It's Code For You (Parallel NurseryVerse Series)

Chapter 19- Skinny Love

(Hi guys, I wanted to jump in here and warn you that this chapter includes heavy talk of conversion therapy. The flash back in this chapter is my own personal experience with conversion therapy- so please be kind about it if you want to comment on it. Anyway, here we go y'all. Chapter 19!)

How many days had it been? Siobhan had lost count long after the first 3. Days and nights ran together, she woke up at any and all hours screaming from the memories in her mind. She couldn't tell the difference between nightmares and reality. Her body no longer felt like her own. All she knew was static. Static thoughts, static feeling in her bones, static sound any time someone said her name. What was her name? Who was she? Her face seemed distorted when she would catch a glimpse of her reflection, had they really taken everything away from her? All her memories felt like someone else's, a story played out on a torturous repeating cycle that never ended. She wanted off of the rollercoaster, but even her screams had now grown silent. How could it be so quiet, and yet so ungodly loud?

Siobhan could hear all the screams around her as she sat in the common room that day. The patients around her had a varying level of insanity, or complete numbness. In the midst of it all, a young girl was frantically running back and forth between every person, begging for answers. She was scared, even Siobhan could see that.

"Miss?" The girl came running up, noticing Siobhan staring at her. "Miss, please. Please I saw you looking. You have some left. Please." Some? Some what? Sanity? No that was long gone. Voice? There was nothing to come out. She could simply blink. "I don't understand, I don't know why I'm here. Please. Please, dear God I'm begging!" The girl reached out, gripping Siobhan's arm. Suddenly a memory came flooding back.

"No fair! You didn't tag out!" Siobhan giggled as a dirty blonde haired boy threw a ball in her direction.

"I think you're just a sore loser!" He shouted back with a grin. "Want to go into town? Get some ice cream? " Siobhan's eyes lit up at the thought. The summer heat had all but drained her energy, ice cream was just what she needed.

"That's a dumb question. Let me go get some cash from my mum. I'll be back!" Siobhan turned to head back towards her house when she noticed a white van pulling into her driveway. She recognized the van almost instantly. It was the pastor from her father's church. Siobhan glanced back at the boy with a confused glance. Suddenly the window rolled down, revealing not only the Pastor but also his wife.

"Hello, Siobhan." Siobhan raised an eyebrow.

"Pastor Mark." She responded flatly. "Mum and Father are inside, if that is what you're here for."

"Oh we figured we would swing in for tea." The Pastor responded quickly before turning towards the boy. "You can go now. Siobhan will be staying." Siobhan quickly snapped her head back towards the window. Who was he to tell her friends where they could and couldn't go, or even her? She didn't dare question authority, not when it came to matters involving her father. She waved goodbye quickly to her friend before walking up the steps to her house. She may have had to obey, but she didn't have to be kind.

Once inside, Siobhan made her way to the kitchen to find a snack. She opened the cupboards, grabbing a granola bar from its box. Ice cream was out of the question, but she still needed sustenance. She heard the front door close, her mother welcoming in the good Pastor and his wife, Linda Jean. Siobhan didn't figure whatever they needed to discuss involved her, so she quickly headed for her room. Almost as if he teleported, the Pastor had a hold on her arm.

"I believe I said you would be staying." His voice was deep, digging into the corners of Siobhan's soul like tar into cracks.

"Erm, okay..." Siobhan glanced past the Pastor to see her parents at the table, her father grinning sickeningly.