Kennedy's Redemption Prologue
BOOM! Kennedy was thrown from the driver’s hand right into a dumpster and pain immediately assaulted her body. Shaking off the buzzing in her head and the aches in her body, she got up in search of Emily and Eric. “Em!” she cried out and started a coughing fit from the smoke and debris of what could only be their vehicle.
Crawling towards where she last thought she had seen the others, she nearly collided with a body. “Kenny?” she heard Emily call out, her body sagging in relief. She grabbed her friend at the same time she felt a pinch on her neck…and then blackness.
* * *
Waking up to a hand running gently across her bare flesh, Kennedy’s skin broke out in goosebumps and a shiver of foreboding ran up her spine. She knew she was in a world of trouble when she opened her eyes.
“C’mon, Red. I know you’re awake,” a silky voice whispered in her ear right before stabbing pain met her thigh making her scream out in agony.
Opening her eyes, she did a quick look around while gritting her teeth, noting she was chained to a wall with one window on the other side of the room and a closed door adjacent to that. Staring at her captor, she was shocked to see it was a woman.
Grabbing Kennedy’s face, she kissed her square on the lips whispering, “We’re gonna have so much fun together.”
* * *
“Noooo! Don’t touch me!” She screamed stuck in her nightmare—the pain, the endless harsh laughter with every scream she let out every time she begged for relief. The hands on her arms felt like pricks of ice dropping on her and slicing her skin open.
“Kenny? Kenny, kid, it’s Nate. You’re safe, but you have to stop fighting. I can’t untie you if you keep fighting.” She could hear Nate’s voice in her head like a cruel reminder of what she’ll never have again. The love of her family, the freedom of youth. She was going to die and never get to tell her family and friends she loved them again.
“Kennedy!” She heard a harsh yet soothing voice snap right before something was put over her nude body.
“No, please, take it off. Oh God, it hurts,” she half whined, half yelled out.
“Kennedy, enough,” another voice demanded, smoother, like fine whiskey sliding down your throat it had a burn but then it warmed you from the belly up. Finally, her struggles ceased and the yelling stopped. “Alright, sunshine, we’re gonna untie you now.” The whiskey voice soothed her fears.
It was like a whisper of air across her skin. Feeling hands on her again she tensed, ready to scream from the ice pricking her skin, only it didn’t hurt. It was almost soothing. Their hands whispered across her flesh. She struggled from the uncomfortableness of it, but the pain was gone.
“You’re gonna be okay, doll. We’ll take care of you,” the first voice whispered in her ear again, lulling her into a sense of security where she could finally relax and give in to the darkness again. Hearing “Sunshine,” just before her mind and body gave up the fight to stay awake, she felt safe.
* * *
“Mrs. Maxwell, I’m sorry, but we just can’t treat your daughter without sedating her, and even then, she keeps ripping out her stitches. She won’t let any nurses or doctors touch her. I think a medically induced coma is her best option for healing right now,” someone explained to her mom. She couldn’t summon the energy to open her eyes or to scream no, that when she was asleep the nightmares followed her.
“She’s always moaning and crying when she’s asleep, though. Won’t those nightmares follow her?” Her mom asked sounding resigned to what was going to happen to her.
“That’s something we’ll never really know. It’s a fifty, fifty chance. But her body won’t heal if she’s constantly fighting us,” he tried to implore while she was trying scream that yes, they followed her into sleep.
“Please don’t trap me!” she screamed in her mind.
“Don’t do it!” That whiskey voice was back, and he sounded pissed. Please listen to him, she begged in her mind because her voice was still trapped.
“Son, that’s really not up to you,” her dad Andrew told him. No, daddy, please, please listen, she tried to plead.
“Doesn’t matter,” he snarled. “You shouldn’t do it. If she’s trapped in her mind when she sleeps and you knock her out for however long it takes her to heal, you’ll ruin her,” he explained menacingly to whoever else was in the room. She continued to struggle with her body to wake up, to scream, wave her arms, something, but her body refused to cooperate.
“That may be so, but what’s the alternative? She rips her body apart like she did yesterday?” Her other dad, Jackson, said wobbly.
I’m sorry, Daddy, she wanted to plead with him that she wouldn’t do it again, but she knew it wouldn’t be true. She was weak and the nightmares held her monsters. She just couldn’t go on like that anymore. She wanted to escape, but she didn’t want to be locked in her mind while her body healed either.
“Ya can’t fucking do this!” whiskey voice screamed at them.
“Linc!” That other voice, the dark one, hollered at him. “Calm the fuck down; it ain’t our choice.”
“Fuck that Creed, they’re gonna ruin her; she won’t walk away from this,” whiskey voice, now known as Linc, growled out.
“Linc, Creed, let’s go outside,” she heard Dane’s voice interject. No, Dane, please don’t. She didn’t understand the connection she had with these men, Linc and Creed, but she knew with them around she felt safe.
She might not be able to open her eyes, but she felt them leave, like all the warmth was drained from the room, like there was no more sunshine in her life. She was left cold in a world of gray filled with the worst kind of monsters imaginable.
She heard her parents talking, her mom crying, and her brothers trying to console her, but she didn’t comprehend anything until her mom kissed her forehead and whispered in her ear, “Rest now, baby. This will heal your body. I love you, Kennedy.” Her dads and brothers followed suit.
As soon as they were done, she heard the doctor order the nurse to do something. When she felt them playing with her IV, she started to freak out before she felt a burning sensation rush through her veins, her muscles going completely lax, and her brain getting more and more sluggish by the moment.
Her final thought was… I wish I were dead.
