Matt quietly opened the blinds. He slid the window open so a cool morning breeze could find its way into the room. He turns and stares at Dana, her hair blew over to cover her face. If only she remembered what she did to him sometimes. Dana stirred and opened her eyes. She saw Matt and grabbed her sheets and pulled them over her head. "I feel like I've been hit by a truck." He smiled. "Dana?" "Yes?" She pulled the sheets down and looked at him. Playing along was her best choice of action. Her memories were fading, the surprise from yesterday was gone, and she felt more comfortable, at ease with her surroundings. Matt came and sat on the edge of the bed. "Will you need help getting ready?" Concern, now she was sure, what was in his eyes was concern. "No." He left the room smiling.
When she got out of the shower, she felt better. Her head still felt like it was being prodded with pins and needles, but her neck and shoulders only had the dull aching of recovery pulsing through their muscles. She stood in front of the mirror for minutes, just staring, not seeing anything. She finally shook from her daze. Cinnamon sticks. That's the closest colour she could compare. Her wet hair was the colour of the cinnamon sticks that were in her tea yesterday. She squinted and leaned in closer to the mirror. She went nearly cross-eyed discerning the colour of her eyes. Her mind compared them to the colour of pine needles, with little specks of yellowish brown. There were dark shadows under her eyes. Her cheeks were pale, and her lips took on an almost blueish hue. She turned around and took her clothes from the corner of the towel rack. She dressed slowly, pulling the light orange shirt on at last and taking another look in the mirror. Colour had risen into her face, brightening her countenance. She looked to be about 24 or 25 years old. She'd have to ask Matt later. She quickly pulled a brush through her tangled hair and left the bathroom.
"Find a comfortable place, and imagine yourself to be there." Dr. Sempson urged Dana on in his attempt to hypnotize her. Dana saw words forming behind her closed eyelids. She began to read them, it was the cover of a book....familiar to her. It read as being the Odyssey. She saw herself from across the room for a moment. It wasn't the doctor's office. It was a girl's room. The was a girl, in a chair. She seemed intent on nothing but the book in her hands. She wasn't reading it but turning it over and over running her hands over the smooth cover of the hard-back book. Dana noticed the chair was propped up against the door to the room. She recognized the girl somehow even though the moonlight from the window wasn't providing much to see her by. The silence in the room was broken by a loud thump against the other side of the wall. The girl showed no reaction, she sat deadly still, listening. Dana listened too, Straining to make out the words being shouted outside of this room. A man and a woman. Crying, shouting, screaming, names. The next thump against the walls hit the room's door. The little girl reacted this time. She jumped at the initial hit to the door, and let out a cry. Dana saw tears forming in the little girls eyes and streaming down her cheeks. She tried to go to the girl but found her feet planted to the wood floor. The shouting stopped. The girl hurled the book across the room. It missed hitting Dana by mere inches. The girl drug the chair a few feet away from the door, and lifted the latch by the handle. She peeked out of the door into the dark hallway. Dana tried to move her feet again. Her point of view changed instead of her feet moving. She was looking out into the hallway herself now. The moonlight from the bedroom streamed into the hallway and met with another light further down. Dana turned around and waw herself staring back at her, unmoving. Dana decided to take a chance and walk to the end of the corridor to see where the light was coming from. She peeked around the corner before she went into the fully lit room. It was a kitchen. The counters were a clean white and everything was in a perfect order, nothing was out of place, and no one else was there. Dana walked into the room, scanning in every direction. She started to hear the voices again, coming closer to her, from another place in the house. A man walked into the room. His face was flushed, his hands were clenched into angry fists at his sides, and his face was in a scowl. He took no notice of Dana when he stomped into the kitchen, but it didn't take long until he let her know he knew she was there. "Kiana, what did I say about dinner yesterday?" Dana had no idea how to answer the man. He turned around and trained his eyes on her. He was furious, with her maybe but Dana could never have known. The man slowly strode towards her, his form raising high above hers, or rather the little girls. "You lazy good for nothing rat." The comment came out of nowhere, as did the backhand that followed. She sprawled backwards into one of the counter and sunk to the floor. Dana raised her hand to block any other hit that might come her way. Through her crossed arms she saw a woman come into the room. Her nose was bloody, and one of her eyes was black and blue. "Stop it!" The man turned away from Dana and charged at the woman. When he knocked her to the ground he spun back to Dana, focusing his attention on her again. He came at her fists flying. She felt a crack come from somewhere in her head and she felt her blood gush from her nose. She bit her lip and tasted blood there too. Everything went black. Dana felt cold, then began to warm again. She heard voices. Friendly and welcoming her.
Matt hugged Dana when she recovered from her shaking. The doctor and Matt had only hear her wailing, and hadn't known what was happening. "Thank you doctor." The concern was in Matt's eyes again. He didn't say another word, he wanted her to be able to sort this out on her own, but the pain. He wouldn't ever forget the blood curdling scream she had let out before she had stilled in that office.