IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD

Chapter 16- Birthday's Are A Pain

I woke up and sat up like you would normally on any other Tuesday morning. Although, right when I straightened my back, the worst headache known to man hit. I thought my brain was beating against my skull so hard that eventually it would swell until it came out my ears. Graphic, I know.

Head aches aren't a normal thing for me. The pain I experience is either from falling or Xander inflicting it. I wasn't to concerned but I decided that asking for medicine was the best option.

I walked out of the room, still in my pajamas with my hand on the part of my head that hurt the worst.. That was when I stopped and ran back to my room as fast as I could. Only two people were alarmed by me running but I told them all was fine and proceeded to my room.

I went to the small mirror and starred into it. I had a bump the size of Saturn behind my left ear. That was where it hurt the most. When I pulled my hand away, I found a red smear decorating my palm.

Then I turned my attention to the pajama situation. Either some messed up perv came in and put me in other clothes or I got up and changed. I didn't change before I fell asleep, I thought.

I changed immediately and cleaned off the cut with a paper towel from the bathroom across the hall. When I was in the bathroom, I noticed the blood in my hair, so I took a shower and got dressed again. I untangled my hair with my fingers and tucked it behind my ears.

The head ache didn't let up. It was drowning my mind in annoying pain. I decided to talk to Xander before I left the bathroom.

I took a deep breath and began but didn't get the first syllable fully out before excruciating pain enveloped my whole body. I dropped to the ground screaming in pain. The same side of my head smacked down with a disturbing thud.

A nurse ran in quickly and grasped me under the shoulders. The world was spinning and my eye sight was blurry. I was watching half-consciously as the world spun when the nurse lifted me off the ground and into a wheel chair.

She was basically running me down the hall. We got to the little nurses station by the elevator. I still wasn't fully conscious or in full control of my body. I felt a pinch in my arm and then the world faded.

***An Hour Later****

I woke up on a hospital bed but obviously still in the asylum. It was apparent in the way the room was set up. Nothing in my reach and restraints on my arms. A nurse walked in and began to speak," Sweetie, you have been out for about an hour. Do you feel any better?"

I thought about it for a moment as I stared blankly into the nurses eyes. Still feel like crap, I thought. "Freaking perfect, obviously. That is why I have ten of morphine and an IV drip in my body. Of coarse I don't feel better. Now, stop standing there, take this stupid IV out, and get me out of this awful room and into my own."

The nurse did nothing so I persuaded her to take me back to my room.

I was in my wheel chair and she was pushing me down the hallway. Rickey saw me and ran to me. I told the nurse to stop and she did. "Oh, really Kay. Come on. You couldn't wait until the doctors released you?" He was smiling and laughing a little.

"No and it's my birthday, let me have some fun." I showed him the stitches on the side of my head. Oh, did I mention I got stitches. He smile and showed me the bandages on his knee. "It's my birthday too. But I didn't scream and fall down, only to be sedated and kept under observation."

He told me that he woke up on the floor staining his pajama pants with the blood spurting from his knee.

I giggled and told the nurse to keep going. When we reached the common room I stood up and let the nurse go. Rickey and I went to a couch by the window and sat down. "Birthdays right?" I said jokingly. "Heck yeah." He replied smiling wide and happy.

I couldn't hold in my laughter," You are a dork." "Hey now, don't be mean." He was laughing too. People in the room looked at us with crazy looks. We were the only kids in the asylum constantly laughing and smiling.

Most other kids were to drugged up to do so- to suppress anger and violence- or actually mentally unstable or alone and talking to themselves in the corner. Then you had the kids who were drooling or staring off into the distance or talking to other people quietly. No kids were laughing or smiling, though.

He told me happy birthday and we toasted orange juice to making it this far in our royally screwed up lives. Finally I asked him how things went with his mom and the Wicked Witch of The West. The conversation went something like this:

"So what happened last night with the people asking about Richard Daniels?"

"Oh, my mom showed up and asked to take me home but with the help of my handy-dandy brain companion, I got some doctors to keep me here. She said happy birthday and all and said that taking me home was my birthday present."

"Wait. That is what she was gonna' give you for your birthday?"

"I know right?!? I just said 'Mom you don't send some one to their least favorite place on earth for there birthday. That is like only giving them socks for Christmas or telling them that they are adopted for Easter."

"Oh my Gosh! What did she say?"

"She started to cry, as suspected, but then got over it and tried to get me to be sent back with her. And then the whole mind thing came into play."

"So what did she do to you? Or was it like your siblings?"

"She beat me until I came here. She never hurt Reggie, he died really early. Jack, Marge, and Janney had been beaten their whole lives so they don't know much different and I wasn't going to screw with their mind sets. They just sucked it up and dealt with it. She beat me occasionally but Zyler got me out of that a couple times.

"But the minute she laid a finger on Jilly, I went crazy and beat the crap out of her. She has a scar from last year on her forehead. The day before I came in, she tried to hurt Jilly and she is only three and wouldn't shut up so mom tried to hit her but I kinda smashed a lamp over her head."

"Nice."

"I would do pretty much anything to protect Jilly and so would Marge and Janney but Jack is oblivious and kind of defenseless, so we protect her at all cost."

"Sounds like Keenan and Kathy. Karrie doesn't give a crap and no one else really cared that my dad hit them but Keenan and Kathy did anything for me. Keenan and Kathy once got me out of the house when I was a baby by Keenan throwing me out of a window and Kathy catching me.

"They did anything but then when the divorce happened Keenan sided with majority and left me and Kathy. I have resented her ever since. She just gave up on me and sissy."

We sat in silence for a while after that. I hadn't known that Rickey was a beaten child or a brother, but he didn't know that my dad was abusive up until the divorce. I never got hit because of Kathy and my other sister Keenan but I understood the situation.

Now I finally knew why Rickey was desperate to stay in this place, no matter how much he hated this asylum, he hated his mother more.

"Margrette and Jannette promised to keep Jillian safe so-" He was cut off by a guard who walked in the room. He wheeled in a birthday cake for me and Rickey. We dropped the conversation and ate cake.

Then after about ten minutes of normal time a girl and a guard walked in. Silence followed. It was a girl about seven or eight years of age.The guard walked up to me and Rickey. Lillian, T.J., and Kayla joined. He spoke in a deep booming voice.

"Everyone," He paused," this is Hally Waters."