Volume 5
Breakthrough
Kami’s mind struggled to wrap around the events of the previous day, her memory still erratic and seemingly uninterpretable. She gingerly fingered the bandages around her abdomen and winced slightly at the pain she felt. A nurse looked at her and smiled brightly, she was tall, slender, looked to be in her early twenties and had light skinned with light blue eyes and blond hair that was pulled back into a neat ponytail.
“Who… are you?” The young girl asked her quietly to receive a chuckle from her as she introduced herself.
“My name is Shannon and I’m your nurse for today. Now can you tell me how you feel while I take a look at your wounds?” The young woman asked in a sweet perky voice. Her patient looked at her with a confused expression before managing to only say that she was in pain.The nurse frowned and carefully lifted one of the gauze wrappings to inspect the wound.
“No sign of infection, but it does look irritated.” The woman observed as she hooked up another line that transferred antibiotics to fight any chance of infection to Kami’s IV. She redressed the cut she examined before leaving the room and shutting the door behind her.
***
The room was silent as the final rays of sunlight floated in and made a horizontal shadowy pattern from the blinds onto the blankets of the hospital bed. Kami’s head was turned in the direction of the window; her eyes were closed and she was in a deep sleep. Tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes as her subconscious mind plunged her into a flashback to one of the worst nights of her life.
She saw her nine year old self curled up in the fetal position shaking with fear in the corner of the mansion’s library. Her father; while in a drunken stupor had beaten her to a bloody, quivering pulp.
The girl laid there as the man looked through the bookcases looking for his prey. The small child noticed the man take a seat in one of the light green overstuffed chairs and took that opportunity to escape. Just as her small hand brushed the sill of one of the large bay windows, something tugged hard on the back of her blue T-shirt; the collar choking the air out of the young girl’s lungs.
The man pulled the girl up by collar and held her face so close to his that the stench of strong whiskey was evident on his breath and clothing. Kami struggled to breathe as her father’s grip tightened around her throat. She kicked and scratched her father trying to alleviate the pressure but instead, after what seemed like an eternity of fighting; Kami’s vision faded to black and her body went limp before she was dropped to the floor and kicked four times in the head. These blows rattled her skull and caused blood to trickle out from her ears and the corners of her slightly open mouth.
Kami snapped awake and shot up in bed, her breathing and heart rate quickened at the shock from the memory’s resurfacing. Alarms sounded to alert the nurses that the girl’s heart rate was at a dangerously high level. A few nurses burst through the closed door and slammed Kami’s bed down after placing her on extra oxygen. Brandon shot up out of a deep sleep and looked around confused through hazy eyes. The boy thought about how he could help and decided it would be best if he stayed out of the way and let the nurses do their work.
Eventually, after the girl put up a huge fight and had practically clawed all the nurses faces off in an attempt to break herself free of their grasp, she was now strapped down to the bed in restraints that greatly resembled medieval torture devices, but they were merely a precaution to make sure she did not harm herself or others again.
Kami lay in bed uncomfortably, writhing around trying to free herself but only causing the large metal rings to go deeper into her mutilated wrists. She did not speak to anyone, not even her boyfriend or her aunt when she came to visit her that night. She would only grunt if she needed something and indicate what the object was by grunting or rolling her eyes. This was rather dramatic, but she did not care at this point, she merely wanted to be out of the hospital. When she had cried during the flashback to the night her father beat the living daylights out of her; every wall she put up emotionally to close herself off from people seemed to be on its way to crashing down around her and revealing the soft, vulnerable side of her that she had kept very well hidden for so many long, torturous years. It was not going to be long before everything Kami knew would change completely
