American Devil

Chapter 17: The New World Order

The most private place at the hospital is the roof. He spends a lot of his time up there, gazing at the afternoon sky. The audible sounds of construction echoed around the hospital. The revolutionaries managed to push the government to reform after the mysterious disappearance of key government officials, and so, with the protests dying down now, they are in a state of rebuilding. He waits for the sun to set, for it to start getting colder before going back inside. He had spent a lot of his life sitting on top of roofs. In high school, in college, at work, or whenever he went out as a vigilante at night, using the high ground as a better vantage point. It's the best place, especially with how easy it is for him to climb onto any roof. Between one blink and the next, he is right there, breathing in the fresh air, overlooking the surrounding scenery. Hell, even his last name gives it away as his favorite place.

He's spent so long in this hospital healing, months spent getting better and stronger, getting back to his feet. He's managed to avoid any questions about his burns by faking amnesia. That short moment of temporary amnesia he had experienced when he had first woken up from a coma when he couldn't remember how he ended up in the hospital, only helped solidify his claim that he couldn't remember anything from the event.

This was cause for concern to his doctor, so he has prescribed sessions with a therapist after a month of recovery in the hopes that talking to her would help him finally remember.

The first time he went to one of them, Kyro spent the entire session resolutely ignoring his therapist, Alicja. She'd ask questions and he'd remain silent. It went on like that for the entire hour, her enthusiasm never diminishing. He had thought that after such a failure to get him to talk to her, she'd give up and ask for a different patient, one who was willing to work with her, but she didn't do that.

She'd looked at him as he struggled to wheel himself out of the room, before calling out that she would see him in her office again in two days at the same time. The next two sessions went about the same way as the first, her chattering on, Kyro staring off into the distance, lost in thought, an hour passing by with no progress, wasting time.

By the time the fourth session rolled around, Kyro realized she wasn't giving up. He also realized that it was an even greater waste of time if he just sat there silent instead of talking to her. He missed having someone to talk to. Specifically, he missed talking to Vanessa. Alicja could never replace her, but she was warm and open, and Kyro found himself slowly easing into conversation with her.

Sessions were held twice a week. Kyro would roll in after a session of physical therapy, exhausted both physically and mentally. She'd look at him with sympathy, but she'd never comment, just start chatting about whichever inane topic held her interest at that time. And that was another thing. She never forced him to talk about anything he didn't feel like talking about. She never pestered him about his supposed missing memories, although that was literally why he prescribed these sessions.

Over the several months it took him to fully recover, he had grown to appreciate their conversations, this one hour that kept him sane and, on his path, an hour when his anger didn't seem as prominent. An hour when he could stop investigating, stop looking for revenge, and just be.

At first, it felt like a betrayal to Vanessa and to all of the people who had lost their lives that day. He let go of his anger, even just for a moment. He had felt like what he was doing was unforgivable, that he should be focused on physical therapy and physical therapy alone, not waste time chatting with people.

But then he'd remember all the times she'd pushed him out of his office to go to sleep or dragged him out to a concert so that he could relax for once. He'd remember their marathon anime nights, both of them struggling to stay awake and finish the entire season in one go. He'd remember how she tried so hard to make him have a life outside of his work, how she wanted him to be happy and not worry so much. He realized she'd approve of those sessions. She'd probably even tell him to stop with the revenge plan, that it was not worth it, and that he had an entire amazing life ahead of him to live. That was, sadly, not true. Not without her.