The Stalker

Chapter 33

The night was really hard. Sharna woke up several times due to nightmares, about her kidnapper, about the rapes, about the beatings and about the moment she was taken. Val woke up every time she was awake and tried to calm her down. On top of that, due to her concussion a nurse came in every two hours to wake her and see if she was still cognitive good. This meant that in the morning neither Sharna nor Val had slept well.

Her parents and Peta came in later that morning. Val and Sharna had just finished a conversation about the rest of their friends and what to tell them. Sharna, who was still very tired, let Val do all the talking.

“We have just talked about our friends and what we should tell them and what not and of course if she wants them to visit. I made a suggestion, which was to talk about it with the therapist. He is coming by later this day and afterwards Sharna might have a better idea of what to say to her friends. And she could talk with the rest of you about it. And we thought visiting is a matter of how the day proceeds and I don’t think we can make any predictions about it.”

“I think that is a good plan. But I would like to add something to that. Maybe you should send every friend a different amount of information. Some people are closer to you and ‘deserve’ to know more is respect to others. And to add to that, there might some people who you should tell right now,” Sharna’s dad said.

Sharna thought about it for a minute and decided her dad’s idea wasn’t that bad. People who had been really worried about her and had been asking Peta and Val about how she was doing, probably really wanted to know what was going on. And they had been friends with her for a long time and deserved to know.
“I think you’re right.”
“But what do you want to tell them?”

The rest of the morning all five of them decided what to tell and who to tell it to, by the end of the morning, about 20 minutes before the therapist would come. All the texts were send. Sharna had been fairly open to most people, but let out the details. She also told them she would text when and if she would like them to visit. For some she even added that it might be tonight or tomorrow.

Sharna was happy with the sent texts and with her family helping her. It felt like she was working on something and she was distracted from everything that happened in the last few days.

But the moment they were finished she was drawn back into reality and even with the prospect of telling her story to a therapist.

“Maybe it would be a good idea if you would go home, all of you. Val you can catch some sleep and I can talk to the therapist. If we are finished I’ll call you. And maybe Maks can come here as well.”
“You are sure, we don’t mind waiting for you?”
“I have no idea how long we’re going to talk and if the police also wants to talk to me afterwards, it might be the entire afternoon. I don’t want you guys waiting for me downstairs. I rather have you sleep and rest a bit and come back with more energy.”

Everybody understood Sharna and listened to her. So when the therapist came, everybody hugged her and left the room. Val gave Sharna a kiss on her forehead and she smiled at him, telling him it was okay. He left the room with her parents and Peta.

Val was happy he could sleep for a couple more hours, but when he woke up 5 hours later and they still hadn’t heard from Sharna, they were all worried. They all ordered some food and waited near the phone for a response.

It was six hours after they had left the hospital when the phone finally rang. Sharna was on the other side of the line, saying they could come if they wanted to, all of them, including Maks. They got into two cars and drove towards the hospital.

Val was driving together with Sharna’s parents.
“It is strange meeting you this way as Sharna’s boyfriend,” Sharna’s dad said.
“Yeah, we were planning on going to Australia after the tour was finished. That way I could meet you and see where she grew up. But these are completely different circumstances.”
Sharna’s mother put a hand on his shoulder, “Well I must say, I’m happy she got you right now. With you by her side, she will get through all of this.”

When they arrived at the hospital Sharna was lying in bed. She had her eyes closed when they entered, but when they were closer to the bed she opened them. Her eyes were red, probably from all the crying. And she looked very tired.

“How are you?” Her mother asked, while she hugged her.
“It was really hard, but really good. I was allowed to talk about everything I wanted to talk about. He wasn’t judging me and he wasn’t asking me any difficult questions, at least not in the beginning. When I started talking about the abduction, he sometimes asked those questions, but they were good questions. You know what I mean? And even when I couldn’t answer them, I still felt better about it. It was really nice. But of course I cried a lot. Talking to the police was harder. They wanted to know details about everything and they had to take pictures as evidence. I hated it.”

Sharna stopped talking and everybody understood. It would have been very hard to undress in front of someone and let them take pictures of your broken body.

“And how are you feeling right now?” Val asked.

“At the moment I’m really tired, but I wanted to see all of you. I know there will be many hard days ahead, but after my talk with the therapist I wanted to let you know that I know you will be there for me. And you’ll be by my side no matter what. And I’m really grateful for that. I love you all.”

The girls started crying again, but also the men had tears in their eyes.

At that moment Val knew that she was eventually going to be okay. It might be a long road of recovery ahead of them, but he would be there for her. But most importantly he knew his girlfriend would be able to conquer all obstacles ahead of her.