Accessory Wars

Chapter 73-Ki

            I received a visit from Felisa and Kami a couple days after Donna and Valorie. Being the emotional train wreck, I of course started crying. I was so relieved to see them alive. They gave me hugs and sat with me while I regained control of myself. They told me they were leaving soon and it made me wonder how long I was going to be staying.

"Have they said when you get to leave?" Felisa asked.

"No, although someone did mention having me transferred to the hospital in Bailey," I replied. "My parents are staying until I discharge and Jay's staying with them at a hotel somewhere."

"How'd you convince them to have Jay stay with them?" Kami asked.

"I didn't. As soon as he discharged, they took him under their wings."

"How is Jay?" Felisa asked.

"Blaming himself for not being able to help. I've been trying to remind him he was the one who pulled me out of the void but you know how much he likes to focus on the negative." Now that my eyes weren't filled with tears, I could get a better look at the girls. They looked like they were pushed off a mountain and hadn't slept in a week. "Are you two really okay? I mean, you...you shot him." I couldn't bring myself to say kill.

"They're classifying it as justified execution," Kami said, lowering her gaze.

Felisa looked down at her lap. "They want us under surveillance. I'll be getting bands when we return to Serenhe."

Green light bands. I'd seen my fair share of them. They weren't as common as the red bands but it still acted as a beacon to the rest of the population that they were a potentially dangerous person. It was the government's way of saying "you can do what you want but we'll be waiting for you to slip up so we can arrest you".

"I'm sorry," I apologized.

"It had to happen," Felisa replied.

The conversation went a bit flat after that. We talked in jilted stints until my parents came back. Jay took a little longer as the dork had stopped at the gift shop to get me a small bouquet of flowers. At least it lifted everyone's mood. I introduced my parents to Felisa and they took an instant liking to her. My parents thanked Felisa and Kami for risking their lives for saving me. Their kindness made Felisa cry, no doubt because she wasn't used to kind parents. Either that or she needed a good cry and finally burst. My mom went into full mother hen mode when the tears started to fall, which I think made Felisa cry harder. Like Kami, my parents made her a small official part of the family which was one hundred percent okay by me.

I was discharged to Bailey after another week and I spent another three days there before they let me go home. And by home, I mean joint custody of being watched and pampered by Reagan, Jay and Derek. I barely saw the inside of my apartment before they took me across the street. It was for my own good, though. Being alone put me on edge. I often went to bed alone and woke with Jay or Regan with me. Derek pulled me out of the shower twice when I started freaking out and he sat with me until I calmed down, bundling me up in towels and blankets.

Like the first time, sleep was difficult. Instead of one, I now had two looming figures in my dreams. My dreams twisted and warped the events, often making me wake up desperately calling someone to make sure they were still alive. It made living miserable.

I take that back. The nerve therapy made life miserable. I went in daily to get my skin poked with dozens of needles so they could sent currents through them. Sometimes, a nerve would respond and twitch. Other times, there was nothing at all. The rest of the time, read as eighty percent of the time, I ended up crying or flailing as pain shot through my nerves. It was excruciating. After two weeks, I wanted to quit. I tried to persuade whoever was taking me to treatment to allow me to skip but they did the right thing and took me.