Perfect Storm

Chapter 13

"You cannot do that, please! I swear, I didn't do it on purpose!" I sat up despite the pain in my ribs. I don't care if I shout and beg right now. I won't return to that place.

"We are well aware of your manipulative tactics from the last time you were in there, Ms. Wall, and they won't work this time." He was no longer paying attention to a word I was saying, and his tone had become much more serious. He drew nearer to me as he grabbed for his pocket.

"I'm not trying to manipulate you, I promise! I've been taking my medication, and over the last few months, I've been doing so much better. I need your trust, I promise!" The pain made me want to scream, but I knew it would only make things worse. As I gently tucked into his coat, I made a pleading motion with my good hand.

"Even if I did, Ms. Wall, we have your mother's signature since she's your next of kin. Because you were unconscious and unable to choose for yourself, we are required to go with her choice."

"But now that I'm awake, I can make a choice! You can't do th–" I felt a sharp pain in my neck, and then all of a sudden, everything got darker.

Not again

                                                                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anya was convinced that Mia's sister had all the answers. Before stashing the papers on the back of her top, she turned to look at the still-crying Henry. "I have to go back to the hospital, are you gonna be okay here?". Henry only gave a small nod. "Great, I'll catch you later." And then she walked away. Her heart was racing so quickly that she thought her life was actually a tv show that she desperately wanted to switch off and return to her normality. But she knew that was impossible. She analysed every piece of information they discovered during the entire ride to the hospital, to the point where it was driving her insane.She took a few moments to gather herself as she parked in the hospital's parking garage, repeating in her head how she would ask those questions to her sister.

She had barely entered the hospital when she noticed Mia being carried in a hospital bed while unconscious, with Freya racing behind her shouting. "You can't do this; this makes no sense."

In an effort to speak with one of the nurses, the raven-haired hurried after them. She succeeded in grabbing one's arm. "Where are you taking her?"

"St. Charles Hospital." As he violently backed away from Anya and entered the ambulance, the nurse replied frankly.

St. Charles, that's a mental health hospital.

Anya was struck by Freya, who was now crying, and grabbed her top. "Tell them they can't do this!"

Anya was unable to do anything but watch as the ambulance drove away.

"What the fuck? Why didn't you do something?" Freya yanked her hands away angrily and began pacing back and forth.

"There was nothing she could do, the more you fight them, the harder they're going to make it for you and for her." Demeter responded in a quiet voice. To face her, both women turned around. She held her arms tightly over her middle, her eyes red, but she never showed her emotions to anyone, especially these strangers. Despite the fact that they were Mia's friends, to her, they were still strangers. Demeter let out a loud sigh as she turned to head back inside after taking one final look in the ambulance's direction.

Both women chased after her, but only Anya approached her. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's best if you don't know."

"How is it? Mia kept it hidden from us that she was hospitalised and that she was struggling. And now we see her getting forcefully transferred to another facility. So tell me, how the fuck is it better that we don't know?!"

Freya was shocked at the bomb Anya just threw, but she stayed quiet.

"Have you ever asked why she chose to never tell you?" Demeter replied sarcastically, but there was also a hint of guilt in her tone.

"No, so please, help us understand."

After thinking about it for a while, Demeter decided to tell them. She led them to one of the cafeterias in the hospital.

"Mia was always by herself. Didn't have many friends, the closest one was Steph. We knew that back in Greece she was getting bullied a lot, but I don't think mum paid that much attention to it, because to her, it felt like normal childlike behaviour. So whenever she would come home crying, she would tell her that she's overreacting. But she completely changed when our nan found her in the tub, trying to drown herself. But it didn't change for the best. Mum doesn't really get the whole mental health thing, so she always thought that Mia was doing it for attention. In a way, she was, but not for the reason she thought. Mia just wanted to be cared for and shown that she was loved. Mum has this weird way of showing her love, but it's not how Mia needs to be loved. Then we moved here, she lost all of her friends, we were counting on her to help us with the transition, since then none of us knew English, she wasn't easily accepted for college, and when she was, something that I still don't know about happened, and she got into a very toxic relationship. That was the cherry on top. We only found out that she took all those pills after the ambulance parked outside our house and they came knocking on the door. She called it on herself. But that's when mum decided she had enough, so she signed for her to get institutionalized. I was still 14 at the time. I love my sister, so I was trying so hard to go see her and got into fights with the nurses because they wouldn't let me see or talk to her. Until they wouldn't let me step foot inside again. And that's what made Mia worse, to the point where she had psychotic and dissociative episodes. That's why I said it's only going to make things worse for all of you. After she was released, she wouldn't talk to any of us for the next 3 months. I managed to slowly gain back her trust, but she never fully trusted mum after that." Demeter was sipping her coffee as she gave them a thorough explanation of everything. She seemed to have repeated it so many times before that it had become a script in her mind.

Freya was shocked because, until this point, she was clueless of Mia's past. Freya, on the other hand, thought there must be a lot more to the story than that. "What about 2019 then?"

"What about it?" Confused, Demeter set her cup down.

Freya simply handed her the folder with the pregnancy tests and the Polaroid without saying anything.

"She was pregnant?!"