Stockholm Syndrome // h.s

chapter twenty four

I awake to the repeated sound of my heart rate displayed on the hospital screen. My hands were strapped to the bed preventing my from moving much besides my legs. The bandages on the body and my pounding headache told me that Harry had saved me, that bastard saved me even when I didn't want to be saved. And guessing by the police officers muffled voices outside my hospital room they had caught my kidnapper and were about to reveal the news once I was ready. I half expected my family to show up, but I guess the shame of having a suicidal daughter was too much for even my brother to handle. 

Eventually a nurse notices that I am no longer asleep and calls the officers into my already cramped room. With smiles on their faces they congratulate me on my brilliant plan to lure Harry so he could finally be captured. They tell me that he will never see the light of day again, that he is in jail for life. I stare straight ahead as their words wash over me, tearing starting to stream down my face. He saved me but I couldn't save him. He sacrificed the only thing that had kept me from guaranteeing my death, himself. 

Soon I am released from the hospital after a psychologist deemed my fit for the real world with a recommendation for a recovery center of some sort. Harry's trial was set for later that day and I didn't feel the need to go. I tried to convince everyone that he hadn't kidnapped me, that it was all some big miss understanding but my statements were continually blamed on my development of "stockholm syndrome" and therefore could not influence the case one way or the other. 

Just as predicted, even when my screams of his innocents echoed in the court room, it did nothing to help Harry's case. I was psychotic girl that was manipulated by the man. The judge decided his guilt and he was sentenced to a life in prison. As Harry was dragged out of the courtroom and storm past the guards and try to hug him but someone catches me and I am only able to gentle touch my hand to his cheek. His green eyes look deeply into mine and for the first time I don't see anger or love, I see fear. In that moment my heart broke in two sharp jagged pieces and it was worse than I could have ever imagined.  

I fight the strong set of arms that kept me away from the only person I had ever truly loved. The next thing I knew Harry was gone and I was left with nothing. I was committed that night to the psych ward when I finally gave in and accepted defeat. It was over, we were over, I was over.