Swimming to the Light (Southern Vampire Mystery)

Chapter 16 - Plotting the Passage

Sanctum:

Lydia had been true to her word. Days at Sanctum were filled with things that had to be done and before Sookie knew it two months had passed. She could still find herself so exhausted she couldn't get out of bed. Sookie realized it was another one of those mornings when she found herself blanket-less and being shoved.

Sookie groaned and moaned as she pulled on her clothes. She couldn't remember a time when her muscles had felt so sore. It wasn't the bruising sore that she had felt some mornings during The Time. The Time was how she still thought of her marriage to Sam Merlotte. Instead, the sore she felt was the happy sore of exercise and stretching and a body well used and used well.

It was surprising the toll The Time had taken on her body. She had spent less time walking or doing all the other things she had done before The Time. She had given up gardening and cooking. Even cleaning her house had become physically taxing. Her impression of that time was that she had been frozen in place, unable to move beyond or away. When it had ended; when she'd been rescued, there had been the long weeks where she laid first in one bed and then another. Sookie still couldn't remember much about those times. What she could remember came in flashes at unexpected times. At first she panicked when one of these would happen. But now she found that these episodes gave her a sense of calm because it was restoring a small piece of herself that she had lost.

As she pulled socks from a drawer she found herself experiencing a flash. She remembered Dr. Ludwig licking her hand. She snorted. Lydia raised her eyebrows. Sookie glanced up from the sock she was struggling with. "You know Dr. Ludwig?"

"Amy?" Lydia asked. "Sure. She's kind of famous in our world."

"You ever see her lick someone's hand? The palm I mean. Whole tongue."

Lydia smiled and nodded her head as she rolled her eyes a little. "Yup I've seen it. It is a little off-putting."

"What's that about, do you think?"

Lydia shook her head. "I don't know. I never asked her. Maybe she just likes the taste of people."

Sookie pulled up the sock and sat up to look at Lydia as she gave a little shudder. "Eww. Well, that's an image I just didn't need. Gee – what are you trying to do? Give me more nightmares?" And Sookie laughed. It wasn't a full-out laugh but it was more than a giggle.

Lydia smiled. Watching laughter return to her guest was gratifying. "Well, on that note you can stop stalling and get moving. You've missed your morning stretch and it's already talking time. So chop-chop Ms. Stackhouse!"

Sookie slipped into the felt clogs that she had been given and both women walked down the hall that led to the main house.

Sookie was in counseling. It was individual counseling because Lydia felt the telepath was too fragile to be sharing with strangers.

Most of the work to date had been talking about the physical damage Sookie had sustained; both during The Time and before. Lydia would ask Sookie to tell about what happened in the form of a story. At first Lydia had encouraged Sookie to use third person, telling the experience as if it were people other than herself involved. Sookie found that by doing that little thing she was able to start talking more. As time went by talking about her experiences became easier and she slipped into telling stories from a first person perspective. It was as if the telling of each bad thing worked to remove the poison that had entwined itself with her.

Today Sookie told the story of the Rattrays and the day they beat her. Sookie told how surprised she had been by the attack. She created the details by telling what she had smelled and heard in the night. She told how she felt things in her own body snap and give way. She told how at a certain point she felt like she was outside herself; not that the pain had stopped but that she had seemed apart from it. Sookie talked about hearing the growl. She told how she hadn't realized the growl was her rescue.