Final Truth

Chapter 56: What Tomorrow Will Bring

Julia's point of view:

I'm lying on my side and staring at the white wall next to me, not even registering a voice until it begins to shout, echoing off the corners of my head and oppressive in its volume.

"Are you going to just lay there or am I going to have to force you to look at me?!" Henley screeches, but I don't move.

Go ahead, I think to myself. The tear stains that have left my eyes irritated and made the skin on my face tight with pain hurt more than anything she could do to me now.

And sure enough, when I refuse to listen, I feel the malevolent sensation of my body betraying itself, forcing me to sit up and look Henley in the eyes without my consent.

"That's better," Henley says, trying to sound smug, but I can tell she's displeased.

She wants me to be afraid, to look timid in her presence, but I'm too numb to do even that anymore. So I just stare at her, blank and devoid of any human emotion that could show I still have a soul buried underneath all the trauma I've been forced to endure.

You've taken everything. You have nothing left to frighten me with anymore.

"Speak, you invalid," she commands me, and my diaphragm expands on her orders and forces me to say the word, "Hello."

The voice that comes forth sounds foreign, broken, inhuman, and certainly nothing that could ever belong to me.

"Hope you've enjoyed your little rest here," Henley replies with a false tone of sentiment. "But alas, all good things must come to an end, mustn't they, Julia?"

You mean hope? Happiness? Love? Comfort? In your presence, I suppose they must.

Her power's hold on me grows stronger and compels me to say, "Yes" despite the fact that I really have no energy to speak.

"Just thought I'd let you know that today will be your last day in here. The nurses have told me that you're strong enough for your final test, which I've scheduled promptly for tomorrow morning. I'd wish you luck, but let's face it, we both know how everything's going to end," Henley says haughtily, releasing her hold on me.

I fall backwards into the pillows of my hospital bed with a loud thump, staring up at the ceiling now while simultaneously wishing I had the strength to blast a hole through it and escape.

I hear the door to my room slam shut, announcing her departure, and I am left with the notion that I'm going to die tomorrow.

Time's up; no more waiting around for that last test, no more silently hoping that my friends will come save me. No, it will all be over in less than twenty-four hours.

Oddly enough, I'm somewhat calm about it.

I've fought to pass each test. I've tried so hard to make things right. I've ruined myself over and over with my own self-hatred and my attempts at doing the impossible. But after tomorrow, I'll be free. No one can control me then.

It feels like giving up, a complete surrender to what the morning will bring and a total acceptance of my fate, but there was never an escape from this, no matter how hard I wish there was.

Better to know this now than to lose myself in the process later.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, attempting to ignore the pain radiating from all crevices of my body as I try to relax, try to relish the last day of rest I'll ever have.