R&R

Chapter 3

Kate was awake now but her eyes remained closed. The whole bed felt like it was spinning downward. She was drugged. In the beginning when Kate first came to the ward she had give the men in white hell with outbursts and tantrums against their treatment. "Incidents" they called them. The men in white would sedate her then move her to her room or a padded cell. Some times she woke up with a small scratches on her body as if she'd had a fit in her sleep. As if. Sometimes she woke up sore and a bruise might appear on her thigh or shoulder and grow.

Kate knew she didn't attack herself in her sleep. She knew better, it was part of the reason she became silent in the first place. Awakening from a sedated slumber for Kate had become easier. The drugs blocked out painful thoughts of her past and why she was here. Instead of thinking of her cruel husband Jason and her two year old son Josh. She missed her son everyday of her life now because of Jason.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Krueger." the judge said, "The court does not believe you function in a public environment on a day to day basis without observation, let alone raise a child."

"What? What? How in the world?" Kate had begun, "The father of my child comes at me with a knife, cuts me andI'm the crazy one?"

"Mrs. Kruger," the judge said, "My ruling stands! You will either apply for a nurse to watch you daily or you will be admitted into a psychiatric facility. You choose."

"I can't afford a nurse! I don't need anyone to watch me!" Kate begged as the judge stood up and walked out clearly ignoring her. "This isn't right! This is all backward!"

"Well hey," said Jason with a smirk, "at least now you'll get that looong vacation you always wanted!"

"Fuck You!" spat Kate.

"Yeah it's just gonna be me and little Joshy!" he taunted.

"His name is Josh!" she retorted.

Jason took a step forward and lowered his voice to slowly say, "Not anymore."

"FUCK YOU!" Kate screamed lunging herself at him. He was a big guy and didn't even wince as Kate smacked into him and fell to the floor where two policemen jumped on top of her and forced her into handcuffs.

Looking back Kate realized she hadn't helped her situation at all that day. She was only twenty at the time, acting on her maternal instinct and a year later she was still paying the price for it. If only all that bullshit hadn't gone down, if only she'd just never even let Jason put his name on Josh's birth certificate…Everything would have been normal by now. She would have finally been old enough to drink if she felt like it (which wasn't often anyway) and get into open mic nights and read poetry or sing a song at a karaoke bar. She would be with her son.

These thoughts were the ones that the drugs pushed from Kate's thoughts. She liked it that way.

Kate opened her eyes. It was night time, she could tell by the red glow from the hallway lamps shining through her cell window. Only it wasn't her cell she was in. The walls of this room were padded and instead of laying on a bed she found herself on the cell's padded floor with her arms bound in a straight jacket.

"Well," Kate stated aloud, "I guess I'd better get comfy then."

She wasn't going anywhere for a few days. This was punishment.

Over the next two days Kate rolled around on the floor sleeping (the jacket made this difficult) in different positions and doing somersaults trying to amuse herself. More than once she tried to blow a hole in the wall with her mind as if she had magic powers just for amusement purposes.

On the third night Kate awoke to the sound of the locks on the heavy cell door rattling and clicking open. She sat up straight to see who it was. In the doorway stood a man's large figure and a smaller man behind him. She couldn't make out their faces through the red gloom but could tell they were on the night watch because of the blue uniforms they wore.

"Whooowee," said the smaller man in blue, "she's a pretty little thing isn't she!?"

"She's gotta hell of an attitude though." said the larger man stepping into the room and walking over to Kate where he pulled her roughly to her feet. "Let's go little miss."

Patients and inmates weren't normally moved at night time but Kate wasn't about to object to anything that would put her in the same room as her crayons and bed. The man steered her out of the room and down the hallway.

"Are you gonna take this off of me?" she asked referring to the straight jacket she was still wearing.

"No." replied the large man in blue simply. The smaller man laughed.

"Why?" Kate asked looking up at the larger man. "I don't -"

She literally stopped walking. The man she looked up at was the same man in white she'd stabbed in the back with her ball point pen.

"Keep moving!" shot the large man. He grinned at the look on Kate's face. "I don't feel much like waiting around tonight."

"What are you-" Kate stopped her self and rephrased her question, "Where are you taking me?"

The smaller man in blue giggled. "Treatment!"

"Don't worry about it." said the large man tugging her along though the main hallway towards her cell. Kate stumbled. "You're really testing me aren't you, ya little bitch." he said now jerking her down the hallway so she almost fell with every step she took.

"Come on girl, pick up your feet." hurried the smaller man in blue. "I ain't got all night for this shit now!" He popped her buttocks with his hand. Kate stumbled and fell. Both men hoisted her to her feet and continued down the hallway. They had almost reached her room.

"Come on gorgeous," the small man said popping her butt again. Kate stumbled again and fell forward smacking her face on the floor.

"Fuck it! Come here!" said the large man in blue who reached down and instead of pulling her to her feet, simply rolled Kate over onto her back as he knelt in front of her.

"What the fuck are yo-" Kate started but was silenced by a large hand clamping over her mouth. The large man in front of her leaned over her to look her in the eye.

"You like to stick things in people, huh?" said the man above her. "Like to make them bleed, make them hurt, huh?" Kate shook her head hard under the weight of the man's hand pressing into her face. "Well let's see how you like it then little miss bitch! I'll stick something in you and it'll be bigger than a pen!"

By this time the smaller man in blue was having a fit of excitement or something. "Let her know who runs things around here, Ronnie! Yeah!"

"Don't move," said Ronnie. "Not unless you want to get hurt."

Kate didn't move as she imagined the force this man could pack behind a punch or even an open handed slap. He pulled his hand away from Kate's mouth and sat back on his heals reaching for the drawstring on his blue uniform, not taking his eyes off Kate the whole time.

What could she do? There was nothing stopping this man. She was on her back in a straight jacket.

The split second the man looked down at his drawstring, Kate lifted her leg and kicked him as hard as she could in the chest. To this large man in blue the effect of her kick was small, all this caused him to do was lose his balance and fallback on his butt. Kate took the chance to sit up straight as the smaller man in blue laughed.

"She got you!" the small man cackled. "Whoowee she got you good!"

"Shut up!" retorted Ronnie climbing to his feet. "Look, you'd better catch her."

Kate in the meantime had managed to stand up and took off running to the end of the hall, a dead end yes but a distance from the men in blue who were now slowly strolling toward her.

"Catch her?" said the small man in blue, "Where's she gonna go? What, is Mikey gonna let her in?"

"No," said Ronnie as he and the other man reached the end of the hallway to stand in front of Kate who was now sitting in a ball in the corner. "We are."

"We are?" The small man in blue looked at Ronnie then back at Kate and grinned. "Yeah, let's watch what he does with her. Whooee, I bet he won't even know how! Ha ha ha!"

"No!" begged Kate as the men lifted her to her feet, "No please!"

"Hey Mikey," called the small man as he banged on the cell door, "rise and shine boy, we brought you something to play with!"

"No! Stop! Go back to sleep Mikey!" Kate cried out. "Please no! This isn't funny! PLEASE! NO! HE'LL KILL ME!!"

"Maybe so," growled Ronnie opening the heavy cell door, "he might just play with you, he might fuck you."

"He might play with you while he fucks you!" said the small man in blue with a sick grin playing on his lips.

"Either way," Ronnie whispered in her ear, "it'll be fun to watch." With that said he shoved Kate forward into the cell.