Chapter 6
awoke fifty four hours later though to her it seemed as if she'd taken a thirty minute nap. The nurse, a middle aged woman named Diane, fussed over Kate for about three hours straight from the moment she realized Kate was awake, making sure her pupils were dilating properly and checking her blood sugars every thirty she'd decided Kate probably didn't have brain damage she allowed two police officers, one of which carried a camera, and a special detective in to question her about the incident. These questions weren't simply 'what happened' and 'who did this to you'. She was being interrogated and photographed for evidence. Her jaw hurt her to speak."How did you get out of your padded cell?"*snap*"Did you recognize these men?""Did you question why you were being moved at night?"*snap* *snap*"How many men were there. *snap* How many employees?""When did the other patient, this Michael Meyers, attack you." *snap*"Why were you in his room?" *snap* snap* snap*"Why did these men choose you do you think?""Are you a friend of Michaels? Is that why he-""No!" replied Kate, "and that's the craziest part about it! He didn't do anything. I think. He just kept them from hurting me.""What do you mean you "think" he didn't do anything?" interjected a deep voice that came from the special investigator who up to this point had simply observed the interrogation."I - well - see the last thing I can remember is right after Ronnie hit me. Up until then Michael had just been standing behind him watching him - watching Ronnie..uh...do...that ... to me." Kate trailed off for a moment. She was tired of reliving her story over and over for these men. It seemed as if they would forget what she said and then ask the same questions. Her jaw was killing her. It was beyond uncomfortable having to strain her brain to give specific details of exactly what the men had done."Anyway," she continued, "right after he hit me everything went blurry and muffled and saw the little guy sail across the room and hit the wall. Then I heard someone yelling and then they screamed, and then they stopped. I remember someone huge standing over me, picked me up and ...." In her head she heard the thud of the man's heartbeat echo and die. That was all she could remember.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Her first meal had been a protein shake as well as her second and third because her jaw had been cracked where Ronnie punched her. It would take a month to heal properly if she stayed pumped full of special detective and the police man with the camera came back the next morning with a short man who carried a black satchel. They had to take photos of her entire body and the short man who turned out to be a phorensics investigator MD, had to take a few samples of her hair, skin and the outer and inner parts of her vagina. The whole process took about forty five minutes and then the men were gone without a word. Kate's head felt bruised and mushy over her left eye and she could feel four stitches sticking out of the skin that stretched over her brow. No matter how much she begged nurse Diane for a look in a mirror, the woman simply refused. Kate was getting tired of this and Diane's little comments and looks directed toward the damage to Kate's face weren't helping either. "You're so lucky, so so lucky." she would say, "Could've crushed your face, could've disfigured you." Kate wished nurse Diane would just not say anything at was on the third day after she awoke that Kate finally got her Diane delivered Kate a hot bowl of chicken broth and said, "If you need any help just push the buzzer. I trust you."Kate looked down at her broth. Yellow. It was the most exciting thing in the room simply because of it's color. It was thin broth. Watery. Kate watched her eyes blink in the reflection of the ! Reflection! That was it! Kate tilted her head around until she light bounced off the surface of the broth just right to cast her reflection. It was kind of blurry but it was unmistakably her own reflection. Around her left eye was nothing but one giant dark blotchy spot. Toward the end of her eyebrow she could make out four short vertical lines of the stared so long at her soup reflection that by the time she'd eaten any of it, it had become weeks later she was finally allowed back to her normal living routine with everyone else. She'd been transferred to the city hospital for catscans galore, vaginal exams, tests and surgery on her jaw which had to be wired shut for three only thing different about her day now was at lunch a man in white would bring her a thick protien shake and a straw and at night she had a few more pills than usual. A nice large pain pill to help her sleep and not try to grind her teeth in her sleep and two large grey and brown anti-biotics.
To swallow these pills Kate had to pushed them along the side of her gums all the way past her back tooth, then maneuver them forward with her tongue so as to properly swallow them with a drink. All of her pills were coated but by the time she was prepared to swallow them, the coating was mostly gone and the bitter taste of "pill" filled her mouth. Because of this, Kate had been allowed a plastic pitcher of over sweetened Kool-Aid every night to consume at her own leisure.
The entire process of swallowing her medication would easily last forty five minutes to an hour. This may have been why a man in white didn't stay to make sure she swallowed every pill every night. Or they may have simply figured that Kate was probably in so much pain from her surgery that there was no way she would want to skip out on pain faculty all seemed to know about the "incident" that had left one man (Ronnie) paralyzed from the waist down and the other in a hospital with thirty six broken bones. This was nice because the entire staff seemed to be extra gentle when handling her now. Many of the men in white seemed worried they would break her if they so much as stepped on her seemed to think Kate had died and come back to life. He screamed, pointed and hopped up and down when she walked into the lunch room for the first time. He ran up and tried to continue hopping as he hugged her which turned into a men in white pulled them apart and told them to straighten up their acts. Tommy just sat across from Kate and grinned. Kate, though with some difficulty, did the same. Sitting back in her seat she peered around the room. She had been particularly interested in finding out what happened to Michael Meyers. What had his punishment been? Had he been transferred?Her gaze rolled over to the figure sitting in the far corner of the room opposite her. There he was. Staring right at her from beneath a familiar red and black striped mask with a rip straight through the mouth. The one she'd stepped stared back for a moment, wondering. Michael looked at his plate but did not eat. Kate stood and abandoning her protein shake walked slowly toward the man opposite her to sit in front of him. Though his head was still cast downward his eyes beamed out from the eye slits of his mask, concentrating on her."Tank hoo." Kate said softly. She wasn't used to using her vocal chords much seeing as how her jaw was wired shut. "I...I..." but she simply couldn't find the words. Michael just continued to look at her. "Tank hoo." she finally repeated. Kate could have been sitting there for ten seconds or ten minutes, she didn't know. The next thing she registered was that a man in white had walked up."Alright Kate," he said taking her by the elbow which meant she was about to be escorted somewhere, "Some nice policemen want to ask you a question. Then you can come back and finish."The man in white led her down three long halls and up an elevator and down two more halls before finally coming to the designated room. Inside were four people. The special investigator, the phorensics guy, a police officer she'd never seen before and sitting behind a large oak desk, the warden.
***to be honest I believe I went on a bit too long about the pills***