No Restraint

Just a preemtory note: this is one for Hallowe'en so it's a little creepy.  I still like it though.  We all could use a shiver now and then, don't you think? 



To look at her, you would see lethargy and indifference; maybe sadness but you couldn't be sure. Yet inside her mind, fear snapped at her brain like a hungry animal, devouring her sanity little by little.  She was afraid of the dark, the watching, the giggles and jeers, but mostly of the eyes.

"I'm coming in to play Christina" his voice would threaten.

For so long Christina had been locked away, deemed a danger to herself and anyone she came across.  She was some sort of crazy person...sociopath, psychopath the words didn't matter to her.  The doctors kept her chained up and always kept their distance.  Never was she to be left alone with anyone and NEVER without restraints.  Christina didn't really understand why.  Sometimes she got mad or frightened just like everyone else, but she wasn't a beast, she didn't think. Considering her life had become a series of short visits from White Coats that nodded and spoke softly to each other behind raised hands, constantly writing things down, Christina thought she was a pretty good sport.  Throw in a trip once a day to the showers, add an hour to stand outside in a concrete courtyard, still shackled and of course, don't forget "examination day" where they flooded her room, poked her with pins and needles, hooked her up to beeping machines while they sat back to stare and whisper some more and she thought she was a damn peach.  When she wasn't being inspected, she would stare into the floor wishing herself so small that she could fall in to the cracks and run away. It wasn't like that when Penny was around.  Penny was happy and nice; speaking to Christina in gentle soothing tones.  Sometimes she would hum , pushing the wild hairs from her face and then of course there were the days that Penny would loosen the restraints even thought she wasn't supposed to.  Christina loved those times.  She had almost forgotten what it felt like to hold a hand or be spoken to nicely.  She liked Penny.  Penny had told her things about her own family, even permitting Christina to try on her wedding band, she had shown her pictures of the outside and even said "I think they are wrong about you Christina."  Christina didn't know why she went away.  The last time she had seen her was when she'd come in before "Examination Day"

"I'm sorry Christina." she'd said quietly.  Christina had been afraid because the eyes were watching. Something bad had happened but she couldn't remember what. And so Penny went away without even so much as a goodbye, leaving Christina to sit alone hugging her pillow and the one secret she had managed to keep. Penny was the only friend she'd ever known. Now she had ... ohhh what was his name? Roderick? Reginald? RODNEY.  The name stuck in her throat  like a piece of  jagged glass.

Rodney had come to the young woman's room and whispered through the slot in the door.  He would be taking care of Christina in so many new ways.  He had laughed when he'd said this; a soft cruel chortle that caused her to look up at him from her chains.  He'd smiled and raised his eyebrows.  "Got it?" he chirped and the torture began.

Christina knew it would be bad from hearing the other lunatics talking and crying together.  They held each other and in hushed tones swore they would be all right.  It wouldn't last forever because someone would listen to them and help them. Someone would believe them when they said Rodney couldn't keep his thing in his pants or his hands to himself.  Christina wasn't so sure.  She listened and worried about her turn.

Rodney broke her concentration with a small note.  His devilish fingers wiggling an evil hello "Soon" it read.  She sighed and put the paper in her mouth finding the grainy bitterness comforting.. (Oh yeah, she suffered from PICA too. This term she remembered when she had jumped one of the White Coats gobbling up his pen and half of his eyeglasses before they gave her nighty night meds) She sat and waited; alone and afraid.  He had begun to grope her when she was transferred from meals or the rec room.  He pinched her body and whispered disgusting promises in her ear.  At last Christina realized  it was her turn.  He had been taunting her for days with the jiggling of the handle and the notes that she ate. He whispered her name as he walked by on rounds. But now it was the silence screaming the truth that he was coming.  panic crawled in under her skin and tightened in her belly like a terrifying hunger.  She sat back in her dark corner, watching and being afraid.  His eyes peered at her through the window in her cell door.  She could see their maniacal  glint and feel his filthy intent as if she was scratching a sunburn.  At last he let himself in, singing her name quietly.  Too many teeth spread across his shiny face. He loomed above her, beginning to slowly undress her.  She could smell the stink of desire on his breath and feel want on his fingertips; greasy and warm.

"They are wrong about you Christina" he whispered.  His lips were wet from almost incessant licking.  "You aren't like my other girlfriends." he giggled to himself and unlocked the shackles.  The chains fell away.  So caught up in his carnal greed, he never saw her coming.  Her teeth, her strength were quite overwhelming to this weak cowardly predator.  The first bite removed his upper lip as he was bending to kiss her.  Flipping him like a turtle onto his back, she knelt on his chest and slipped her hands around his neck.  Her thumbs gouged his eyes like gloopy campfire marshmallows.  she clawed and tore at his clammy skin until he lay motionless.  The dark black poison drained from his body.  She dipped her finger in it and  wrote to him a note he'd never read:

"No restraints"

She didn't care that he didn't say goodbye as she crawled over to her bed and hugged her pillow.  Reaching in, she slipped on and off the wedding band of her missing friend, ignoring the crimson stain that frowned across its surface.  She wondered if Penny would come back now.





I'm glad you stopped by and hope you liked it.  I'm enjoying my time at the lake.  I only hope I can get all the stories I've written, posted soon enough. Ha! Like it's a burden ...
Enjoy your day. Come back and play soon.