Finding Jaime

Chapter 44

Jaime POV

It was dark here still.  There wasn't a lot going on around me. The 'door' that Mom had walked through disappeared and I couldn't go anywhere near where it had been. It was like being trapped in a box. Every way I went, I walked into a wall of some sort. It was invisible and I couldn't see what was in my way, even when I hit it.

There was a sort of ambient light, just enough that I could see that I was basically in a huge, black room. It looked like it was tiled. But I couldn't move more than about two feet without hitting a wall. And every time I hit that wall it was incredibly painful.  More than I would think it should be.

It's also silent here. I can't hear any sounds. No music, nothing. Just... nothing really. I can hear, because I've checked. I can speak and I can hear my voice, but there are no noises in this place.

I sat in the middle of my... cage. What else would you call it? I couldn't move more than two feet in any direction, and there didn't seem to be any obvious way out. So why bother trying? It seems I'm stuck here like it or not.

I sighed. I wasn't hungry, I wasn't tired. I didn't need to use the bathroom.

I got bored, so I stood up and looked in the direction of the door thing Mom had gone through and started yelling at the door.

"Hey! There's gotta be someone over there! Let me out of this place!" I yelled.

I was answered with a long, piercing, beeping sound. Just one tone screaming in my ears.

"Jaime! I'm sorry! Please come back!" I heard over the sound.

I covered my ears. The sound was giving me a headache. I lay on the ground, curled up, with my hands over my ears, trying to block out the sound. It was so loud and wouldn't stop. I started screaming, trying to block out the sound, but I couldn't. I couldn't make it stop and I couldn't block it all the way.

"Stop!" I screamed. "Please stop!" I cried out. The pain in my head from the screeching noise travelled down my entire body. I writhed in agony. My whole body felt like it was on fire and all I could do was scream with the pain.

Suddenly the pain stopped and everything was silent again. I lay on the floor, curled up in a ball, hoping the pain was gone for good.

Another light turned on. I looked up. It was like an old movie screen. I didn't know what I was looking at. Everything was white on the screen.

Suddenly I saw Dad's face in front of mine.

"Jaime? Are you awake? Are you there?" I heard him say. He looked horrible. His hair was messy, like he hadn't washed it in a couple of days. His eyes were red and he looked like he'd been crying. He also looked like he hadn't eaten in a couple of days.

"Dad! I'm here. I'm right here!" I looked around, trying to figure out how to describe where I was and hoped he'd be able to find me.

"His eyes are moving. Does that mean he's awake?" Dad said to someone off screen.

"Unlikely," a voice off screen said. "Those eye movements, they're not processing information. He very likely can't see and if he can, he can't process anything just now. That's not to say if he wakes up, he won't be able to. We won't know if there's been any damage to his brain until he wakes up."

"I'm not asleep, asshole!" I yelled, hoping they could hear me.

"When do you think he might wake up?" Dad asked,

"I can't say. He took a lot of those pills. Enough to put out a horse. Maybe an elephant. We pumped his stomach as best we could, and we know he threw up at home, but we don't know how much of what he took got absorbed into his bloodstream before he threw up, and before you found him."