53

Reunited: Day Seventy-Five

The groups continued to travel and perform as scheduled. They did numerous interviews and photoshoots during the day and performed for sell out crowds every night. Melanie performed full out for each concert and contributed somewhat to interviews, but when not occupied with her Spice schedule, she would to try to seclude herself from the group, either going to her room to be alone or escaping into quiet areas where she would be left alone. Apart from when she was asked questions during interviews, she rarely said a word unless her friends really worked at getting her to speak. They were no closer to coming up with an answer as to why she'd suddenly become depressed and anxious and they were becoming increasingly worried about her.

Lucy was flown in to have a session with Melanie, but made no more strides than the group had. She'd prescribed anti-depressants, hoping that might bring Melanie around, but was unable to get to the bottom of what was causing Melanie's sudden depression.

Meal times had become an issue again. While no longer concerned that her food had been drugged, Melanie simply had a difficult time consuming much of anything. Her friends would force her to join them for meals and would make her sit long after the rest of them had finished eating, hoping she would finish the food they portioned out for her. Melanie would attempt to eat and slowly got some of it down, but she would end up gagging at the table or making herself sick afterwards.

Doctors couldn't find any physical reason that Melanie couldn't keep her food down and had concluded it was the anxiety Melanie had developed that was most likely causing the nausea. Without being able to determine the cause of the anxiety, they had hoped the anti-depressants would eventually kick in and help the issue and encouraged Melanie's friends to get her to eat small portions of food throughout the day to keep her from starving herself.

Following a full day of press and a concert that evening, Melanie had adjourned to her hotel room alone and sat anxiously on the side of her bed. She'd tried watching telly, but the noise and the lights bothered her and she had shut it off in hopes of making herself feel better. She was shaking uncontrollably and her chest was becoming increasingly tighter, making it harder and harder to breathe. Tears stung her eyes as they began to build up and sweat was beginning to form along her hairline.

As the room started to close in on her, she quickly pushed herself off the bed and raced to the door. She burst out of her room and into the hallway and knocked on the door across the hall from her room, desperate for anyone to help.

Brian answered the door and looked at her with concern, immediately realizing something was wrong. He pulled her into the room and over to the bed where AJ was sitting. He and Brian had been doing a phone interview with an American magazine, talking about the accident and everything that had happened from when they'd gotten lost to when they'd each been found. Seeing Melanie in distress, he apologized to the person on the phone, offering to call them back, and he disconnected the call.

"I can't breathe," Melanie whimpered between laboured breaths. She gripped Brian's hand tightly and struggled to pull in enough air to fill her lungs.

"Just relax," Brian said calmly as he sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled her next to him. "You're having a panic attack, honey. You're going to all right, you just need to try to calm down."

"Hey, we've done this before, remember?" AJ chimed in softly as he sat on the other side of her. "Breathe with me, okay?" Melanie's eyes were wide as she stared at AJ and tried to follow him through the breathing exercise. She continued to squeeze Brian's hand and focused on AJ, eventually calming herself enough to breathe normally once more.

AJ smiled and kissed Melanie's cheek, brushing away the tears that had spilled during her panic attack. She leaned back against Brian, tired from the ordeal, and she loosened the grip she had on his hand.

"Feeling better?" AJ asked. Melanie met his eye and shook her head, immediately bursting into tears. Brian quickly wrapped his arms around her and turned her so that she was crying into his chest. He looked at AJ worriedly, both of them concerned with how quickly Melanie was declining.

"You have to get this out," Brian stated softly, running his hand along Melanie's back. "Whatever it is, you've got to let us know. You're making yourself sick, honey." Melanie shook her head and gripped Brian tighter, her body beginning to tremble once again. Brian rocked with her, desperately trying to calm her down to keep her from panicking again.

"How long until it happens?" Melanie choked, between sobs. She continued holding Brian tightly, not wanted to let go. Brian frowned with confusion and looked at AJ, hoping he knew what she meant.

"Until what happens?" AJ asked sympathetically.

"Until I end up like Elliott?" Melanie whimpered, breaking into a fresh fit of sobs as she finally admitted what she had been burdened with for the past five days.

AJ looked at Brian with confusion and mouthed Elliott's name, wondering if Brian knew what Melanie was talking about. Brian thought back to the night at the benefit, trying to recall if they'd met someone named Elliott. Realization suddenly washed over his face and he quickly pulled back from Melanie.

"The little boy in the wheelchair?" he asked, receiving a tearful nod from Melanie. He quickly pulled her back into his arms and smiled sympathetically, realizing Melanie's issue would be an easy fix. "What makes you think you're going to end up like Elliott?"

"He hit his head in an accident too," Melanie cried. Her breathing was becoming laboured once more as she was hit with another wave of panic and both boys quickly stepped in to get her to calm down.

"You're not going to be like Elliott," Brian assured her. "Brain injuries don't work like that. You're not going to progressively get worse. This is as bad as it gets for you."

Melanie fought back her emotions and pulled back to look at Brian with confusion. "I'm not?" she squeaked. Brian smiled and shook his head.

"You're only going to get better," he replied. "You might not ever remember what you've forgotten, but you're not going to lose any more and you're not going to lose the ability to walk or speak."

Melanie dropped her gaze and ran through the information Brian had given her. The crying had stopped and her body was no longer trembling as all of her emotions seemed to settle.

"Elliott was like that immediately after his accident," Brian explained. "You absolutely could have ended up the same way, but it would have been instant, not over time. You're going to be just fine, honey."

"Promise?" Melanie whimpered.

"Without a shadow of a doubt," Brian replied. "You hit your head differently. You two have completely different injuries." Melanie nodded, still mentally sorting her thoughts. The two boys sat quietly, giving Melanie a chance to figure things out for herself. She excused herself to go to the washroom to clean herself up, leaving the two boys on their own.

"No wonder she was a mess," AJ whispered. "Holy shit!" He pulled a cigarette from his pocket and excused himself as he went out to the balcony.

Brian stood up and paced the floor as he ran through everything he'd said to Melanie to make sure he'd completely solved the problem. He sighed and sat back on his bed, leaning back against his pillows and letting himself relax. He looked back at the washroom door as Melanie stepped back into the room and looked at him tiredly.

"Come sit, sweetheart," he invited, patting the comforter and smiling. She thought for a moment before crawling onto the bed and cuddling in next to him, resting her head on his shoulder and wrapping her arm around his waist.

"That's three times now," said Brian sadly. "You keep thinking things are gonna happen and you bottle everything up. You thought we were going to beat you and poison your food, you thought we were going to take you to Otis to let him kill you, and now you thought you were going to end up with a mental handicap." Melanie looked up at Brian apologetically and sighed. "I'm not upset with you," Brian clarified. "I just want you to start talking to us when you're scared."

"I'm sorry," Melanie whispered.

"Don't be," said Brian. "You have nothing to be sorry for. Just promise me you'll come to us with stuff like that from now on, okay?" Melanie nodded and relaxed into Brian's side, letting her eyes slide closed as the exhaustion from the past few days became too much to fight against any longer. Brian smiled and draped his arm over her as AJ reentered the room.

"She do that on her own?" AJ asked with amazement, seeing Melanie cuddled on the bed with Brian. Brian nodded and pressed his finger to his lip to keep AJ from waking her. AJ sat on the free side of the bed and plugged his ear buds into his phone before dialling the number for the interviewer they'd been speaking with earlier. He handed one of the buds to Brian so they could both listen to the call and they resumed their interview, speaking as quietly as possible to keep from waking Melanie.

Halfway through the call, Melanie frowned and started breathing heavily. Brian cursed under his breath and handed AJ his end of the ear buds so he could tend to Melanie while AJ continued the call. Brian spoke softly, trying to get her to calm down as she began whimpering. He took her hand and slid it over her belly, cupping his own over top and pressing both of their hands against her stomach in an attempt to make her feel secure and prevent her from dreaming about the cutting ritual. He could feel her beginning to shake and a tear rolled down her cheek. She whimpered something unintelligible and choked back a sob as her body convulsed against his.

"Melanie, honey," Brian spoke worriedly. "Wake up. You're ok."

AJ quickly muted the phone to keep the interviewer from hearing Melanie and Brian and he watched with concern as Melanie's body convulsed once more.

"Is she having a seizure?" AJ asked fearfully.

"No, someone's hitting her," Brian replied. "It's just a night terror." He stroked Melanie's back and pressed his cheek against the side of her head as he tried to talk her down. Melanie's body slowly relaxed and she cried quietly into Brian's chest before sliding further into unconsciousness.

"One more thing we need to get her to talk about," AJ breathed sadly. Brian nodded and kissed the side of Melanie's head. Everyone had already tried to get Melanie to talk about her time with the cult, but it was something she refused to open up about. There was still a fear about talking about her experience that they couldn't break through and it was the one thing dragging the court hearing on. Without Melanie's full testimony, there wasn't enough to go off of to put the men away. There was no proof of Melanie being abused in any of the men's houses, nor was there any evidence that the two other women were murdered in those houses. Unless Melanie properly testified or the place in which the women were beaten and murdered was found, the five men would eventually be released from custody.