205 - tyrant

ack at it again. Susan could not grasp the motivations behind how often her sessions were scheduled. At times, she was allowed to rest for days on end. Then there were the days where her doctors never seemed satisfied. Today was one of the latter.

The assistants tightened the leather restraints around her ankles and wrists. The straps were never painfully tight, but Susan was constantly aware of their presence. The chair reclined back, so that she was nearly lying flat. The lamp above her head now shined directly in her eyes.

Thus, she heard rather than saw the electric comb. It emitted a constant buzzing sound that she had originally been quite neutral towards, but had steadily grown to fear. The doctor moved it toward her head. Susan braced herself for the start of another session.

The electric comb swept through her hair, its bristles finally making contact with her scalp. From that moment, she lost any conscious recollection of what occurred. She felt lost in her own mind, only vaguely identifying conjurations of random gibberish. A letter, or letters, always one to four of them. Then, some numbers. Over and over again.

She could only loosely grasp this process in the moment. She had no idea how many times it repeated, nor did she have any sense of how much time had passed. She never saw the assistants furiously scribbling down all of the gibberish.

Then, the electric comb was removed from her scalp and in an instant the world came rushing back to her. The blinding light slid away from her vision as her seat was moved back upright, and her restraints were set loose.

The assistants helped her into a wheelchair and rolled her back to her room. Though the electric comb did not actually do anything other than touch her skin, she felt a dull pain growing inside her skull.

Susan didn't remember there always being pain from the device, not at first. She didn't remember having to be pushed back to her room in a wheelchair, either.

But she was happy when they deposited her body into her bed. They soon left, closing the door behind them. Susan knew that for the moment she could rest. The pain in her head still pounded, but the strength in the rest of her body slowly trickled back.

Strength she was thankful for, especially when she realized her nose was bleeding. She was able to use that strength to deal with the nosebleed herself, not having to call the assistants back. She moved as quickly as she could to the bathroom.

Susan used tissues to plug her nose up, and began to wash up the mess. She watched the bright red blood dilute and mix with the soap and water as it swirled down the drain. So far, she had managed to keep the nosebleeds to herself. Something told her that if they knew about them, things would only get worse for her.

She stared at herself in the mirror, nostril stuffed up with bloody tissue. She looked like she felt. Staring deep into her own eyes, she realized she couldn't remember what color they were supposed to be anymore.

Maybe she should have never told her mother about the strange dreams. She brought Susan here, promising that they would help. She hadn't seen her mother since.

Susan left the bathroom and climbed back into bed. She was always so tired these day, so sleep came easily. And she never, ever dreamed.