T.O.R.N.: There's Only Right Now

Chapter 5 Obadias

"Any Change?"

"She's still asleep."

"The dose of Respirodol might be too heavy, she's been this way for a day and a half."

"Nope, doc, says she's dangerous and the best way to get back from a psychotic break is rest."

"Shame, she's a beauty, surgeon I heard?"

"Yep, guess the stress got to her."

Asante listened with her eyes closed to the nurses changing shifts in her room. She actually woke up in the middle of the night, realized she was in restraints, which frightened her, but she quelled her instinct to scream out because the memory of what happened before she was obviously sedated flooded her mind. She desperately grasped at a notion of certainty, but the assumption she settled on was that she was in some type of mental health facility from the restraints and now the knowledge of what medication had been making it hard for to maintain consciousness. What in the hell was going on?

Asante then heard the door to her room open. "Dr. Farraday," the nurses called out in unison.

"You can leave us," a raspy female voice replied. The door closed and then she heard several high heeled steps come closer to where she lay. She felt someone sit at the edge of her bed near her waist and touch one of her restrained hands gently. "Dr. Argueta," the same raspy voice questioned with expectation.

Asante opened her eyes slowly. Before her, sat a very attractive blonde short-haired girl. At least she appeared to be no more than fifteen. But the nurses clearly called her doctor and she sounded as if she were a fifty-year-old, two pack a day smoker. Yet the most innocent set of doe eyes looked into Asante's soul.

"I am Dr. Emily Farraday. I am your Psychiatrist here at Gateway Health. You've been diagnosed with bipolar disorder based upon your erratic, manic, and dangerous behavior forty-eight hours ago at The Fairchild Estate." She paused here as she searched for a reaction in Asante's countenance. A moment later, "I want to be clear. I know, that both you and I know, that you are NOT bipolar and are NOT suffering from a psychotic episode due to the stresses of your career." Again Dr. Farraday paused for effect or inquiry, Asante couldn't decipher. "But know, I will never, under any circumstance testify to anything but the contrary. Now that I have been clear—everything I'm about to assert to you will be of your own volition to accept. We know who you are, who your family is, and what bloodlines you come from dating back several centuries. But what is still unknown to us is what your capabilities are. Although, we have been following your life closely for several decades, you were off-grid before we were able to locate and successfully separate you from your family. That being said, we've never been able to be sure of what information or talents your parents made you aware of before we got our hands on you."

Asante's eyes began to well with water as the gravity of this teen-woman's words hit her heart. Although the story she had just been told sounded like the prologue of a science fiction novel, a very dormant, oppressed, and scared part of Asante knew the truth.

The therapy she received at the Hughes House for Girls convinced her rational self that what she experienced the last time she'd seen her family was a post-traumatic stress response to being a witness to her mother's death. But in light of what she just heard and seen over the last week, she knew that what she thought possible, and what is actually real, are two very different things.

"We are not the enemy." Dr. Farraday continued, "Our only interest is in the preservation of humanity and we hope that you will voluntarily assist us in that effort."

"And what if I don't?" Asante spat as defiantly as she could muster.

"Dr. Argueta, Asante if I may, I repeat, WE are not the enemy. But make no mistake, we do feel like if you thwart our invitation to be a part of something that will positively impact the world we live in, then we may have to view you as one. Now I know that you have been through so very much and we don't want to put too heavy a burden on you at once. So the first thing I'm going to do is extend your seventy-two-hour, fifty-one-fifty hold to a thirty-dayobservation. You are too important to our work to rush this process. We will be here for you every step of the way. Get comfortable, you're going to be here a while."