A Day For Tomorrow

Epilogue

"GET AWAY FROM ME!! YOU MONSTER!" Dr. Reskal sighs and purses his lips.

"As you can see-"

"THEY WERE JUST KIDS! ALL OF THEM! WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM?!"

"He is still having these irrational responses to simple, otherwise harmless images of Dr. Richard D. Ivoli. Lucifer hasn't been able to even hear his own fathers name or see pictures or specific items without having these absurd mental breakdowns. We've tried rationalizing with him, but he's unresponsive to treatments. I'm sorry Mr. and Mrs. Ivoli, but it looks like he is going to have to be transferred to a higher psychological hospital to further dissect how deep this internal battle runs in his brain." I look into Dr. Safford's pitiful brown eyes and squint menacingly. These low class assholes hardly chipped the surface of what I've been forced to put my own child through.

"Do what you must." Karen whispers softly, her voice shaking along with her body.

"There's just a few forms we will need you both to fill out. I'll bring those here in just a moment." The doctor assures and walks off.

"My poor baby." My wife whimpers to herself. Tears roll down her face, which is already puffy from crying for weeks. I roll my own eyes and scoff, ready to go home. I hate this gnawing feeling in my gut, the guilt. I've got to carry this alone, silently, forever. What I've agreed to do, what I have allowed my little boy to endure, I would do anything to have him look up at me with his goofy six year old smile again. He was such a perfect child. My Lucifer.

"I'll be out in the car." I state to Karen.

"You aren't going to stay? Help your grieving wife? You heartless bastard!" She cries.

"Heartless?" I scoff. "Dear, we'll talk about this at home, yes?" I offer and walk away. I venture down the long hallways and out to the parking lot. 'Heartless bastard', am I? Then what does that make her? Some sadistic bitch? I enter the drivers side of the car and grip the wheel. I could leave her here. Leave everything. I can run from this all. "Damn it, Karen." My hands rub my face in hopes of relieving some stress. I can't run from this. This isn't a nightmare I can wake from, trust me, I've tried.

"He's been exposed to this simulation every night for the past 2 weeks. We've successfully made him believe he's been sexually assaulted for the past 6 years." "Incredible." Karen gasps. Dr. Reskal smiles at her proudly, calling for the 11 year old to come out and for me to leave the room while they hook him up to various machines. After merely 6 minutes, I'm let back in, a moment in my life I'd be cursed to relive every night in my dreams. My Luci, his heart monitor freaks out and the EEG goes wild, just from making eye contact with me. He looks terrified, no, petrified. His eyes are wide and palms are sweaty, tears welling in his eyes as he clings to his mother for protection. Just 2 weeks ago we were throwing a football back and forth and practicing geometry. "Luci," The heart monitor increases. "Come here." I softly command. He clings to Karen like his life depends on it, but she gently pushes him to go to me. "O-ok." His voice croaks out, making him move to me slowly. After a few tense moments, he's close enough to reach my arms around him, and he flinches and pulls away, tears pouring from his eyes. "Please..." he whimpers. "Please what? What's wrong?" I ask him desperately. "It hurts, daddy. Please, stop."

...

"Are you happy now? Satisfied?!" Karen wipes the running makeup from her face, smiling up at me. "What has got you so bothered? You're the one who agreed to this. I merely suggested it."

"It went too far. He was a fine boy, could've been something!"

"And yet we still signed him off to science for human experimentation."

"People died!" I shout at her.

"He needed that extra push to take him over the edge." She shrugs and chuckles. "A prodigy, unlike his two older brothers, who couldn't make it past their own personal simulations." Their twin boys, Alexander and Rufus, one who clawed his eyes out and had to be 'put down' and the other who mysteriously passed away during simulation.

"You're sick." I spit and cock my revolver, pointing it at her. She reflects a perfect smile, seemingly challenging me to pull the trigger.

"Sick? I feel fine, doctor!"

...

...

...

As of December 18th, 2015, Lucifer Thomas Ivoli, born April 8th, 1992, aged 23 years old, has been admitted to Torrance State Hospital. The trama Lucifer had previously withheld appears to be irreversible within his 2 year stay so far here and will be transferring to another hospital in Germany in the summer of 2018.

"I should've died!" Lucifer cries out, alone in his padded cell. "I should've died! Me! I... I should've died..." The door opens, revealing several shadows of doctors, speaking a language Lucifer can't understand. "Leave me alone! You monsters! Leave me alone! Leave me alone!!"