The Empty Life by Naomi Anderson (read aloud .TXT) 📕

but I swallowed my pain.
“What do you want?” I croaked, my throat raw from days of screaming and going without water.
“Tell me where your base camp is.”
I glared at him as hard as I possibly could, “No fucking way asshole.”
His steel toed boot collided with my chest, knocking the wind out of me. Pain radiated through my body and again I swallowed the pain.
“Tell me,” he repeated.
“Fuck off,” I spat at him.
“Fine, have it your way,” he smiled evilly, and raised the bat in the air, then crashed it down on my leg. I heard a crunch then let out an ear shattering scream. Colin lunged at the man, but was held back by the chains on his leg.
“Are you going to tell me or should I do the other one too?” he asked, bending down to eye level.
I bit my lip so hard that I could taste blood.
“Answer me!” His voice echoed through the small room.
“Please don’t,” I begged.
“If you touch her again...” Colin warned.
“What are you going to do? You’re chained up!” The man laughed.
“Don’t fucking touch her.”
“What you mean like this?” the man grabbed my shattered leg and squeezed it as hard as he could.
I shrieked in pain and finally let the tears fall. Colin tried attacking the man again, but the chains held firm.
“Kelby,” I felt a hand on my shoulder gently shaking me.
I sat up and grabbed the hand, twisting it to the point that I could break it.
“Ow! Kel! Let go!” Ada whined.
I opened my hand and she pulled her wrist away, “Sorry...what are you doing here?”
“I heard you screaming through the walls.”
“You stayed here?” I asked, wiping some sweat off my forehead.
“No, I heard you over in my place.”
I sighed.
“Are you okay?” Ada asked, sitting on the edge of my bed.
“No.”
She moved so she was sitting in the middle of my bed staring at me, “Kel, talk to me. We used to be so close! Please?”
I struggled to find any words, “I want to tell you Ada, I do I swear, I just...I can’t...it’s just...I...I can’t.”
She reached her hand out and tried to grab mine, but I flinched away like I was in pain.
“What did they do to you?” she asked, withdrawing her hand.
I smiled internally. Ada was always one to push for the answers she wanted, it was one of the reasons she was such a great lawyer. But as hard as she would try to get answers out of me, she wouldn’t get very far. I wanted like crazy to tell her, but there were so many things that happened to me that I didn’t want anyone to know, not even my own sister.
“You don’t have to tell me, but I’d like it if you did,” Ada said sympathetically.
“Okay” I said, then grabbed a bottle of pain pills off my side table. I took out four and popped one after another in my mouth.
“That seems like a lot Kel, are you sure you aren’t taking too many?” Ada asked, taking the bottle away and reading the little strip of side effects on it.
I shrugged.
“Have you read the side effects of these?” she asked.
I nodded, “The doctor went over all of them when he prescribed them to me. I don’t care.”
“You do realize that sudden death is one of them?”
I nodded again. Death didn’t bother me as much as it used to, it had become a very repetitive thing in my life.
She sighed, “Well if you’re okay with it, enjoy.”
I took the bottle back from her and set it on my side table again. I had only been asleep for an hour and a half. The most sleep that I had gotten at one time since I was rescued was three hours.
“I’m going to stay on your couch tonight, just to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Ada said.
“Okay. Thanks,” I said, tossing a pillow at her.
She smiled then left the room. I sighed, it was going to be a long night.
Chapter 2

"Tell me about Colin.”
I nervously twirled my engagement ring that I couldn’t bring myself to take off, “He was perfect. I honestly can’t say a bad thing about him. I loved him.”
“Loved?”
“He’s dead.”
“Does that mean that you can’t love him?”
I shrugged, “I don’t know.”
“Do you still love your father?”
“Yes.”
“So why not Colin?”
“I didn’t say that I don’t love him, I just don’t love him the way that I used to.”
“Okay.”
“Are we done yet?”
“Not quite. Tell me about your sister.”
“Which one?”
“Ada, she’s your twin, right?”
I nodded, “Yeah. I don’t know what to say. We live in the same house, but its a duplex so we don’t technically live together but she’s there if I need her.”
“That’s good. Having someone to help you out when you need it, is a good thing. Not everyone has that luxury.”
“I wouldn’t really consider it a luxury.”
“Well what would you consider it?”
I shrugged again.
“Now tell me about your other sister, Dakota, right?”
“Yeah. Um...well she’s sixteen, I don’t really know what’s going on with her, I haven’t really seen her in since I got shipped out to Iraq. She called me last night.”
“What did you two talk about?”
“She just wanted to know when I was coming home, but she sounded pretty disappointed when I told her I wasn’t.”
“Why didn’t you want to go home?”
“I was tired. It was a lot to deal with in one day.”
She nodded, “Yes it was, but you handled it well.”
“Thanks.”
“Well, I think that’s about enough for today don’t you?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
She smiled and stood up, leading me to the door, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Kelby.”
“Okay. Thanks Dr. Reid.”
“No problem dear. Bye Ada!” she waved at my sister who was sitting awkwardly on the bench outside her office.
Ada smiled and stood up, “Thank you!”
I started slowly walking to the car, knowing that Ada would take a few minutes to talk to Dr. Reid about my session. When I got outside, I leaned against the car and took a deep breath. I hated talking to Dr. Reid so much, but in a way it kind of helped me. I wanted someone to know what happened, but without me having to talk about it. She wasn’t as pushy as everyone else, and I really appreciated that about her.
“Kelby!” a voice yelled.
I turned my head and saw a slim figure rushing towards me. I tried backing away, but somehow I forgot there was a car behind me. As the person got closer, I realized it was my friend from high school, Nicole.
A smile formed across her face as she approached me, “I can’t believe you’re back!”
I nodded, “Me either.”
“I’m so sorry about Colin...” she said sadly.
“Me too.”
We stood in awkward silence for a minute, and then Ada came outside.
“Hey Nicole,” she smiled and gave her a quick hug.
Ada and Nicole had been close friends since freshman year, but the two of us were never very close. We kind of just tolerated each other until Colin came along.
“How long have you been back, Kelby?” Nicole asked turning towards me.
“Since last night.”
She half smiled, “Well I’m glad you’re back.”
I nodded and gave Ada a look, telling her that I wanted to get the hell out of there.
“Well, call me later, okay?” Ada said to Nicole, giving her another hug then unlocking the car for me.
I jumped in as quickly as possible and rested my head against the window. The last thing that I wanted was for people to see me, let alone at the therapist.
"How was it? Ada asked as she got in the car.
"Hmm?"
"Therapy. How was it?"
"Oh," I shrugged, "Fine I guess."
She nodded, "Good, as long as it helps you get back to normal."
I sighed, "I'm never going to be the same person that I was, Ada."
"I know, but I can still hope right?”
“I think it would be best if you just didn’t,” I muttered, buckling the seat belt.
“As long as you’re back, I don’t really care,” she smiled, then started driving.
The roads quickly turned to gravel and trees began to surround our car. I leaned my head back against the headrest and stared up through the sunroof, watching as light shone through the tunnel that the trees made. It was almost as if there were little spotlights on different things.
“Where are we going?” I asked nervously.
“Home,” she replied, as if it were a stupid question.
“Ada, we live in town.”
“We’re going to Mom’s today. Remember?”
“Right now?”
She slowed down and pulled the car over to the side of the road, “Why are you so scared of seeing your family?”
I shook my head, “I don’t know...”
She gently touched my hand with hers, but I pulled mine away.
Ada sighed, “I’m not going to hurt you, you know that right?”
I nodded, feeling my eyes start to sting from the tears that were forming, “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize! Kel its fine, I’m just worried about you. I want things to be back to the way we were, and before you say that we can’t, maybe we can.”
I stared out the window, avoiding eye contact, “Okay.”
After a few seconds, she started driving again. I was hoping that it would take us a long time to get back home, but it was only a few more minutes. She turned into the driveway and I felt like someone had just punched me in the stomach. I didn’t know why I was so nervous, it wasn’t like my mom and I had left on bad terms or anything.
“Ready?” Ada asked as she turned off the car.
“No.”
Before I was able to beg Ada to take me back to my real home, Dakota rounded the corner, one of the biggest smiles that I had ever seen just plastered to her face. Her light brown hair was cut much shorter than I remembered and her skin was pale, almost sickly. Her height hadn’t changed much, she was still about 5’ 2”, but she just seemed really small, fragile even.
Ada stepped out of the car and gave her a hug and kissed her gently on the top of her head.
“How are you?” Ada asked quietly.
“Fine,” Dakota smiled.
I took a deep breath and stepped out of the car too.
“Kelby...” Dakota whispered, walking up to me.
I half smiled, “Hey.”
“Oh my god...” she wrapped her arms around my stomach tightly, but I didn’t want to push her off.
Ada looked at me nervously, as if asking if I was okay.