Chapter 4

Chapter 4 ~

“I'm sorry but we already scheduled the appointment” Terri said. Are you kidding me?

“But I already made plans with Cael” I whined, feeling like Barbie (Tiffany). Terri stopped what she was doing and turned around.

“Well perhaps you can invite him” she replied and I sighed getting out my new cell phone. I knew this day was going to be bad. It was going to backfire in her face and she wanted Cael as a witness. Just great. He answered on the third ring.

“Hey Cael… yeah something came up” I started.

“You can’t come… I knew it” he interrupted and I could hear the frustration and disappointment in his voice. Oh would he just shut up!

“I was actually going to ask if you could come along” I snapped angrily. There was a pause and I move the phone back to make sure we were still connected.

“Oh… what is it?” he asked without even saying he was sorry. I'm going to slap him.

“A psychiatric appointment to get my memory right. I'm supposed to have one every Saturday because if I don't have one the law will take me away and Terri actually likes me… go figure” I explain. I groan internally at this. I just had a feeling that this was going to be a catastrophe. The bad thing is she wasn't even trying to get out of this. She actually thought this was good too.

“Oh that’s cool… Ill come” he says. Are you kidding me? Great. Who else wants to watch this disaster awaiting me?

“Time to go!” Terri yells.

“We have to go. We are running late as it is.” I hate being rushed.

“Alright, bye” he says.

“Bye” and I hang up, right after I do, I text him the address.

We get in the car quickly and rush to the place as fast as we can. Twenty minutes later, we arrive at a grey building that looks like an old hospital. We enter the building to find nothing but bright paper white walls. My eyes hurt just looking at them. A man with a mustache that looked like something had died came out.

“I'm Doctor Beau” he says. He's balding, short and somewhat fat. He shakes all of our hands as we all say our names. He has small fat hands and when he shakes our hands, I thought everyone but Taylor’s and Fred’s hands were being swallowed by his hands. They had big hands and Doctor Beau’s hands didn't cover their hands like it did everyone else’s. “Okay come on in” he says and leads us inside to a room with a bed. Next to the bed is a bunch of wires and a big machine. “Okay you are going to lie down on the bed and” Cael opens the door and smiles at me. “I am going to put some of these wires on your head to record your brain waves” he tells finishing what he was saying. I lay down on the bed and he sticks the wires to my head. “Okay just relax and close your eyes” he says and I do what he says.

At first nothing happened but then a flood of images came at once and I feel a horrible pain. I'm not sure if I screamed out loud but I certainly screamed in my head.

…

 

…

I look around and realize I’m six again; it’s the dead of winter, and the ground is nothing but a thick layer of snow. My feet have sunk in the snow as I stand there. “If you don't do what I say young lady you will turn out just like you're mother. She was no good, and you know what happened to her” he sneers with cold eyes.

“Daddy” I whine and he slaps me. Blood rushes down my lip and I begin to scream. His jaw tightens and I see a tick in his chin.

“I'm sorry honey” he says as he leans towards me. I back away out of his grasp as fast as I could. He whistles and several men appear at his side. “Get the little brat now. We need her. She is a Daiija and the last of her kind. Her mother is gone and this leaves her. You lose her, you die or you better find another Daiija” he yells and they come running after me. I run as fast as I can to no place in particular, just away from them.

When I'm far enough away, I trip and fall into a ditch. The ground everywhere is covered in snow and the ditch feels so cold. I stay silent and curl up to avoid being noticed. A squirrel came up and I motion for it to go. I look around as I'm afraid the men will hear either me or the squirrel.

“Stupid girl” he says and morphs into a human. “Apparently you haven’t learned the difference between a shape shifter and the real thing” he says and pulls me by my hair up. He drags me, still with a death grip on my hair, back to my father who is patiently waiting with a hand behind his back.  I whimper at the sight, and everything in me feels like it weighs thousands of pounds. His minion throws me to the ground and my father moves his hand from behind his back. It’s an ankle chain and the end is wrapped around the tree. He reaches for my ankle and puts the chain around my ankle and locks it.

“Now we shall go back to the lesson” he says.

…

 

… 

I blink and I’m back in the same white room. “Any success” the doctor asks and I replay the memory.

“My mother is dead” I say but I decide not to say the rest. My father had her killed. I say nothing as the truth of this sinks in. Who was I?

“Okay looks like we are making progress. Now relax again and close your eyes” he says and again I do what he says.

…

 

… 

I look around again; I’m fifteen and, again, its winter. The trees are bare and the ground is white, covered in snow. “Split up and find him” I scream as loud as I can.

My father’s men split up and go through the dead forest. My father walks up and stands beside me watching as the men disappear into the trees. It is nothing but silence until a man screams shrilly.

“I think they found them father” I say excitedly. He nods briefly with no expression on his face as he waits for the results. Soon the men emerge with a man being dragged and his face bloodied.

“When he saw us he attempted to put a curse on us. So Jonathon ripped out his tongue and the man screamed” Carmichael tells. I nod at them, not needing any words. They drag the man to a stump and put his head on it.

My father pulls out his sword and hands it to me. It has engravings of different curses and languages all over it. “Finish him off” he says and the man we hunted for years, looks up. He has long scraggly hair, a goatee, that almost a beard. His eyes are sunken and he has baggy eyes. His eyes are bloodshot, probably from crying. His nose is broken, a variety of colors and, looks like hell. There's more damage to it then just a broken nose but Id rather not know. Not to mention, I don't frankly care. His lips are thin and cut up. They're purple, and have dried blood on them. There is fresh blood slowly crawling down the lips from both a cut and the broken nose. He has a long cut down his face. His clothes are torn and raggedy. He's barefoot and there's plenty of damage from running barefoot all over his feet. He's thin, extremely underweight, and tall.

“Please… I have a family. I beg of you” he whimpers and my eyes watered. “You have a mother don't you? Had? You are doing the same thing to my family that someone did to yours” he says in a raspy voice. His words stab at me and I instantly feel lightheaded and nauseous. My hand shakes and I hand the sword back to my father.

“I can’t” I whisper looking down to the ground. My father takes the sword from me and walks over to the man. With a simple move, he cuts the mans head off. “Father I'm sorry” I beg as he walks towards me.

He rips open my shirt and pulls out a knife while putting away his sword. He pushes me to the ground. He carves into my stomach with his knife and I scream. He gets on top of me, sitting on my waist, and continues slashing. I scream even more and cry due to the pain. I avoid his face only to find the many faces of his men watching him. I sob into the cold hard snow. He gets up done and leaves me in the snow.

“I hope you learned the lesson” he snaps and I say nothing. Which is a big mistake; he turns around and comes back. “I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you” and I gasp trying to breathe.

“Yes father, I have learned my lesson” I am scrambling to get the words out to please him. He nods and pulls the knife out. I try to breathe but it pulls in too much pain.

“You can’t replace me with a conscience. Remember if I can replace you… I don't need you” he says wiping the knife in the snow. “Learn that now or you never will” he says and walks off. One of the nurses comes over and bends over my stomach inspecting the damage

“If you only do what he says, miss, you would be okay” she whispers but my only response is more and more tears. “You're only bringing this on yourself. He is the over ruler of”

…

 

… 

I open my eyes and I'm back to where I was. The memory has faded but the tears haven’t. “What did you remember now?” he asks and I can’t stop sobbing.

“Get out everyone get out” Cael yells and everyone does what he says. He leaves afterwards and I wait until the door shuts. Then I lift my shirt and see the horrible scars of that day. I let my fingers follow the scars and I find that they never ever end.

 

I'm not sure how much time passed as I stared at my scars but when I leave the room, everyone looks up at me. I feel like a ghost, weightless, emotionless, almost zombie like.

“Hey Fae” Terri says and looks at me with worry. I just stare at her blankly. “The doctor says he's going to talk to a judge so that you won’t have to go to another appointment if you don't want to. I say nothing, as I didn't even want to go in the first place. Everyone knew it would end badly anyways. They knew I was the tortured freak they just wanted to add to it. “I'm so sorry.” I still say nothing. Sorry means nothing. You put me on display, to show the world who I really was. She realizes that nothing she is saying is doing any good so drops it. “You still want to go with Cael?” You sure you don't want to make me suffer again?

“Come on Fae” he says and slowly puts his arm on my shoulders. I don't stop him for once.

“Alright, be good guys” Terri says and I could feel the guilt in her voice. If I hated anyone right now, it was Cael, but definitely Terri.

He pulls me to the truck and then when we reach it, he helps me get inside. He starts the truck and remains silent. He drives to the nearest ice cream store and makes me get out. We walk in and I hear the chimes above the door ring to let the employees know that we are here.

“Pick a flavor” he says and I look around.

“Lemon cheesecake sherbet.”

“What will it be guys?” the cashier glares at me when she sees I'm with him.

“Oh get a life. Stop glaring at her. Its pathetic, she's done nothing to you. Let me guess, you’re single. This might be why. And Ill take two large bowls, one of the lemon cheesecake sherbet, and one of the strawberry cheesecake sherbet” and he hands her the card. Her mouth hangs open a little but she goes back to her work.

“Strawberry?” I raise an eyebrow at him.

“Don't judge me” he smiles at me. She hands him the two bowls and immediately disappears into the back room. I start to sit down but he shakes his head. He walks outside and we go back to his truck. He instantly starts the car and drives for ten minutes and heads to an empty abandoned parking lot.

“Thank you; that was nice of you” I say and shove a spoon into my mouth.

“For what the ice cream?” he asks and takes a bite smiling as he savors it.

“No. I mean well yes. I just mean at the ice cream shop.” I take another bite still looking down.

“Oh.” He stays quiet for a minute. “I just hate how girls look at you when you’re with me.” I say nothing as I process these words. “All girls love ice cream, I figured you needed ice cream” he smiles as he says this. Like my breakdown wasn't anything.

“Today, you don't… look at me any differently?” I ask and he furrows his eyebrows at me.

“No why would I? It just shows you’re human. For a second I thought angry was your only emotion. Like a robot set on destruct mode.” He laughs a little and I smile.

“I'm not that bad” I snap.

“You were at first” he says and grabs a bite of my ice cream.

“That's because you acted like a d****e.” I try to steal a bite of his but he blocks the bowl with his arm.

“Now really, how else was I going to get your attention?” Again he flashes his infamous smile. I bite my lip and don't say anything. He takes another spoonful of his ice cream and right as he's about to put it in his mouth he moves his arm fast and smashes the ice cream against my face. I grab a napkin and wipe the ice cream on it and attempt to smash the napkin on his face. He manages to block his face and we both start laughing as we act childishly.

“Alright, Monkey, put your seat belt on, I've got big plans for today” he smiles and start his truck.

“One thing first” I say.

“What's that Monkey?” he asks and turns his head to look at me. I smash the bowl with my leftover ice cream on his face.

“Payback sucks doesn't it?”