Chenford Story ✔️

59

Tim's POV

After an hour I picked Lucy up from the room. She was holding a prescription that I took while holding Lucy up as she used her walker to make it back to the car.

"Everything ok Luce?"
She just nodded.
Eventually we made it home and Lucy got back into her bed.

I didn't know what the hell to do.
She wouldn't talk, barely ate, wouldn't participate in therapy.
And she wasn't getting better.

I needed help, for her.
I called Angela again.
"Hi Ange."
"Hi Tim, everything ok? You seem sad?"
"I just don't know how to help her Ange. She's getting physically better but she won't speak, barely eats, therapy isn't helping and there's something she's not telling me."

Angela's sigh was audible even from across the phone.
"Let her write her statement tomorrow and then we can see how she is and reassess. But I agree, she isn't getting better and we need to find a way to help her more than therapy"
I also sighed, knowing that it was would be a difficult task.
"Ok. Thanks Ange. I'll see you tomorrow."
I hung up and sighed again.

Normally I didn't cry, I rarely ever cried in fact.
It was something that my father would punish me for as a child so it was instilled in me not to cry.
But something about watching Lucy suffer brought out the deepest and most raw emotions in me.
I let a few tears fall down my face just thinking about Lucy suffering and being unable to help her.

I knew everything could be infinitely worse, Lucy could easily have died, or be irreparably damaged and she wasn't; not physically anyway.
But things could also be better, Lucy and I were so close to being ok.

And then her past had to mess it up. And then everything was ok again. Then her car accident messed it up but also brought us together. Then I messed it up by lying. Now Rosalind had messed everything up to the point we were behind the starting line.

Two and a half years ago you could have asked me what I thought two and a half years in the future would look like an I would have said that Lucy and I would have been married. Maybe having a baby or two.

I had achieved part of that goal. But Lucy had lost her spark, she wasn't happy anymore. She was just a shell, a dead woman walking.

Lucy's POV

I heard the door open early in the morning.
I knew who it was,
Angela and Nyla, here to take my statement.

I would be writing it down.
At this point I knew it was real, no amount of not talking would convince me of that now. But I just couldn't.

Mentally I couldn't say a word.
It was all to painful.
I had be fine at the hospital while I recovered, mostly still in shock from almost dying again. But now I was processing everything.

"Hey Luce?"
Tim knocked on my bedroom door, revealing me dressed and on my walker to head out of the room.
"Wait Lucy! You're not meant to be doing that on your own yet. Let me help!"

I felt Tim behind me, using his arms to guide my steps and lightly lifting me up to relieve some of the pressure from my legs.
It felt nice to be honest but I just wanted everyone to understand that I could be it by myself.

After a few minutes I made it to the dining room table where Angela and Nyla had set up their equipment.

Like last time she had to interview me, Angela profusely apologised before handing me the paper and starting the camera to record what I was writing just in case.

'I was at the station on the 21.8.23 when I realised Sargent Wade Grey was unconscious on the other side of the room and a woman who was dressed as an officer was walking towards me.
I assumed she just wanted to talk but I felt the needle in my arm after a second and then everything went black but I remember seeing that the woman was Rosalind Dyre.

After that I woke up in a basement. Im not sure how long I was unconscious for but I remember waking up in my underwear and slightly bruised around my midriff.

I saw Emmet Lang and Rosalind Dyre on the other side of the room looking at and testing a range of weapons and torture devices.

After they realised I was awake they started torturing me.
First Rosalind started stabbing me in the left foot , then Emmet shot me in the right foot before standing on the foot. He then started stepping on me, punching me and kicking me.
I don't really remember the next few hours or days in detail but I know that I was stabbed, shot, burned with a poker and...'

I couldn't write it.
Even the word miscarriage was to hard.
I just couldn't.

I left a few lines blank before continuing.

'it was many hours later that Emmet and Rosalind brought me out the basement after continuing with the torture. We walked for a few hours while I could barely stand from the pain all over my body. I was feeling faint from the blood loss and my wounds were infected. They told me to get into the barrel and held a gun to me if I didn't. I did what they said and started breathing slowly and trying to sleep to concerned oxygen. The next thing I know I woke up in the hospital."

I finish the writing and hand the piece to Angela to look over as Nyla stops the recording.
I can see when Angle reaches certain point in my recollection from her painted facial expressions.
"I-im so sorry Lucy... T-this is absolutely awful, it's so cruel and you don't deserve any of it.."

I smile softly at Angela despite feeling like I'm falling apart on the inside.

Tim's POV

Angela hands me the note after she's finished reading it as Lucy watches.
I don't even know what to say.
It's...

Lucy doesn't and never did deserve any of that torture.

"Hey Luce? You didn't finish this bit?"

I handed the note back to her and pointed at the 'and' where Lucy doesn't finish her sentence.
She just shoves the note away back to Angela and I understand that whatever is meant to go in that space is still to private and awful for it to b written down.

That's probably what's bothering her so badly.

Angela and Nyla leave after another round of crying and hugs where Lucy goes back to bed.

After everyone else leaves the house Tamara comes home with Juniper and they go to bed. I walk into Lucy's room and just sit on the end of her bed talking to her, unsure if she's awake or not.

Lucy's POV

I heard Tim talking as I'm lying in bed, wide awake.

I haven't actually had more than a few hours sleep in the last few weeks.
Somehow I slept better while buried alive.

"Hey Luce. I know that something's bothering you, and I don't know what that is, but it will be ok Lucy. Everything will get better and whatever it is will get better with time. I'm just worried about you ok. I love you so much Lucy, in your own words, more than you will ever realise'. Goodnight Luce, love you"

Tim softly kissed my forehead before walking out of the room and closing the door.