Orange

Sorry y'all. The moderators here claimed that I had no resemblance clause in my disclaimer. I don't understand how that happened considering the word "resemblance" was used IN THE CLAUSE. But, whatever. I got my story back by bending to the will of the moderators and using their wording. Either way, the story is back. This is a bit of a fill-in chapter. A bridge if you say.

I hear murmurs as the world begins to slowly filter back. There is so much pain in my body but my lower back and head are the worst. My world speeds up as the pounding in my head grows louder and louder, like a drum line is playing in my head. When someone touches my arm, my panic surfaces and I try to jerk my arm away from the hand, but all it does is twitch. I groan as I try again to move but my shoulder screams so I give that up. I lay still, trying to avoid further punishment and to take stock of my various pains but I can’t separate one pain from another. I hear a voice again.

“Sir?” Panic is obvious in the female’s voice. “Sir?” Hispanic accent. “The ambulance is on the way.” Thank God. “Just hold on.” I try to stay conscious but my mind is rapidly losing its hold on reality. I fade away from the murmurs of, “Sir?”

I come around again as I feel my body move without me telling it to, not like the command would have done anything. I finally open my eyes and I see two guys next to me who seem to be moving me outside. What the hell? How could this… oh yeah. Ambulance. We stop and then I’m lifted up, pushed into the ambulance. One man hops in the back and then the doors shut. The men are talking to me but my head hurts so bad that I can’t hear them over the pounding. I close my eyes trying to shut out the too bright lights and the pounding. God damn. What happened? I can hardly remember my name over this pain in my head. The people are talking to my again so I try to concentrate on their words.

“Sir, do you feel any pain?” If I could have gotten my face to work into a “yes you dumbass look,” I would have. My face doesn’t seem to want to work so I just nod even though that makes my head hurt more. “Are you allergic to any kinds of medicine?” I shake my head. I look over to see the man inject something into an IV that I then discover is in my arm. The pain begins to ebb away. They put a mask on my face which I try to bat away (I don’t want anything around my mouth right now although my confused conscious is still not sure why). “Sir, I really need to put this on you.” I drop my arm but more because it hurts so much to raise it up than giving up. The man slips the band around the back of my head. The rest of the ride consists of my trying not panic about something I can’t seem to remember and the men trying to keep my calm. The bed shifts as the ambulance comes to a stop. The men push the doors open and then the gurney is pulled out and pushed into the hospital. I hate hospitals and I have to work even harder to keep back the panic. I’m rolled into a room and I hear the men tell nurses that I appear to be a rape and assault victim. Memories begin to flood back into me and my panic surges anew. The panic causes me to hyperventilate.

“Calm down Sir. Nobody is going to hurt you here. Calm down please Sir.” I try to pull myself back to a calm place. I eventually calm most of the way down but I can never get quite free of the fear. “Sir, please answer honestly, were you raped?” Tears spring to my eyes as I nod my head. “Do you want us to do a rape kit?” I nod my head again. “Okay. We’re going to uncover you and check for any breaks.” They pull the sheet off to expose my nakedness. I close my eyes as they begin to check me over and I feel humiliated all over again.

I continue to stare at the wall as I hear people come in. “Hello. I am Detective Sally Christianson. Your name is Cilian correct?”

“Yes,” my voice cracks.

“Ok Cilian. I’ve been assigned to your case. I know it’s hard but can you tell me what happened?” I continue to stare at the wall as tears spring to my eyes again. I try to keep my breathing even. “If you don’t want to talk about it right now, I can come back.”

“No. Just give me a second.” I take a deep breath. I really don’t want to do this. “I was walking to the store…”