Into the Light

Jane Doe

June 2nd 2000

Andrew's POV

As promised, It's the next day and we're back at the hospital, hoping we can at least see our mysterious woman again. We all make our way to the doctor who is standing at the end of the hall, reading through his file. "Hey Doctor...." He whips his head round to, placing his file under his arm "Hello Captain... Detective". "How is she? she said anything yet?" He slowly shakes his head, a solemn expression on his face "It appears she only knows how to say 'Help me' and 'Please don't hurt me'..... she understands everything we're saying to her.... she understands the language...... and she clearly has the words in her head.... but she doesn't quite know how to get them out...... clearly where ever she was..... she's been there a long time.... there wasnt a lot of talking involved wherever she was".

"Oh uhhmm.... she did mention a name...... 'Andy'?" The captain looks at me straight away, almost tearing a hole in my face "It appears you have a friend Detective". The doctor looks at me with a questioning gaze "Your Andy?" , "Uhmm yes... I talked to her when she turned up at the precinct... got her to give me the knife". "I can take you in to see her.... but uhh.... she's had a rough morning and she is very wary of strangers..... specifically men" He chats away to us about her while leading us to her room.

He comes to a stop outside a door, stopping when his hand touches the handle "It may be best if only one of you comes in first.... ". The captain gives me a nod of approval and the doctor slowly swings the door open. My eyes are immediately met with a much cleaner young woman cowering in her bed but still unable to move. Her leg is in a cast and her arm is in a sling but she certainly looks a million times better than yesterday. Her hair is a beautiful golden blonde and her glowing ivory skin, all together makes her look so radiant. We slowly edge towards her and for a moment she starts shaking, her lips trembling.

It's not until I get to the side of her bed that she calms, having seen my familiar face. "Andy..." Her shaky voice whispers my name which makes my heart melt like an ice cream under a hot sun. "Hello again.... What's your name?" She tilts her head, clearly understanding my question but like the doctor says, doesn't quite know how to get her words out "My name is Andy.... what's your name.... what do I call you?". She closes her eyes for a moment, searching for something "Bitch... I--Im a.....b-bitch". Whoever has kept her, must have only ever called her that so naturally she started believing that was her name. I let out a deep sigh, wishing I could somehow take all her pain away "Hey.... you know you can trust me.... right? we're friends?". She tilts her head again, this time with a different expression, not understanding the term 'friend'. She wriggles round slightly, grunting as she tries to lift herself up "Uhh.... can we raise her bed up... so she can sit up?". "Yes just not for too long" The doctor raises the top of her bed so she's sitting upright, her eyes intensely scanning me. "So..... friends?" Her eyes continue to scan every part of me, her head tilting "F-----F-------fr----iends?" She quietly stutters out the word with a questioning look. "Friends.... someone you can trust.... talk to.... have fun with...." A gentle smile raising my lips. She copies my smile with a strain "Friends" sniffling up as she trails off.

"I want to help you.... I want to find who did this to you.... but first we need to find out.... who you are..... and what your real name is..." Her eyes are continuously scanning me, probably checking for any lies or deceit. Her finger starts drawing circles in her bedding, that's when a light bulb goes off in my mind. I reach down and grab my bag, causing her to flinch and cower "Hey.... It's okay... It's just my bag... here... you want to look?" Sliding it over onto her lap. She looks into my eyes and I give her a nod, the only things I have in there is note pads, paper, my watch, phone and pencils. She hesitantly unzips my bag, peeking inside to see what's there. Her eyes light up with excitement, slipping her hand inside and pulling out the coloured pencils. She hums lightly as she looks at the rainbow of colours, sliding her finger across them. Her fingers hook around the blue pencil, pulling it out the box. Her hand slides inside my bag, pulling out the paper. Before I know it she's passionately drawing away, but any attempt to peek and she scolds me with a powerful gaze.

An hour later and she turns the paper round, allowing me to look at it. My jaw drops open with amazement, my eyes scanning every inch of the beautiful drawing. She drew a beautiful, colourful sunrise and in the distance is a black figure "Who's this?". She lifts her hand and taps her chest "This is you?" She nods her head in response. I take a closer look at the drawing and slowly the realisation hits me that this is her the day she escaped, but nothing in the picture tells me where it is.

Suddenly the door swings open and in walks two nurses and the doctor "Okay.... time for your meds". She starts panting and gaping for breaths, her body desperately wriggling around. She closes her eyes tight for a moment before popping them open. "NO!! don't hurt me!!! don't hurt me.... please don't hurt me" She slaps her hand away, scattering the pills all over the floor. They hold her down on the bed, forcing her to start screaming "What are you doing? you don't need to hold her down". They give her the pills and promptly exit the room, leaving the aftermath to me. Her frail body starts shivering, tears streaming down her cheeks like waterfalls. My eyes quickly glance at the time to read 10am, taking a mental note of what happened. I can't help but feel so angry, I was just getting her to slowly open up, I had her smiling and they set me right back to the beginning.

As much as I try, she's in such a comatose state and nothing I say or do is going to change that now. I sit with her for a few more hours, just so she knows she's not alone. Her frail body is shivering away as she blankly stares up at the ceiling, her eyes brimming with tears. I have a theory that it wasn't necessarily the meds that set her off, but wherever she was, something happened to her at 10am, if it happens again, I know what to do. "I'll be back tomorrow.... Alright" She sniffles up and blinks her eyes for the first time since the nurses came in as if the sound of my voice pulled her out of her trance.

I don't actually get home until 3 in the morning, after spending hours looking through all of my evidence. My apartment is so quiet and empty, seeing as I don't actually have a girlfriend or wife, I live here all by myself. My aching, lifeless body collapses onto the sofa, letting my back rest against the slouched pillows. I like to just sit here for a while and just stare into space, letting my mind just wander. I spend all day at work, thinking and over thinking every little detail, my brain works on overdrive and doesn't usually switch off. Other detectives in my precinct call me the American Sherlock as well as X-ray because I can usually tell, just by looking at someone, where they've been and who they are, which really creeps them out so naturally no one likes to work with me.

I haven't been able to take that mysterious woman off my mind. Who is she?, where has she been?, who did that to her? Are all questions plaguing my mind like an alarm. Sometimes if it's a particularly hard or difficult case, I find it hard to sleep, so I just end up sitting here on the sofa, staring into space. Or if that fails, I'll put my headphones on and listen to my music, I love rock music, Nickelback, Creed, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, you name it and I probably like it. I think music is definitely a passionate hobby of mine, I play guitar and piano, it helps me sort through my thoughts I guess. As the seconds turn to minutes and dusk turns to dawn, my mind drifts off into a deep sleep, snoozing and dreaming blissfully.