14 SANE?

I'd lost hope. I'd stopped screaming. My whole world at that moment had come crashing down...

Until I heard something that sounded like metal collide with a thick surface.

Before my eyes, Uncle Harry fell to the ground next to where I laid and I saw Sebastian holding a frying pan, ready to hit again in case the first attempt didn't work.

Sebastian heaved a little sigh of relief before crouching down next to me. "Are y-you..." he stammered with pain in his eyes. I knew he felt my pain mere looking at me. Words could not describe how I felt.

I despised the pain I was feeling mentally, physically and emotionally.

Once again, I could see Sebastian saying something but I couldn't hear him. I didn't want to hear him.

Even when Sebastian had finally started crying, I couldn't say anything. There was nothing to tell him. I couldn't tell him I didn't feel pain when I did. I couldn't tell him everything would be fine when I felt like ending my life.

How I ended up in the bathroom, I don't know. I let the warm water wash over my body while I just stood in the bathtub like a statue. I wasn't sure I knew how to blink anymore.

_____________________

"So you tried to seduce my husband?!"

She sent another hot slap across my face before grabbing my hair.
"You evil witch, I'll kill you today!" she pulled me by the hair and pushed me leaving me to roll down the tiled stairs. It was painful but I was already numb.

I laid on the floor hoping the pain would stop at some point while aunt Thelma went into her bedroom and came out with a glass bottle which seemed to contain a liquid substance. If my memory had served correctly, that was the same bottle our chemistry teacher used to store acids in the chemistry lab.

She ran down the stairs while opening the bottle and murmuring inaudible curses at me but I didn't move. Maybe it would be easier if aunt Thelma ended my life. I saw no reason for my existence in this world anymore.

"Useless human being, I'll disfigure your face today" she said after she'd finally opened the bottle. I closed my eyes and hot tears streamed down.

I jolted up from where I was curled up when I heard the sound of glass shatter on the floor. Sebastian had knocked the bottle out of aunt Thelma's hands.

Little droplets of the acid had come in contact with the three of us. But I was affected most.

A tiny drop of it was painful. I could tell with the way my elbow and knee ached. It was worse than a bee sting and I knew if more had come in contact with my skin, it would have melted it.

It was only six in the morning after aunt Thelma had returned home and found her husband unconscious, she hit the hell out of Sebastian and I after she'd taken uncle Harry to the hospital.
Sebastian telling aunt Thelma that uncle Harry had sexually abused me didn't help matters. She only accused me of seducing her husband and Sebastian trying to kill him.

"You witch, I will kill you!" she screamed at me after she'd locked my brother outside so she could finally kill me.

She pulled my hair making me to stand on my feet. She grabbed my head and smashed it on the wall. "You're the reason my husband wants to divorce me!"

"Your mother has taken so much from me and you little bitch decided to take after her!" she smashed my head on the wall again. I didn't know which I should be worried about, my throbbing head or my bleeding nose and mouth.

I couldn't breathe anymore.

I felt tears roll down my cheeks and mix with my blood. I focused on the white painted wall stained with my blood.

She collided my head with the hard concrete wall once more and everything went black and blank.

_____________________

I woke up to a horrible headache and I jolted up immediately when I realized I was lying on my bed. It wasn't even my room.

I tried to stand on my feet but my head was throbbing. I touched my head and realised a bandage was wrapped around it.
I noticed I wasn't wearing my own clothes either. I was putting on an oversized gown that made me look like a HIV patient.

"Where I'm I?" I asked out loud although I was the only one in the small room. The space was actually very small and it had only a small mattress and an empty cupboard.

I kept turning the handle of the door like it would miraculously unlock itself. I banged on the door a few times until I gave up. I was so confused.

Maybe this was aunt Thelma's way of punishing me. I wouldn't be surprised if she had kidnapped me and left me here to rot.

I wanted to cry but there were no more tears in my eyes. I was more angry than sad.

At that moment, the only thing I wanted was to have uncle Harry's head on a silver platter for taking my virginity, my innocence.

I sat on the mattress thinking of different ways to kill uncle Harry when the door creaked open and some nurses walked in. I'm I in a hospital? No. The place looked nothing like a hospital.

There were three of them. Two men and a woman who held a syringe. I hoped that wasn't for me.

They approached me with expressionless faces. I began moving backwards but there was no where to run to. The men held me down while I kicked and pushed. I struggled as they held me down on the mattress and the old lady injected me in the arm.

The one thing that irked me was the feeling of someone else's hands on me. The men that held me down reminded me of the way uncle Harry rough handled me and took advantage of me.

As soon as whatever they injected was in my system, I couldn't even struggle anymore. My body and mind was relaxed. So relaxed. My eyelids become heavy and I knew I would pass out any second.

The men released their grip on me and before I finally closed my eyes, I saw the inscription on one of the nurse's uniform: "Mattias Psychiatric Hospital".

______________________

For the second time, I woke up with my head pounding, my vision was blurry after I'd opened my eyes but I noticed there was someone standing in the room.

"Mom?" my mom smiled and sat up and moved closer to her. "I thought... Y-you died..."

"Do I look dead to you?" she asked still smiling with love. I reached out and touched her face. It was real. It was my mom.

I pulled her into a hug. A tight hug that lasted for about a minute. "Mom, I want to go home. Tell them to release me. I'm not mad" I found myself crying once again while mom caressed my face and whipped my tears.

"Rachael, listen to me," she held my face and made me look at her, "You are destined for greatness. You will survive all these trials because God is with you..."

"I love you so much Rachael, never forget that" she smiled with her teary eyes.

"Stay with me... Don't leave me please, I'm begging you..." I couldn't bring myself to stop crying.

"I'm always with you Rachael. I love you so much never forget that..." mom said. "You're going to make me proud sweetheart. All these things happening to you are just stepping stones. You're strong..."

"I'm tired. I can't move on—"

She shook her head and said "You can and you will". She kissed my forehead and whispered "I love you darling". And she was gone.

I blinked a few a times but the room was empty. I couldn't help but wonder if that was real. Have I actually gone crazy?

Maybe I'd actually gone insane. I didn't feel sane either. Maybe I was actually supposed to be in a psychiatric hospital.

______________________

The door creaked open and another female nurse walked in with aunt Thelma walking behind her. The nurse left but the door was left open.

"I heard you had finally woken up" aunt Thelma said with a disgust look on her face. I hated her. All I wanted to do was slit her throat that minute. "After two weeks you woke up from your coma but my husband is still in his coma. You and you're brother tried to kill my husband, but your plan didn't work"

I couldn't believe it had already been two weeks since that night. It felt just like yesterday. "What I'm I doing here?" I whispered.

"Sweetheart, it's still early to ask that because you're going to be spending a lot of time here. You haven't even started" she faked a pity face and burst into laughter.

It was obvious she was the one that needed to be in a psychiatric hospital.

"As far as I'm concerned, everyone who knows you believe you have gone mad. Everybody is pitying the girl with mental illness as we speak" aunt Thelma said while looking at her newly polished nails. "You're going to be here till you go mad by fire, by force and I'm paying enough money to make sure of that" she smirked. I had the urge to wipe that smirk off her face with a slap but I just glared at her.

"What did I ever do to you?" I'd always asked myself that question and I never came up with enough reasons for her to hate me so much.

"You mean asides from sleeping with my husband?," she asked before faking a thinking face, "Hmm... Let me think..." she tapped her jaw with her index finger. "I hate you and you have your mother to thank for that" she looked down at me with furry in her eyes.

"What does my mother have to do with this?"

"You know, I would have loved to be the one who shot your mom" she said instead of answering my question. She grinned to herself and I was sure she wasn't mentally stable. "Your mother never cared about me. I was her younger sister, her blood sister but she always treated like an alien". Probably because you're an alien.

"I lost my first child because of your foolish mother!" she screamed at my face leaving droplets of saliva on it. I wiped it off immediately. "I was six months pregnant and my husband was out of the country. When I felt the baby coming, I knew it was going to be premature. I was scared. I had no one to call on. I called your mother and told her what was happening and she said she was also not in town"

"I knew she was lying. She just didn't want anything to do with me and she was jealous because I'd conceived before her. I lost my baby! By the time the neighbors had taken me to the hospital, I was already bleeding" aunt Thelma narrated.

"You had a miscarriage, it was nobody's fault" I deadpanned. To think my mom actually did something horrible to her. This woman is definitely going cuckoo.

"Shut up! What do you know?" she hollered at me. "Everything was always a competition for your mother, she always hated me and now, you're going to suffer on her behalf" aunt Thelma smirked before walking out and closing the door.

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I had no idea spending so much time in a mental hospital could make you loose your sanity. Within the last three days, I didn't get enough sleep. There was always shouting and screaming at the middle of the night.

Some people here had lost their senses to drugs. Some were born with mental illness and depression. While some were just obviously possessed by many demons. And those were the ones that screamed at night.

I was so thankful that they'd isolated me from the violent, demon driven people and I shared the small room alone. I only crossed paths with them in the bathroom.

___________________

I jolted up when the door swung open and the nurse walked in with someone behind her.

I jumped to my feet when I saw Sebastian. He immediately embraced me tightly without saying anything. While we were still hugging, someone else walked in.

I raised my head to see who it was. I was dumbfounded and shocked.

Jay.