me now and they're all probably upset with me.

"You seriously didn't tell them?" Steve asks me and I look away. "She didn't tell y'all about how I tied her to the chair and made fun of her reckless attempt to capture me? She didn't tell y'all how I cut her and let her bleed? She didn't tell y'all how I beat her senseless? How she became a wus the moment a knife was put to her neck? How her eyes watered everytime I punched her in the face? How I tased her until she passed out? And not just the one time it was a lot... How she flinched at the sight of the taser before I even used it? How I ripped hair out of her scalp? How I drugged her so bad she thought y'all were there to save her?"

Everybody stares at me and I try not to think about it.

"I guess she didn't tell y'all about anything then. Let me explain. After all that we talked for a bit and I continuously slapped her. I slapped her so hard and so much they left bruises. I put out cigarettes on her. Basically any time I wanted her to listen to me I pulled her hair. I left her in the heat without giving her food or water. Now that I think about it I didn't give her any food. I punched her some more. Insulted her constantly. I hit her thigh with a hammer. Yeah I think she cried when I did that. Stabbed her with needles. Kicked her chins. Threw my shoes at her. Told her that if she fell asleep again I'd kill her. Gave her drugs that temporarily paralyzed her while she was asleep and beat her quite badly."

He stopped talking for a minute and I looked down in shame.

"I even threatened to cut off her ear. It only took her a couple days to start begging. I stomped on her feet too." Steve finished talking and looked at me.

I kept looking at the ground in shame.

"Thana..." Nova said sympathetically, looking back at me.

"I'm gonna beat your fucking ass." Peyton said as they looked at Steve.

"Peyton. Calm yourself. We must arrest him." Charlie tells Peyton.

I watched as Eddie tackled Steve and sat on top of him, punching his face repeatedly. Peyton smiled as Eddie continued beating Steve up. Peyton pulled Eddie off of Steve and began choking Steve with their foot.

Charlie sighed and got Peyton off of Steve. He then put Steve in handcuffs and read him his rights. A police car pulled up just in time too.

Now that Steve's been arrested we get in the car and drive back to the office. The awkward silence killing me the whole way back. We pull up to the office and all go inside. And finally things are all back to normal.