Page 36 of Kylie

“What does that mean?”

He laughed again.

I hated this cryptic shit. Nothing he said made sense. Nothing any of them said made sense. And worst of all, my brain didn’t make sense. I had no idea how I ended up here—nor did I even know where here was. They kept me blindfolded and strapped to this bed. Thanks to the catheter, I couldn’t even use the excuse that I needed to go to the bathroom. According to the woman who was charged with taking care of me, use of the facilities wouldn’t be necessary until they weaned me off the liquid nutrients and gave me real food. No one seemed to know when that would be. And based on how they spoke to me, no one really gave a shit.

Only once had they tried to get me out of bed. Thanks to the blindfold and the shackles, I’d been useless to assist. It didn’t take them long to realize my legs weren’t working, since they buckled the moment they tried to help me stand. They hadn’t tried again since.

“If I’m not a terrorist, why am I here?”

“Payback.”

He said it so bluntly.

“For what? Did I do somethin’ to you? Or to your daughter?”

“You specifically? No. But someone you know did.”

“Who?” I was desperate for information.

“That’s enough for today. I do want you to start walking, though. I can’t keep you in this bed forever.”

“Will you take off the blindfold at least?”

Unfortunately, he didn’t answer, and I suspected it was because he’d left as quickly as he came.

Chapter Fourteen

Monday, January 28, 2022

Kylie

“Good morning, Kylie. My name is Allison. I’m here to help you walk.”

With the blindfold still covering my eyes, I had no idea what Allison looked like. Based on her voice, she was young. She was also nicer than anyone else who’d come in to talk to me.

“I doubt I’ll be able to help much,” I told her. “Between the blindfold, the restraints, and the catheter…”

“Everything’s being removed in just a few minutes.”

Yes, that was hope that bloomed like a flower in spring right there in the center of my chest. I was going to get my first look at where I was. And I prayed that it clicked something in my head so I remembered why I was here. The woman who watched over me and changed the catheter said I was getting better, but I had to wonder.

I hung on to that hope for roughly half an hour while someone else came in and took care of removing the catheter. I had to assume they wouldn’t be putting it back in later since I’d heard the woman who was here most often mention that using it for this long was risking infection. They were changing it often, but apparently, that was a thing.

Once they had the catheter taken care of, Allison returned. She rambled about her plans for our sessions while she stood beside me.

“Are you a doctor?” She seemed to know what she was talking about, so I figured she was one of those who specialized in … whatever one specializes in to help people walk again.

“No.”

“Then why do you know so much?”

“I like to read. It passes the time.”

When she continued on her rant about what the future looked like for me and my physical therapy, I waited for her to remove the blindfold, but she didn’t.

And she still didn’t.

“Is there somethin’ wrong with my eyes?” I asked, cutting her off mid-sentence.