"I don't know." I squinted, trying to remember what I was doing before everything went black. "I was handing out candy. On Halloween." I looked down at myself. I was still in my costume.
The doctor nodded. I didn't like this one. I'd seen a handful since I'd been sent away. Doctors and psychiatrists and other professionals of the mind. They all asked the same questions. Why was I constantly blacking out? I'd like to know that answer myself.
"Yes, you were. And then your aunt came home and found you on the couch, candy everywhere, staring straight ahead. Now, we've discovered you don't like storms, but the weatheris warm and clear tonight. Your spell must be from something else."
My aunt stood behind the doctor, her arms crossed and a scowl pasted onto her face. She reminded me of Carrie White's mom in Stephen King’sCarrie. I remembered when I borrowed the book from the library and accidentally left it on the kitchen counter, she lost her shit. I knew I should have apologized, but I couldn't stop laughing at how similar she was acting to the character in the book. And here she was now, at it again.
"I think it's all got to do with—" she started but the doctor cut her off.
"I know. She's been with you for over a year now, correct?"
She nodded.
"And still no change. I think the trauma of that event has caused her mind to create a shield. Any time she sees something that may trigger that memory, she shuts down."
"Well, it's a little hard to figure out what it is when she's still protecting the boy," my aunt snapped.
The boy? Who?Priest, my brother? We weren't close anymore. Hell, since I've been here, he hadn't once called or wrote to me. Why would I be protecting him? What had he done?
"I don't know what you're talking about," I told them. Both adults shared a look.
"We can take her to the facility if you'd like," the doctor offered. "There are some more tests we can run, but I'm almost sure this is what is happening, and we won't be able to treat it until she talks."
"I always said to my sister those two were too close. Stepsiblings should be just that. Step. Not raised together like blood. That's where they went wrong and look now!" She threw her hands up. "Both of them are heading to loony bins!"
"Priest is in a loony bin?" I stood. "Why?"
My aunt crossed herself and turned away. She waved to the doctor beside me. "Do what you need to do. I can't handle her. You have my full permission to do whatever you think will fix her."
Fix me?
"Well, ma'am, making her forget isn't always the best solution. Therapy can help her work through?—"
"No! I am not spending thousands of dollars and hours of my time taking her to and from just to talk to someone about her sins. I am putting her mind in you and the Lord's care."
With a sigh, the doctor pulled out his cell phone, and moments later, two large men came into the house and beelined for me. My head whipped back and forth and I tried to run but they caught me before I could take a single step.
"Nice try," one of them growled. "Let's go."
I was taken from the house and put into an ambulance by force, with me kicking and screaming the entire way. My aunt rode in the front with the doctor, who had her signing form after form on the way in..
Signing my life away.
How could this happen? I was a good kid! I hardly ever talked back, I did all the chores she asked of me, and I was on the honor roll. I'd been brought here for... why had I been brought here? I tried to remember, but I couldn't. One day I was at home, with Mom and Dad and Priest. We were a happy family, going on family vacations and having large holidays. Everything was perfect. Then, it wasn't. I don't know what happened, but I'd been taken from home and put here as punishment for whatever it was. According to my aunt, it had to do with Priest.
When we got to the building that didn't really look like a hospital, they forced an IV into my hand and, whatever they pumped me with, caused me to fall asleep in the wheelchair I'd been strapped to. I woke up in a hospital bed, with armrestraints. Green light flickered above me, and the air reeked of... staleness. As if I were the first visitor in decades.
"Hello!" My voice echoed through the room. "What's going on?"
Someone's shoes clicked sharply down the hallway and a nurse came into the room. "Yes?"
"Why am I tied up?" I pulled on my arms.
"The doctor has to talk to you. I'll tell him you're awake." She left before I could protest, returning later with the doctor from before. He untied me, and I sat up.
"I don't think you're a threat, Delaney. You're just scared." His voice was calming. I was scared. Scared, confused, and hurt. While some of my memories were fuzzy, the ones of my aunt taking me here were not.
"Where's my aunt?"
