The Face You Gave Me

The healing process

Beep, beep, beep, beep. The noise filled Charles ears.

"He's coming to," a voice Charles didn't recognize said.

"Keep him restrained, this guy might go a little sico," Charles knew this voice from somewhere, but where?

Charles opened his eyes and saw a white ceiling above him.

"Where am I," Charles croaked to no one in particular.

"Your in the hospital, you took a great hit to the head. You've been in a comma for six months," said that familiar voice again.

"Who are you?" yelled Charles.

Charles realized how he had gotten the coma. Then he remembered what he did right before that. Charles eyes couldn't focus. The world was spinning. He barfed all over the sterile blankets. He was blinded by the thoughts of what he'd done. He couldn't handle it. The dreams of what he'd done were going to haunt him forever. What he'd done! He vomited again at the thought. Somebody was yelling but he couldn't make out the words. A needle was stabbed into his arm but he didn't care. He had done horrible things before. But this was the worst.

The beeping had sped up. It was this beeping sound that accompanied him to the land of the dreaming. It was there as he replayed the last moment he saw the man. The horrible sound of his crampons slashing his face. what he could have done. Finished him off, not letting him live like that. But he hadn't. He only had himself to blame for this horror.

He awoke again, this time he heard no voices.

"hello," he called.

Your up," said that voice again.

Charles turned toward the sound. His eyes focused on the man sitting in the chair beside his bed.

"Commander Jackson! Please tell me what is going on. What's the time?" said Charles.

"It's midnight and your in the hospital. You were in a coma for six months,after falling down the side of a mountain. You received numerous broken bones which have all mostly healed now and a large slash to the shoulder. Now I have one question for you. How did you fall down the mountain?" replied the commander in a tired voice.

Charles told the gruesome of how he had mutilated the mans face and how he had lost consciousness and slid down the mountain.

"I think we should get you some counseling when your ready though Charles, let me know," the commander said slowly, considering if they were the right words to say.

Charles would wait, heal properly before anything more happened. In that time the war ended, but things were still tense, as if people were expecting bombers to fly out of the sky and vaporize them.

He started seeing a councilor and was able to bare what he had done without having a nervous breakdown or vomiting. He was starting to feel normal again. As normal as someone could get after seeing the things he'd seen.

In a few months he would leave the rehab center and join his family. It had been three long years since the war had ended. He felt ready.