AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How did you know I hadn’t eaten?” she smirked.
“Just a hunch. What’s going on?”
“When we bring her out of the meds, she’s screaming as if in pain or experiencing torture. Sounds are the most suggestive for her, which tells me that they used speakers, recorded sounds, and possibly other things to make her so afraid. She kept calling the names Abigail and Troy. Miller said that they were both on the list of missing kids.”
“There are no signs of physical abuse?” asked Ian. “No rape, sodomy, nothing?”
“Nothing,” said Ashley. “When she’s screaming, she’s begging for them to get the ‘rats’ off of her. She still claims that they bit her feet, and when she looks at her feet, she sees bite marks. I have to tell you guys, I’m not sure this girl is ever going to fully recover.”
“What the fuck is happening here? I keep asking that, more for myself than anyone else, but it’s fucking mind-blowing,” said Ian.
“I’d like your permission to take Cruz, Doc, or Wilson and visit the psychiatry departments of the major universities in the area.”
“You think they’re doing this?” frowned Gaspar.
“I don’t know. I’d like to think they wouldn’t, but they may know someone who would consider doing something like this. We’ve got to find something to follow here, or we’re going to continue to get kids that are totally screwed up and have no way back from this.”
“Are you thinking all universities, Ashley?” asked Nine.
“I’d like to start further out. Maybe go up to Baton Rouge and visit LSU and Southern in one day. If I can get the appointments on the same day. Then, maybe see someone at Louisiana Lafayette, then come back this way and see UNO, Tulane, LSU Health at NO, Loyola, Xavier, maybe even as far as McNeese.”
“Honey, that’s a lot. Are you sure you want to do this?” asked Ghost.
“Bree is going to help, and I think with Doc, Cruz, or Wilson, we’ll be safe. They’re also much better at detecting lies. I’m just not sure what else to do right now.”
“Alright,” nodded Ghost. “I think we all agree we have to find something. What about the girl? Is she staying here?”
“Her parents are pleased with our care so far. I think they’re just so relieved to have her back, they’d accept just about any care. We’re trying some different therapies. We sedate her, then slowly bring her out, letting her see that she’s safe, in a brightly lit room, and there is no one hurting her.”
“How is that going?” asked Ian.
“Slow. Very, very slow. Sometimes, she seems like she’s getting there, but most of the time, she starts screaming again, swiping at her feet…” Ashley shook her head, wiping her eyes.
“Honey, you don’t have to do this. We can call someone else in,” said Ian.
“No. No, it’s just that someone implanted this message in that girl’s head. Someone made her believe that rats were eating at her feet. She believes it. There is no history of psychotic episodes, no night terrors, nothing. This was a perfectly healthy, perfectly normal girl before all of this. Some asshole has destroyed her, maybe for good.”
“Not if we can help it,” said Gaspar, giving her a squeeze. She nodded, wiping her eyes again as she took another bite of the sandwich.
“If this is someone within my own profession, I’m ashamed,” said Ashley. “Therapists, counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists have always been sort of the butt of jokes in the medical community. People are often afraid to tell friends and family that they’re seeing a therapist, worried about how they’ll take it.
“I keep thinking that if this is a psychiatrist or psychiatric researcher, he’s going to set back our profession decades.”
“What would he get out of this, Ash? He wouldn’t be able to publish his papers. He wouldn’t be able to publish something that said he’d tortured teenagers and set them free. So, what does he get out of it?” asked Nine.
“That’s a great question. He might be studying a new drug that induces psychotic episodes, although we’ve found nothing in her system. Maybe he’s doing something for the government, trying to pinpoint the stage at which someone breaks with these kinds of suggestive torture.
“I know you’re right about one thing. He’d never be able to publish a paper with the details of this in it. Sensory torture isn’t new. People have been using it for thousands of years. Bagpipes were used on the battlefield to mimic the sounds of men crying out in pain. Many cases deny the victim any sensory ability. They cut off the ability to smell anything or see daylight. Or we know that some are placed in black rooms with no furniture, and after a while, they don’t know which way is up and which is down.”
“Jesus, this is all so disgusting,” said Ghost.
“It’s terrifying, and all the more so if you’re a teenager. Which brings about the other question. Why teenagers? Are they unable to restrain adults to test them? Is this one or two people doing this, and they can’t manage someone of a large size?
“All of the missing victims are smaller in stature. The girls are all between five-feet and five-feet-four, all under one hundred and twenty pounds. The boys are all under five-feet-eight and all below one hundred and sixty-five pounds. They are intentionally picking smaller kids.”
“They definitely wouldn’t go for our boys,” said Gaspar.
“No. I don’t think they would,” said Ashley, finishing the last bite of sandwich. She pushed the plate toward the middle of the table and stood. “Thank you for that. I didn’t realize how very hungry I was. I’m going to go back and sit with her for a while and see when I can get one of the guys to go with me to Baton Rouge.”
