Just The Way You Like It - Under Construction

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Blake listened to every word Alice said, but the more she spoke the more he wanted her to stop. He had no idea how Alice had managed to go through something like that and survive. He felt like he wanted to cry again. She looked so small and weak, lying in that hospital bed. Blake tried to imagine what she would look like healthy and strong. She was already beautiful, although he was sure she didn't think the same. His mind began to wander back to the previous night's events.

She had tried to get him into bed with her, and now he thought he knew why. Pleasing men had been her job and the only thing that had kept her alive. If only he had known her story when she had pulled him into the bed, he knew now he would have reacted differently. There would still have been no chance of him allowing her to proceed with her plan, but he would have been kinder in the way he had told her that sort of behavior was not acceptable.

Alice must have thought she was in some kind of trouble after the way he had jumped out of the bed. Did she think that he was going to strike her? Probably. Now he doubted if having a male doctor was healthy for Alice. He had already grown protective of her over the last day and a half, but if she would be more comfortable with a female, then he was going to have to switch with one.

When Alice had spoken about being taken to a bed, like the one she was lying on now, Blake could tell she didn't feel comfortable getting detailed about the procedure they had  performed on her. She said it had hurt a for a few days afterward, and Blake had an idea as to what they had done. By the way Alice described it, Blake was pretty sure they had put an IUD in her. An IUD was usually a piece of copper or plastic placed inside of a woman, that worked amazingly well as a fertility treatment. It made sense; if Alice was to be their toy, they probably didn't want her getting pregnant. Blake couldn't remember seeing Alice's rape kit anywhere in her case file, and he made a mental note to ask Luke about it later.

Blake quietly listened to the rest of her story, every word broke his heart a little more than the last. Blake's mind was trying to process everything, letting his imagination run with her story. He tried picturing sleeping in a crate, and then felt guiltly thinking his cot in the lounge was uncomfortable. He tried picturing being in total darkness, even for a day, and he was pretty sure it would have driven him mad. Alice finally ended her story, obviously not wanting to talk about the man who had hit her in the dark. Blake was almost relieved to hear her silence for just a moment.

He listened as Luke asked her another question. “Do you remember how old you were when you were kidnapped?” In Blake's imagination, she was as old as she was today. When Luke asked Alice the question, he realized she must have been at least five or six years younger. He had guessed she was maybe in her late twenties, early thirties. So she must have been about twenty-four or twenty-five when they took her. Her answer to the question however, almost made him choke.

“It was a week after my thirteenth birthday.” Alice said. 1995, was the year she had written down on the note pad yesterday. Now he knew why, that was the year they took her to that place of hell. Alice had been brought into St. Micheal's in the summer of 2006. And those were the eleven years that she had so plainly told him, I Hav nat forgEtt.

Blake tried to keep his composure, but he really felt like punching something, and he was angry for the second time that day. Who would do something like that to a little girl? Monsters. Alice had been afraid of the dark, and she had been living with monsters in her bed. Blake wanted to throw-up, and he thought he just might. A motion out of the corner of his eye, brought him out of his stupor. It was Luke, motioning him to the door. He had to get out of there, get some fresh air, clear his head, and he needed to talk to Luke.

Blake and Luke walked just outside the hospital's main entrance before either one of them took their first breath of air. It was the middle of winter, but Blake was sweating from head to toe. Luke was the first to speak. “Wow, buddy, you've got your work cut out for you on this one.”