2. Rehabilitation

Aaron and June both continue to struggle through every day. There's no one they can talk to... except for each other. WARNING: Very dark topics

Aaron absolutely hated waking up. Not because he had difficulty motivating himself to leave his bed, like many; rather, he couldn’t stand the first few seconds of the brain waking up. The confusion, memory loss, poor perception, and disorientation had always plagued him heavily and summed up to a loss of control. Aaron was not a man who appreciated any loss of control, and since being possessed such things bothered him much more, though this was only the third night he had managed to accomplish something like sleeping after a week of insomnia. He had awoken in a panic 7 times during this particular night and endured the normal confusion and disorientation in addition to the cold sweats, racing heartbeat and hyperventilating that came with his nightmares. It still took him a few minutes every time to remember that he was once again in control of his own body and could move at will. To his disdain, the realization always came with a sense of being uncomfortably alone.

June, however, despised getting out of bed because she liked sleeping much more than mornings. She had embraced sleep while she was captive. It was her relief in the demon’s absence, and was always much welcomed by her then battered and exhausted body. Since the exorcism, she seemed to have developed a cycle of 2 days of insomnia, riddled with panic attacks and paranoia, until her mind would give into the exhaustion and shut down into sleep for more than half a day. This time she woke up nearly 18 hours after collapsing on the couch in the aftermath of a bout of terrible flashbacks. Oddly, her first thought was of Aaron. Not Gelert, the man from hell, and not the bizarrely mangled bodies he left behind, but Aaron the ex-tuba player; the Black & Mild smoker. She thought of the small differences she had already noticed. Aaron habitually ran his hand through his hair, which Gelert had rarely touched, and while his voice was still deep, he didn’t force the same booming, intimidating sound out of it. She wondered if she could begin to see him as a different person than the monster who wore his face.

Allowing his vision to clear, Aaron took a breath and sat up. His head ached, the skin of his whole body was sticky with sweat, and the blankets and sheets of his bed were thrown aside from his erratic movements over the night. He reached for his phone and sent June a text " “Are you alright?” He couldn’t quite get a read on how the day before had gone. He had no idea what had set off the bad memories for her, especially when things were going so well. Maybe it would be better for him to leave her alone, he considered as he brought himself to his feet and walked to the shower. When he was finished, he came back to a simple reply of “Yeah” to his previous text. He let out a long breath and ran his hand through his now wet hair. He texted her again. “Did I do something wrong?”

Nearly 40 minutes passed, which Aaron filled with coffee and the cooking channel. He’d learned within a few days not to watch or read the news. Gelert was responsible for about a third of the missing persons reports and about half of the unsolved murders in the current news. Aaron feared to think what would happen if his fingerprints or DNA were ever identified. He could remember, in gruesomely vivid detail, exactly what had happened to each of the faces in the newspaper pictures. 40 minutes after his last text, his phone rang. For more than a few seconds he was at a loss; the last thing he had expected from June right now was a phone call.

“Hello?”

Her voice was small. “Aaron?”

“Yeah? Are you okay?”

She didn’t respond. After a moment, he heard what sounded like a choked sob.

“June, where’s Cory?”

“He’s busy,” she replied weakly. “There’s nobody here. I’m all by myself. I think the walls are getting closer to me…”

He cursed under his breath. “Where are you?”

“Do you remember the one that was pregnant?”

His breath hitched in his throat. Of course he remembered. “Where are you, June?”

“Cory’s. S**t, it’s so quiet I swear my head is going to explode.”

“I’m coming.” He was out the door in seconds.

                When he arrived, she let him in then laid curled up under a blanket on the couch, taking up only one of its cushions. He moved cautiously and took the liberty of sitting on the other end of the couch with her.

“You remember her, right?” June mumbled with a dead expression. “Do you remember killing her?”

“Yes, I remember all of it,” Aaron answered uncomfortably. “What happened yesterday? It came out of nowhere.”

She sighed. “I don’t know. The stupidest things were setting me off around you. You would say a string of words he happened to have said and suddenly it was happening all over again.” Her eyes squeezed shut. “She was pregnant.”

He wished she would stop reminding him. “I know.”

“It didn’t make a lick of difference to him.”

“No, it didn’t.”

She sank further into the couch. “How do you deal with this?”

“I’m not sure I am,” he replied honestly. June remembered immediately after the exorcism, when Aaron was finally himself, how he had weakly, desperately repeated “I’m sorry” until he lost consciousness.

There was a heavy silence for a few minutes, until she nearly whispered, “I don’t know why I called you.”

“Do you want me to leave?”

She considered this for a moment. “…No.”

That had to be good, right? He didn’t want her to fear him anymore, but his stomach flipped when he imagined her perspective; sitting on a couch next to a man twice her size who had already beaten and violated her repeatedly, and who she’d watched literally tear people to shreds. It really didn’t look good from any angle, as he was realizing more and more. He looked at her, and noticed she had turned her head so that part of her collar folded out just enough to expose some of the deeper, longer cuts below her collarbone. He felt bile rise in his throat as the memories came flooding back.

“What, that’s it?” She had gone limp the second he had forced his way into what he wanted. “No fight left in you, after two weeks of this?”

She didn’t answer. She lay fully exposed, this time on the floor, and stared at the wall.

“No, that won’t do,” he growled. He stood and moved across the room to his jacket and fished inside an inner pocket. Aaron, aware but out of control, panicked when he felt his fingers run over the blade of a knife and wrap around the handle, but he was helpless. “Get up,” his own voice demanded as he pulled out the knife and moved back across the room. She still lay on the carpet in the same position. “I SAID GET UP!” He boomed, grabbing her by the hair and yanking her to her feet. With her hair in one fist and the knife held to her throat in the other, he guided her to the metal chair by the window. When he turned her around and threw her down, the jagged blade caught her eyes and she realized he intended to use it for more than a threat this time. She panicked and tried to jump out of the chair, but he forced her back down effortlessly with one hand and secured her wrists behind her. He looked at his naked canvas, colored with black and purple bruises in various places, and licked his lips. To Aaron’s invisible terror, he brought the blade down onto her breast and began long, intricate strokes deep into the tender flesh there. June cried out as the blade turned and his lashes wove around each other, carving a madman’s work of art.

She had noticed him eyeing those particular marks with a pained expression. “It helps not to look,” she told him, snapping him out of his deep thought.

“What?”

“Just what I said. It helps not to look at all of it. I took all the mirrors down.” She gestured to a few places around the room, and one visible from the kitchen, where nails or fixtures accompanied empty wall space that had clearly not been empty before.

“Oh.” His spirits sank a bit further at the pain he had caused her.

“Do you like musicals?” She asked suddenly.

The change in mood disoriented him for a moment. “Uh, yeah, in general. I’ve been on the filming for a couple.”

Her eyes lit up. “Come here. I’ve got a bunch I could show you. Independent ones, too.” She threw off the blanket that had been wrapped around her even when she had answered the door and made her way to a tall DVD rack. Aaron caught himself smiling slightly as he joined her. Maybe he really could ease some of the pain he had caused.

 

Author's Note

The formatting should work this time; I submitted the text differently so hopefully that fixes it.
Please leave your thoughts. I know it's a little dark and may be close to home for some.

Reviews

[Chris Folio]

Very nice progression into the story, I really love both Aaron and June and the relationship they have with each other. Of course the flashbacks are always excellent, great job there. I think there's some foreshadowing going on I'm quite excited about too! I can't wait to see what you come up with next, keep writing!

[DB Heinemann]

First of all, I live for the dark. Especially when mixed with unfounded humor. I find it the most cathartic. Secondly, I DO think the switches between Aaron and June are a little confusing. I thought they were sleeping in the same room together at first. So there!
I think just a simple, "so many miles away" "down the block" "meanwhile, in june's apartment" type thing would definitely help. Not sure if the constant switching between June and Aaron within the same paragraph helped either but it might have been ok. Maybe put the characters on different lines at most.
I didn't have much trouble with the sudden time jump from chapter one to chapter two but I'm more used to it, I guess. Couldn't hurt to add a small introduction as has been suggested by others, either way.
Other than that, though, oh so beautiful. I love how June deals with emotions the same way I do- watching mindless TV. I demand you write more. And message me when you do. I haven't been on this site for very long but this is easily the best piece I've seen- and I've seen some pretty good pieces.

[MedicalNightmare]

Oh wow thank you. Your words are very kind. Now I'm trying to find where they weren't on different lines though

[DB Heinemann]

Ok so... I just realized I read this section wrong " She thought of the small differences she had already noticed. Aaron habitually ran his hand through his hair, which Gelert had rarely touched, and while his voice was still deep, he didn’t force the same booming, intimidating sound out of it. She wondered if she could begin to see him as a different person than the monster who wore his face." Totally didn't realize that was June thinking about Aaron, not cutting to Aaron running his fingers through his hair. My bad.......
Damn, your writing's about flawless. So jealous. I gotta really up my nitpicking on the third chapter.

[MedicalNightmare]

Oh s**t lol. Thanks so much! Keep letting me know what I need to make clearer haha I need you

[DB Heinemann]

Ha! It's a pleasure, really. Let me know when you have more chapters. I'll read them all.

[Rebecca Church]

this was rather good still! My only thing is i think you need to make the transitions from the last chapter to this one a bit clearer, they were talking at the bar and that last line implied that there would be more speaking, but now we're suddenly at aaron's apartment, but if you're not going for a linear approach, this way of starting the chapter might be a good way, but I would still mention like "after a long night of talking, aaron and june went their seperate ways to their own apartment, aaron swore he felt cory's eyes stabbing into the back of his skull as he walked off. what he wouldn't give for a good night's sleep..' something like that maybe.