The Girl and The War

Chapter Thirty One- Kayla

    The rest of the day  I struggled to recover from my "therapy session" as the General lightly called it. I couldn't move and was forced to just lay in my own drool. Dr. Swift and another nurse had to carry me to the bathroom and bathe me, because I couldn't do it by myself. The whole time Dr. Swift was whispering apologies to me:

"I'm so sorry Kayla, they made me, I said it was a terrible idea." Obviously I couldn't respond, but if I could, I would have had a few choice words for her. Dr. Swift brought me back to the room, but this time she did not put the straight jacket back on, leaving me only in a thin hospital gown. When I woke up the next morning, I could move again, but could not stand up. I crawled towards the wall and pulled myself up, but only collapsed in agony. I didn't try to stand again. Later that same day I was surprised with another visit, this time only by Andrew. As soon as I saw him I tried to back away, knowing that the General wasn't here to stop anything he wanted to do to me.

"What is it Kayla? Don't have much to say to me today?" He asked while taking a step towards me. My back hit the corner and I was stuck.

"Go away." I told him, covering my head with my arms, to block what I assumed would be some sort of outburst from him. Andrew grabbed my arm and dragged me to the middle of the room throwing me on my stomach. He put his foot on my upper back causing me to be stuck in place.

"Where did your friends take the Gilman's?" He asked.

"I don't know." I told him. That was the truth, I had no idea where they planned to go after they escaped. Andrew however was not satisfied with my answer. I heard him take off his leather belt and in one loud crackling motion he slammed the belt on the back of my exposed legs. I let out a cry.

"Where did they go Kayla?" He asked again.

"I swear to God I don't know" I sobbed. He hit me again with the belt. This time, across the lower end of my back. He asked again, and again and again. Each time I gave him the same answer and each time he hit me with the belt. After about two dozen times he took his foot off of my back. He grabbed my hair and whispered in my ear:

"You can play dumb all you want, but we will find them, and I will make sure that you will be present at their executions." He let go of my hair, and walked out, leaving me in a tearful and blistered mess. I laid in that spot for a few hours until I got another visit. This time it was the General.

"Kayla?" He asked, seeing the visible marks all over my legs. "What happened?" He had no idea that Andrew had came in here to torture me. I tried to respond but the electroshock therapy mixed with the fear and pain I was in, I was having trouble speaking. Everything I said came out as Gibberish. The more I tried speaking, the more upset I got that I couldn't communicate correctly. I ended up just bursting into tears while still laying on my stomach. "It's okay." The General said brushing my hair trying to comfort me. I heard him call for Dr. Swift who came rushing in. He asked her what happened but she had no clue. Eventually she had the General take me out of the room and take me to one of the few empty hospital beds where they could treat the wounds. Of course they made sure to handcuff one of my wrists to the bed so I could not leave.

  The next morning I woke up naked with only a think sheet covering me. The General was leaning against the wall while sitting on a stool by my bed, still asleep. It appeared he had stayed there the whole night. With my free hand I felt my back, which was covered in bandages. Pain poured through my body when I touched it. I let out a gasp of pain, loud enough to wake up the General. He shot up immediately looking at me.

"Kayla? How are you feeling honey?" He asked brushing my hair gently.

"It hurts." I managed to get out. "Andrew came in and kept hitting me cause I didn't know where the others  went." I rushed out.

"Yes, I know dear, he no longer has security clearance to be in here or any where near you." He told me. I nodded.

"Don't make me do the therapy again, please." I begged him.

"Kayla I think it will help you, after a few more sessions we can discuss this again." He said lifting his hand off of my head. I began crying, imagining having to go through the pain again. He tried to get me to stop, but couldn't. Eventually he had a nurse sedate me, bringing my pain to a dull numb as the world around me went black.

  The next day I woke up back in the padded room. The welts on my legs and back had already begun healing, and their pain subdued. The feeling of normalcy was shortly cut off when Dr. Swift and the General came with guards and brought me to electroshock therapy. That's how the next few weeks went. Therapy, pain, one day of rest, and therapy over again. After about a month, I was having trouble remembering who I was or why I was there in the first place. One day the General sat me down in a office. I was staring at the wall, trying to remember my last name when he started asking me questions:

"Kayla, do you know where you are?" He said.

"Where I am?" I repeated. I looked around. "I'm not really sure." I told him.

"Do you know why you're here?" Said the female doctor. Her name tag said Dr. Swift, but I didn't remember meeting her.

"Why I'm here?" I tried to think really hard for a moment. Why was I here again? I just couldn't remember. "I..I can't say." I told her. The two of them looked at each other and started whispering I stopped listening to what they were saying. Trying to concentrate on something like a conversation was too hard for me. Instead I looked at the painting of a dog on the wall. It was a cute little dog, but something about it made me sad, I wasn't sure why though. My thoughts were interrupted when the General started talking to me again.

"Kayla, you get to come back home now." He paused as if he was waiting for me to say something.

"Home?" I repeated. "Where exactly is that again?" I asked him. He glanced at the Doctor and whispered:

"I think we did too much." The doctor nodded back to him. He turned back towards me. "I'm sure you will remember when you see it honey." He proceeded to take my arm and escort me out of the office. As we walked I forgot who he was.

"Wait who are you?" I asked the man holding my arm.

"I'm your dad, sweetheart." The man told me.

"Dad? Okay." I agreed. My dad walked me into a suite that was quite large. It had lots of space and furniture.

"Let's get to your room, dear." My dad told me, he walked me to the left side of the suite where there was a sliding door. As he opened I was greeted with a large room, that had many dresses hanging in a wardrobe in the corner. On the ground was a bunch of dog toys I picked one up and squeezed it. It was a whale that made a high pitched sound.

"Do I have a dog?" I asked him.

"No dear, not anymore." He told me. I nodded, feeling slightly disappointed. My dad made me get into my pajamas and go to bed. I obeyed.