Monsters - Chapter 36 – Broken – Part 2 of 2

 Monsters

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 36 – Broken – Part 2 of 2

 

She stepped up onto the bus at the Los Angeles Bus Terminal.  She found an empty seat and sat down.  The woman travelling with her, sat next to her.  She didn’t know the woman’s name, or anything about her.  Nor did she care.  They would simply be travelling together until they got to Sacramento, then the other woman would board another bus to take her somewhere else, while she took another bus toward home.  Indianapolis.

As the bus departed the station, her name ran though her head, Sally Logan.  Her other more recent name was there too, Sally Sweetlips.  She had vague memories of some woman and some…place that she had been at, but they were vague.  Not important.  She didn’t know that all her memories of the breaking house and what had been done to her had already been completely erased from her mind, never to be remembered again.  The only important thing that she knew now, was that she was going back to Indianapolis, she had grown tired of her life as a hooker, and for the first time ever, she had a clear direction of what she wanted to do with her life.

She didn’t know if what family she had in Indianapolis would except her or not.  In truth, it didn’t matter.  All that mattered to her was what she wanted to do…what she wanted to be – a nurse.  She wanted badly to dedicate herself to helping people in any way she could.  Her memories of her life on the streets had taught her much about suffering, now she wanted to do something, anything, to relieve the suffering in others – particularly women if she could.  She was determined to study, and study hard.  She was determined to work tirelessly for the rest of her life, all to achieve her goal – to be the best damn nurse she possibly could.  And she knew without a doubt that she would be able to do it.

If her family wouldn’t accept her back, she had a card in her wallet with ten thousand dollars available on it to get her started.  She would do whatever she needed to do now to follow her goal…her dream – nursing.  Anything…except hooking again.  Never again.  Never!  She was beyond that now.  She had grown.  She had confidence in herself now that she never had before.  Confidence that had something to do with that strange lady that she vaguely remembered.

As the bus hit the highway and headed north, all her memories of Janice, that strange lady, vanished from her mind – permanently.  A little while later, she no longer had any memories of the place where Janice had worked with her.  Shortly after that, she no longer had any memory of the name Sally Sweetlips.  She remembered none of that at all.  She only had muted memories of hooking in Los Angeles, something she would never do again. 

A smile crept across her lips and stayed there.  For the first time in her life, she had something to look forward to.  For the first time she knew what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.  For the first time in her life…she was happy.

 

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Brandy laid on her bed and cried.  Her body was curled up into the same horrible position again.  Her head was held up by the pillows under it.  As much as she absolutely hated the position, it was the only one she was comfortable in anymore.  This was now how her body was used to being.  As horrible as it was…as much as she hated it…this was her new comfort zone.  But Brandy didn’t think about any of that.  None of it.  She was afraid.  And now, lying there as she was, all her mind could see was that blank beige wall and nothing else.  Blankness.

She could almost feel that cage surrounding her again, making sure she couldn’t move the slightest muscle.  She could hear that door opening behind her and the men coming in to use her however they wished…whenever they wished.  She could feel the hopelessness of her situation as they raped both ends of her…hurting her…not caring one bit about her…because she wasn’t a person.  She was an object.  A thing.

Just thinking about men now…any man.  All men.  Just the thought of a man brought all those images and emotions back to her.  That’s what men could do to her.  That’s what men did do to her.  And she was helpless to prevent it.

Helpless.  Useless.  Nothing to them.  An object.  A…nothing.

The beige wall loomed in her mind.  The confining cage crushed her body…and her emotions.

She was helpless.

She was afraid.

Men.

 

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Carol stared at Brandy’s closed bedroom door.  According to Natalia, Brandy had gone back to bed and was napping.  She wasn’t so sure.  She feared that Brandy was sinking down into a fit of depression.  But there was nothing she could do about that…because she didn’t know how to handle that.  She was used to handling rougher situations.  Give her good fight any day!  Someone she could punch…beat up…shoot!  She wasn’t good at these emotional situations. 

She left Brandy and headed outside.  She went to the barn, searching for her mother.  Her mother was easy to find, all she had to do was find the biggest knot of people since her mother always had servants and helpers around her.  She didn’t know what they were all discussing, and she didn’t care.  “Mom?”

Janice looked up.  “Ah, Carol dear.  How is Brandy?”

“Can I talk to you about that?”

Janice noticed the worried expression on her daughter’s face.  “Of course,” she replied.  “Let’s head back toward the house.”

The two of them began walking slowly back toward the large house.  “What’s wrong?” Janice asked.

“Brandy,” Carol replied.  “I tried to get her to go for a walk earlier, but it didn’t last long before she made a beeline straight back to her room.  And when we walked, she specifically wanted to go anywhere except near the barn.”

“Why was that?”

“Because…”  Carol stopped walking and turned to face her mother.  “She said, she’s afraid.”

“Afraid?”

“Afraid…of men.  I guess, there are men in the barn, but nowhere else.”

Janice looked at her daughter for a moment before saying, “I guess that’s mostly true.”  She didn’t bother mentioning Mr. Wu staying in the house.  From what little she had heard now of Brandy’s “experience,” she thought she fully understood.  “Carol, Brandy has been through something horrible.  It’s going to have some major psychological ramifications.  You don’t go through something like that without it leaving scars.”

“Yeah,” Carol replied, “but she was always so strong, but now…she’s…not.  She’s different.”

“She’s afraid.”

“Yes!  Brandy was never afraid of anything.  Anything!”

“No.  And neither are you.  You were both like a pair of bookends.  The same, but still separate.”

“How do I help her?” Carol asked.  “What can I do for her?  This isn’t some fight I can just go and win, this is…”  She threw her hands up in the air.  “I can’t handle this kind of situation.  I don’t know how.”

Janice smiled.  “No.  Emotional and psychological issues are not exactly your strong points.”

“But they’re yours,” Carol pointed out.

“Somewhat,” Janice agreed.

“So how can I help her?  What can I do?”

“I don’t know,” Janice replied.  “She’s going to need time, that’s one thing.  But beyond that, you may have to consider something else.  Something that’s far more troubling.”

Carol didn’t like the sound of that.  “What?”

“Carol, I haven’t had a chance yet to speak with Alfonso about what he did.  I’ve only worked with him once and the interrogators are speaking with him right now.  Later, I plan on speaking with him at length before I…get rid of him.  But from everything we know already, his mental conditioning program was designed to break the spirits and minds of all the women that were brought to him.  Those cages were his first step.  He essentially removed their minds from their bodies, not allowing them to be anything except helpless receptacles for whatever tortures his men wanted to inflict.  Those cages were designed to do one thing and one thing only.  And to do it quickly.  Break the women.  No drugs, nothing but mental torture.”

“It had to be miserable,” Carol agreed.

“Carol, you may have to face the facts of something I’m sure you don’t want to consider.”

“What’s that?”

“That Brandy is broken.”

 

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“Damn it!” Vince Beastman yelled loudly as he turned his phone off.  “Where the hell is he?”  He turned to his three best friends who were almost always around him.  “I can’t sit here anymore.  Get the car.  We’re going on a little road trip.  We’re going to find out why Al won’t answer his damn phone!”

 

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Susan’s phone rang.  It rang dozens of times every day.  Some of it was for business pertaining to where she was now and the project they were currently working on with Janice, but much of it had nothing at all to do with that and was just more of their normal business.  This call however concerned something that was more pertinent to what they were doing now.  “Yes?” she said as she put her phone to her ear.

“Miss Wu,” the Chinese voice replied.  “It appears that Mr. Beastman is angry that Alfonso is not answering his calls.  He is getting ready to go up there now to find out why.”

Normally, that wouldn’t concern Susan at all, but this time, it was a troubling situation. 

“Are the FBI still up there?”

“We’re sure they’re going to be all over that place for at least the next week.”

“Yes, no doubt,” Susan agreed.  “Follow him, but put the word out, be prepared.  We may need to take him before the FBI can get their hands on him.”

“Yes Miss Susan,” the Chinese voice replied.

Susan ended the call and closed her phone.  Anyone showing up at that breaking house while the FBI were still there would probably wind up in the FBI”s hands for one reason or another.  Especially someone like Vince Beastman who would be known for what he was in Las Vegas.  She didn’t want Vince Beastman falling into the hands of the FBI or anyone else’s hands either.  He had a lot to answer for, mostly because of Carol and Brandy, not to mentions everything that had been happening, and was still happening back in Las Vegas. 

She looked back toward the house and saw Carol standing and talking with her mother.  Neither of them looked happy.  Whatever they were discussing appeared to be serious.  But so was this.  She headed for them.

“Carol,” Janice said to her daughter.  “Believe me, so far, I only know of one way to help Brandy, and that’s it.”

“You do.  What?” Carol replied hopefully.

“I have to go into her head and remove everything that Alfonso did to her, just like I did with those two whores we put on the bus earlier.”

Carol was horrified.  “No!  you can’t do that to her.”

“Carol, it may be the only way.  I can make her completely forget everything they did to her.  She’ll be just like she was before they captured her, only that entire experienced will be erased from her mind.  She’ll just be…missing a little bit of time.”

“But if you do that to her, then you’ve got to….”

“Yes.  It’s how I work.  It’s how the whole process works.”

“But…No!  I can’t put her through that.  There must be some other way.”

Janice shrugged.  “I still haven’t talked with Alfonso yet, but even then, I fear there may be no other way.  It will have to be either that, or she’ll have to learn to live with it.  And if you stay with her, you’ll have to learn to live with the…new Brandy.”

“No…” Carol lamented.

“Excuse me,” Susan said as she walked up.  “Sorry to interrupt whatever you’re talking about, but we’ve got a small situation.”

“What?” Carol asked.

“Beastman is heading for Alfonso’s property to find him.  Beastman has been trying to phone him repeatedly and of course, he never got an answer.  But the FBI are still crawling all over that place.”

“So what’s the big deal?” Carol asked.

“None, if you want to take the chance that the FBI will realize who he is and take him into custody.  I just thought you might want to do that yourself.  For Brandy’s sake if nothing else.”

Carol’s face set sternly.  “You’re damn right, I do,” she agreed.  “I want to rip his head off, personally!”

“That’s what I thought.  Not to mention he’ll probably have far more information about what’s happening in Las Vegas than Alfonso has.”

“Yeah, that too,” Carol replied. 

“Do you want to lead the team to grab him, or shall I just let our people do it?”

“No.  I want to be there.  I can’t wait to get my hands on him.”

“Then let’s talk about how we’re going to do it,” Susan suggested.

“And I’ll have a little chat with Brandy,” Janice added.

“No!” Carol said quickly.  “Don’t…”

“Don’t worry,” Janice told her.  “I said just a chat.  Nothing more.  I’ll just talk to her and find out what she’s been though and what’s going through her mind now.”

“Oh.  Good!” Carol replied.

“What’s the problem?” Susan asked.

“Brandy,” Janice told her.  “She was in Alfonso’s breaking house for quite a while.  She’s…broken.”