As Brandy slowly woke up, she immediately noticed the sterile scent of a hospital, and the quiet bustle of activity going on outside of the room she was in. Opening her eyes, she looked around at her surroundings with a confused expression. What was she doing in a hospital? When she went to adjust herself, she winced at the pain which jolted through her shoulder, and when she pulled away her gown to look at it, she saw it was bandaged, and frowned. What the hell happened to her?

Just then, one of the nurses walked into the room, and a look of surprise crossed her face when she looked at Brandy. "Well hello there. It's nice to see you awake," she greeted her as she stepped closer to the bed. "My name is Linda, and I am the nurse taking care of you right now. How are you feeling?"

"I'm...okay, for right now," Brandy replied, once more trying to readjust. "I'm just uncomfortable."

"How so?"

"It's mostly my shoulder. It's not unbearable pain, but it's not a nice feeling either."

"On a scale of one to ten, where would you rate your pain right now?"

"Probably a five or six."

Nodding, the nurse looked over Brandy's file, and then at her watch. "It's still a little early, but I think we can go ahead and give you some pain medicine to help with that. Does that sound okay?"

"That sounds great, thank you so much."

Linda smiled down at her. "Is there anything else I can get for you?"

"Some water would be nice."

"Of course, I'll be right back," Linda replied, and walked out of the room. As Brandy continued to look around the room, she noticed the date on the white board on the wall opposite of her bed. Was that accurate? Had it really been six months since Tom got his disgusting hands on her? Or...was this all some sick trick he had planned?

As Linda walked back into the room, Brandy asked, "Is that date accurate?"

Linda looked over at the white board. "It sure is." Brandy simply nodded at this, and watched as she sat down the cup of water she brought in before injecting the pain medicine into Brandy's IV. "You might feel a little groggy from this medicine, just as a forewarning, but it should start providing you relief pretty quickly. Also, in the next hour or so, we will begin taking orders for lunch. When it gets closer to then, I'll bring you a menu so you can look over the options."

"Thank you so much."

"You are very welcome, my dear. Is there anything else I can do for you?" Brandy shook her head. "I will see you in a little bit, then," Linda said with a smile, and made her way back out of the room.

Reaching over, Brandy grabbed the cup of water, and took a long drink before settling back into the bed. Closing her eyes, she tried hard to remember what had happened to get her here, when a quiet knock on the door brought her out of her thoughts. "Come in," she called out, and was taken by surprise when a police officer walked into the room.

"Morning, Miss Daniels, I'm Officer Myers. How are you feeling?"

"I'm doing okay, sir, thank you. How may I help you?"

"I just have some questions to ask you, if that is alright."

"Sure, what is it in regards to?"

A look of confusion crossed his face. "I'm sorry...do you remember anything from last night?"

"Last night?" she echoed, and he nodded. "I...no, I guess I don't."

"Do you know a Tom Wilks?"

Brandy's heartbeat immediately quickened at the mention of his name. "I...I do, sir."

"Do you remember being at his home?"

"Yes, sir."

"What is the last thing you do remember, ma'am?"

"I was just thinking about that, honestly," she replied, and continued to try and recall the events from the past twenty four hours. "I...I remember him bringing me food."

"Do you know what time that would have been?"

"It...I think it might have been around the afternoon? He fed me twice a day, but I never saw a clock so I don't know what time it would have been. I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize, ma'am."

"What...what happened? He...he isn't here, is he?" Brandy asked, the panic once more building in her chest.

"Oh no, no ma'am he isn't. He...Tom was shot last night, by myself and my partner. He was making threats to shoot you, and actually ended up doing so in the midst of everything which had conspired. Do you remember any of this at all?"

Again, Brandy thought hard. "I...he had injected me with something, so everything about last night is so fuzzy, but I think I remember hearing him yell, and him pulling on my hair."

"That was right before the shooting happened."

Brandy nodded. "So...he's gone? He's really gone?"

Officer Myers nodded. "Yes ma'am, he's gone."

Overwhelmed with relief, Brandy began to tear up. "I'm so sorry, it's just..." she started to say, but found herself unable to say anymore as she fought back tears.

He patted her good shoulder. "It's okay, it's all over. We are aware of what was going on. You're safe now, he can't hurt you again." It was at this she fully broke down, and hid her face in her hands as she silently cried. Officer Myers hesitated, before stepping closer and gently pulling her into his arms, shushing her and patting her back in an attempt to comfort her.

Once she was finally able to calm down, she pulled back and wiped her eyes. "I'm so sorry," she said again, embarrassed by her actions.

He gave her a soft smile. "You really don't need to apologize, you've been through a lot of trauma. I would probably do the same thing if I had been in your shoes." She could not help but to give a small laugh at this. "Is it okay if I ask you a few questions?"

"Sure," she replied, and he took out a tape recorder before grabbing a pen and notepad.

"How long had you been there with Mr. Wilks?"

"According to today's date, it was around six months."

"And how did you end up with Mr. Wilks?"

"Someone took me there. I was home alone one night, when someone knocked me out, and when I woke back up I was at his home."

"Did you ever see this person?"

"No, sir."

Officer Myers wrote something down. "Do you know why Mr. Wilks chose to target you?"

Brandy hesitated, before replying, "We had been in a relationship for a number of years when I was younger. It was...about three years ago, now, that I finally got out of the relationship with him. I guess he wasn't over it, he had made the comment multiple times he would rather see me dead than with someone else."

Nodding, Officer Myers once more wrote something down. "During your time with Mr. Wilks, did you ever see anyone else?"

"What do you mean?"

"Was anyone else involved with the abuse Mr. Wilks put you through?"

Taken by surprise by this question, Brandy thought for a moment. "I...can't recall, honestly. He was constantly forcing drugs on me, so a lot of the time during the actual abuse, I don't remember." Looking over at him, she asked, "How did you guys even find me? How did you find out about what was going on?"

"We were given an anonymous tip of abuse being recorded and posted online by Mr. Wilks in his home. We had managed to gather enough evidence to obtain a search warrant, which is when we discovered you in his basement."

Brandy was shocked by this. "He...taped it? He put that disgusting shit out there on the Internet?"

"I'm sorry, Miss Williams, but I'm afraid he did. We are going to work to have it all removed. The reason I asked if there was anyone involved, is because upon further inspection it appears someone else had assisted him in at the very least the recording of these...sessions."

Brandy shook her head at this. "He had a lot of...I guess you would call them associates, so I can't say I'm totally surprised." She remained silent for a moment, before adding, "I just want to be done with all of this. I am so tired of him destroying my life. Whatever you need to do, just do it, but I can't stay involved with this. I can never move on, and fully live my life if I am still being involved with all of his...bullshit."

"I understand, ma'am. We are going to try and involve you as little as possible, which is why I'm here right now, asking you these questions. The more information you can give us, the more likely of a chance we have to find whoever else may have been involved, and the more likely we are to help you put an end to all of this once and for all."

Needing to get him completely out of her life, Brandy replied, "Tell me what you need to know. I'll tell you everything I can, if it means finally putting a stop to this."