Doctor

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The bright white of the room burned through my eyelids. Attempting to open them, I carefully unglued my eyelids, only to want to close them again.

The IV was hung on the right side of the bed, the liquid from the bag traveling through a small clear tube and into my arm. The window on the far wall displayed what should have been a nice view of fall trees, only the reds and oranges of the dry leaves made the memories come rushing back to me.

“Kiara!” cried my stepmother. “What did you do?!”

I awoke naked, a pain between my legs. I shot up, almost immediately regretting it when I felt the headrush. Did I miss school?

Then I saw it. The man. He was laying on the floor, a puddle of puke so pungent it cut threw the air like a knife, making me want to gag. A yellow flower adorned my nightstand.

A sharp pain shot threw my scalp. My stepmother was dragging me out of bed, sidestepping the comatose man, and I immediately burst into tears. Whirling me around to face the bed, she pointed to my faded Barbie doll sheets.

An ugly splotch of red painted the dress on one of the Barbies.

“What did you do, you slut?!” she began yanking me, naked, out of my room. I could hear the groans of the man on my floor. Mother was dragging me down the hall.

My hands subconsciously clawed at her talons digging into my scalp. It hurt, feeling like fire itself was licking at my skull.

Taking two steps down the stairs, I missed a step, stumbling, and she finally let go of my hair.

I fell to the third step, before the spinning started, and the whirling and the jabs and the pain.

That was all I felt before my head hit the last step with a cold, dull thud and all I saw was black.

The sting of tears threatened me, and I clenched my eyes shut, my slender fingers balling up into fists.

A click of the door sounded then, and a doctor appeared. She was sad looking, her shoulder length, dull brown hair limp, and her body frail and small. Her voice was raspy as she said, “Kiara Veronta. I’m Dr. Orthen. I’m here to make su-”

“She hurt me,” I whimpered.

She looked at the ground, walking over to the IV and monitors displaying my vitals. She silently wrote down the information on the screen and turned to walk out of the room just as suddenly as she had come, but she stopped before the door.

Coming back to the side of the bed, she grabbed ahold of my hand.

“There are very bad people in this world. Be stronger then them. Never give up because your not done yet. You still need to rock this world off it’s axis, Kiara. Your not done yet.”

She stood up and left then, unaware of the tears that had formed in my eyes.

I cried silently, repeating the mantra, as it slowly healed me.