Nothing Left to Burn [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter 4 - The Moment of Truth

In the next couple weeks, Aven met with Kelly several more times for therapy sessions, trying to find herself and regain her memory. King Ezekiel had disclosed to Kelly Aven's full situation and convinced Aven to do therapy so that she could feel better and settle into the community, but Aven had other ideas. She wanted to feel better, yes, but once she did she was going to leave. She just needed to get back on her feet, and she needed a little help.

Kelly had once treated a patient with retrograde amnesia but she wasn't extensively trained with it. However, before becoming a therapist she first got a degree in acupuncture. She no longer had access to acupuncture needles but she did use acupressure points on Aven, pressing and holding points on her head, feet, neck, and back that were known to stimulate memory and cognitive function. It wasn't a cure, but it was all she could do aside from having Aven talk through things. Still, talking was helping. Aven articulated the little hints of memories she'd had over the past year, and Kelly latched on to every one and coaxed her to explain as specifically as possible.

"When I'm awake it's like deja vu," Aven explained. "I see something...something even as small as a movement, someone moving their arm up and down or something, and I know I've seen it before, but not exactly. I haven't seen that exact moment but something similar, somewhere else with someone else at a different time."

"And how often does that happen?" Kelly asked.

"Um...I don't think there's really a pattern. There were periods of time where it happened more often but it doesn't really happen that much. But it happened a few weeks ago when I met that woman from Alexandria." Kelly nodded in thought, veering away from the subject of the woman. They'd already talked about the encounter and Kelly really tried to push Aven to decipher why the experience was so impactful to her, which resulted in Aven getting too frustrated with her own inability to remember and ending the session.

"Well now that you've started keeping a journal again, try to write down whenever it happens. Maybe we can figure out some sort of pattern."

"I will, but like I said it doesn't happen much. It's my dreams that really confuse me."

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"If he hollars...let him go..."

The man swept around the forest clearing in an inhuman blur, only coming into focus enough for Aven to make out his shape and size. He was tall and lean, holding out the same spiked bat tattooed on Aven's side to each of the victims that knelt before him, the bat swooshing through the air with mere flicks of his wrist. The people on the ground were crying, shaking, sweating, but every time Aven took a brief second to regard their suffering, she was immediately pulled back in to watch the show the graceful monster of a brute was putting on.

"My mother told me to pick the very best one..." 

He sounded almost sincere, acting the words as though he were telling a story for the first time and for reasons Aven couldn't fathom, watching him filled her with pride, among other feelings. 

"And you...are..."

He quickly turned and switched from pointing the bat downwards at the man in front of him to pointing it at Aven who stood across the clearing.

"It," he finished with a malicious smirk. "You, doll...you are mine. You belong to me."

You belong to me. Words she hated, words she'd heard too many times while being brutalized by her kidnapper. This new man wasn't any different. He wanted nothing but to hurt her.

He turned back to the man kneeling before him and what he did next would have been unimaginable if his choice of weapon hadn't already made clear what was about to happen. He crushed the man's skull and then swung his bat around giddiliy, blood and brains spattering across Aven's face and getting in her mouth.