Jason

Chapter 1

The light blinds him, his head hurts. The cold hard ground of winter seeps into his body making him colder then he should be. He's alone, cold, and very tired, but he doesn't seem to know why. Slowly he opens his eyes slightly just enough to see his surroundings. He sees the forest he is in and the dead leaves as they litter the ground. His body aches from head to toe, but he can't remember why.

Slowly he sits up, and even that little bit of moving seems to take what little energy he has. He looks down and notices that he is naked, but what shocks him the most is the dried blood that he is covered in.

‘Where? How?' he thinks to himself.

Slowly he gets himself up off the ground and leans against the tree. More pain shoots through him, a pain he has never known before hits his left leg and right arm. Slowly he starts to walk, more limping then walking. He sees a little embankment and starts that way. As he approaches the embankment he can tell it is right next to a road. Slowly he starts to climb, but falls and cries out in pain. There is no one there to help him.

He cries lying on his side; he is in pain the most terrible pain he can remember. Slowly he gets back and on hands and knees makes his way up the embankment. After what feels like hours but only a few minutes he reaches the top and collapses right next to the road. He allows the dark nothing to take him and let him escape from the pain that is coursing through his body.

The next think he is aware of is a warm blanket being placed over him, and small murmurs, he must be dreaming he thinks.

Slowly he drifts back off unaware of his new surroundings or what has been happening since he was found.

Voices that seem far away and like a dream come to him. He hears them but cannot make them out. Slowly he focuses and hears them more clearly.

“Yes he was just found by the side of the road. He hasn't woken up yet.” He heard.

‘Who were they talking about' he wonders to himself. He tries to move but his body feels so heavy. Like there is a blanket of concrete on top of him. He slowly starts to open his eyes then quickly shuts them. The light is too bright and is blinding him and causing a headache. He winces in pain. Who ever was in the room heard him.

“Shhh it's alright. You're safe now, I promise.” He hears. Slowly he opens his eyes and sees a lady in a nurse's outfit.

She smiles down at him. “Calm down honey it is alright. You're safe.” She says.

“Wh….what…happ….happened?” he asked. Looking at her with pleading eyes. She smiled at him again.

“We don't know honey we were hoping you can tell us. Let me call the doctor in for you.” She said. She hit the button and told who ever was on the other line that he was awake and to get the doctor.

A few minutes later the doctor walks in. He is looking at a chart and reading some stuff on it. He turns and looks at the boy.

“Hello there young man. I'm Doctor Cunningham. How are you feeling today?” he asks in a cheery voice.

“Hurt.” Was all he could say? The doctor smiled down at him again.

“Yes I would imagine that you are. You have been hurt pretty badly; we were hoping you could tell us your name.” He said looking down at him.

The boy seemed to think about that for a moment, and after a few moments looked up at the doctor.

“I don't remember.” He said and started crying. ‘Who am I?' he asked himself crying even harder. The doctor and nurse look at him sympathetically.

“Shhhhh don't worry, we will find out. I am not surprised that you don't remember. You had a nasty crack on the back of your head.” The doctor said, while he started examining him. “Do you remember anything at all?” he asked.

The boy seemed to think about that for a minute.

“I remember waking up in a forest. I was hurting and covered in blood.” He stopped for a moment to catch his breath. “I remember trying to climb up a small hill or incline or something. I fell down then got back up a few minutes later. The last thing I remember was lying next to a road.” He said with silent tears running down his face.

The doctor was nodding his head, and writing stuff down on the chart. “So you don't know what has all happened to you?”

he asked. By the look in his eyes the boy could see sympathy and sadness for the boy.

“No sir.” Was all he could say, he couldn't remember who he was, where he was from or anything like that?

“As I said I'm not surprised, I won't tell you all that has happened to you but I will tell you that your left leg has a fracture in it. It will take about 6 weeks to heal. We put it in a cast. Usually we would use a half cast or soft case for it, but we weren't sure how you got yourself in the situation that you did and we felt it best to put a full cast on just incase. Also your right arm is broken in two places that one we had to put in a cast as well. It will take about 8 weeks to heal.

I am not going to go over everything that is wrong with you right now. You have a lot of healing to do and right now I don't think that you need anything else added to it. Just so you know you will heal completely. It will take sometime; also I am going to be sending in a friend of mine to talk with you. Maybe he can help you remember what happened to you.” Doctor Cunningham said.

“Ok thanks” the boy said. Cunningham and the nurse left a few minutes later after writing some more stuff on his chart.

As he lies there he tried to remember anything that he could about what happened to him but nothing came to mind. Slowly he fell asleep and slipped into darkness.

Screams and faces came and went; swirls of images that he didn't know or recognizes appeared and disappeared. Screaming he wakes up and cries, there was the same nurse there trying to comfort him, but it is no use the images are fresh in his mind and he is terrified of them. He feels something in his hip and then he slowly stops his crying, as the nurse seems to say something but he can't make it out. He is too tired now, ‘what was going on?'

The sun is shining through his window now and he feels the warmth of it on his face. He slowly opens his eyes. A dull headache has replaced the sharp pains that came to him at first.

“Where...” he starts then stops, he starts to remember the hospital and the nurses and doctor who took care of him. He notices the clock on the way 9:30 am it reads. He has been out all night. He feels the tenderness in his hip and remembers the injection that the nurse gave him.

“Hey there sunshine how do you feel this morning?” a nurse asks as she comes in bringing breakfast to him. He smiles at her.

“Fine, I'm still hurting though. Feels like something is stabbing me in my leg.” He says wincing.

“Awwww dear I'm sorry, but as soon as you eat we'll get you something for your pain. Now eat up.” She says putting the tray of food on the tray that is next to the bed.

Slowly he starts to try and eat, but he finds that his can't use his left hand.

“Oh dear you must be right handed. I'm sorry dear, but you are going to have to try and eat with your left for now ok?” she says. He nods his head and starts to eat again and the nurse leaves his room. About 15 minutes later she returns and gives him two pills. “Here you go dear, take these, they will help deal with the pain. They may make you sleepy.” She warns. He nods his head and takes the pills, with his orange juice that is on the tray.

A few minutes later an orderly comes in and takes the tray, and walks out. Slowly he feels himself start to drift off to sleep. Again the nightmares and images of people and places invade his dream. He awakens once more crying, and screaming. Instead of a nurse there's a man there who helps to comfort him. After a few minutes he calms down and slowly stops his crying. The man hands him a napkin and he wipes his eyes and blows his nose.

“Thank you.” He says to the man.

“Your welcome I'm Dr. Connor, I'm a psychiatrist, and I have been asked to come and talk with you. Good thing that I was able to come this morning that seemed like a nasty nightmare you had. Would you like to tell me about it?” he asks smiling at him.

At first he is weary of the man but soon starts telling him about the nightmares that he has had.

“I don't know how to start; I see images and sometimes people's faces. I can't really make out who they are or where I'm at, but I do know that they are hurting me. It is like I can feel the pain that they are causing me.” He says and starts crying again. Dr. Connor gives him a minute to clam down.

“Ok well let's get to that in a minute. Do you know how you got here to the hospital?” he asks.

“No sir.” The boy replies. Dr. Connor nods his head and writes something down.

“Ok, do you know how you got into the woods?” he asked. Once again the boy said no. “What do you remember?” he asks. Thinking about it for a moment the boy shook his head.

“Nothing. I remember waking in the woods hurting, making it to the top of the embankment then nothing till I woke up yesterday. Or earlier today or whenever.” He says. Dr. Connor nods his head.

“Ok. According to Dr. Cunningham you have a bad knock on the back of your head. I am not going to go into everything till he gets hear, but it is not uncommon for you to have amnesia right now after taking a hard hit on your head. Now over time I will be able to help you remember things, but sometimes memories will come back on there own.

Maybe a smell or a face sometimes a scene will cause you to remember. Now whenever this happens I want you to write it down so you won't forget it. Together I think that we will be able to help piece back your memories.

It will seem like it will take forever but I promise you that it won't. I cannot tell you how many times people think that they would never get there memories back but they do. So I don't want you thinking that you won't ever get them back because you will, it will just take some time before they all will come back to you. Do you have any questions for me?”

Dr. Connor asked.

The boy thought for a minute then shook his head. Dr. Connor smiled.

“Ok then I will be back in a bit with Dr. Cunningham to talk about what has all happened to you.” He said. With that he walked out of the room, leaving the boy there to think about what he was told.

‘It may take a long time before I get any of my memories back. But how much have I missed in my life because of this' he thought to himself as he waited for the doctors to come back in and see him.

After about two hours both Dr. Connor and Dr. Cunningham appeared back in the boy's room just as he finished his lunch.

“Hey there young man how are you feeling?” asked Dr. Cunningham smiling at him.

“Ok I guess. I am tired and still hurting, but other wise I'm ok.” He said lying back and propping his leg up on the pillow that was brought to him. Dr. Cunningham smiled down at him.

“That is normal as I told you before you are going to be sore for a long time, but you will heal and get better, that I promise you. Now I think we need to talk, I told you I would tell you what has all happened to you. The reason why I asked Dr. Connor to be here is because your leg, arm and head are not the only things that were damaged.

You don't realize it but you have been here for about a week now. You have been sedated most of that time because of the damage that was done to you. I don't know if you have noticed or not but you have a catheter in you. That is basically a hose with a balloon on it. It is inserted up your penis to your bladder. Once there it is inflated and is used to catch your urine. That way you won't have to get up as much.

The reason that we had to do that is because you have been on pain pills and injections for the last week so you haven't noticed several things. First, you appendix has been removed. Your appendix is a sack that is on the lower part of your intestines. It is near your groin area. It really isn't used for anything and no doctor has been able to tell what function it has, we just have it.

Next you had to have an operation on your spine the damage was severe. It looked like someone kicked or stomped on your back several times. You had 3-cracked vertebra and 4 disks that were damaged or completely destroyed. We had to remove the 4 disk and insert what we call cages in your back. They go in between the vertebra to help fill in the space and give support for in between the vertebra. There are 4 rods in your back to help hold your spine in place and 12 screws to help hold the rods in place.

The 3-cracked vertebras are in the area where the disks are so the rods will help them heal. You may experience pain down your leg and lower back some, but hopefully that will pass. If not you will be put on permanent pain relievers, they will help control your pain and any pain that you will experience from the surgery as well.

As I told you your leg was fractured but what I didn't tell you is that there are rods and screws in your leg as well. I didn't want to worry you right then or I would have told you. They are there to make sure that the fracture doesn't get any worse. Also with how deep the fracture was we felt it was best to go ahead and put them in there.

Your right arm is broke and is in the cast. It will take 8 weeks to heal but there are no rods, screws or pins in your arm.” Dr. Cunningham said smiling and stopping briefly. “Most of your bruises are either healed or are healing. You have multiple bruises all over your body; I wish I knew how you got them. Some look like you were slapped and others looked as if you were punched.

Now for your head, as I told you before and Dr. Connor told you again you had a bad crack on the back of your head. By what the x-rays show someone took something and hit you repeatedly in the back of your head. There was some swelling of the brain but that seems to have passed or you wouldn't be awake right now. According to the x-rays it also showed that your jaw was broken at least one time, it is healed so we don't know how long ago it was.” Dr. Cunningham stopped for a moment and looked at Dr. Connor; they looked at each other for a few moments before Dr. Connor nodded his head for Dr. Cunningham to continue.

“Son this is probably the worse part, of what I have to tell you, and honestly I really don't know how to tell you this.”

He started.

“Just tell me doc please.” The boy pleaded, Dr. Cunningham looked at him for a minute then grabbed the chair and sat next to the bed. Taking the boys hand he began to tell him the last part of what was wrong with him.

“Ok well here it is. You see the last thing that we did was to see if you were sexually assaulted. To do that we put a scope down your throat and swab it to see what is in there and then we turn you over and look at your anus. We swab there and look for any damage that might have been done if you were assaulted. I really don't know what to say especially to someone who is so young. I'm sorry but by the evidence that we gathered you were sexually assaulted. By the semen samples we got there were at least 3 different men that did it.” Dr. Cunningham stopped right there.

Dr. Connor came up to the other side of the bed.

“How do you feel now that you were told about this?” he asked him, looking for any signs as to what the boy was feeling.

“I don't know how I feel. Numb, scared, even tired, right now I just don't know. How old am I?” he asked the doctors.

Dr. Cunningham answered.

“By what we have seen and the test that we ran, the lack of hair on your body except for your head, eyebrows and the small patch of pubic hair you are about 13 maybe 14.” He said. The boy nodded his head and then just sighed.

“Ok so I don't remember any of this. Good I don't think I could handle remembering everything that happened to me. I told you about the nightmares and the blurry images I saw, right now that's I all I have.” He said lying back more on the bed.

The boy was scared and numb more than anything else. He didn't know what to think or how to feel about finding out what was all done to him.

“Well is there anything else you want to know?” Dr. Cunningham asked him. The boy shook his head. “If you need anything let us know.”

“I'll be back later to talk with you.” Dr. Connor said, as both doctors walked out the door.

The boy lied back and just waited for the tears. There were none. He didn't know why but there weren't. Finally he just stared out the window and watched the day go by.

About an hour later a realization hit him, he saw a bird flying past his window and a memory came to him.

He saw a woman calling to him; she was about 5'6 with shoulder length brown hair. He couldn't make out her face only her height and hair but her face was blurry and he saw himself running up to her and hugging her, and then there was another set of arms around him and it was a man smiling down at him a tall man with big arms but like with the lady he couldn't make out his face only that he was tall with short hair either a dirty blonde or a light brown. They said something and at first he didn't hear it but after listening he heard what they said.

“I got it.” He exclaimed sitting up in bed a little to fast. He felt the pain that his body was going through for his sitting up to fast.

“You got what?” asked Dr. Connor and Cunningham said at the same time as they both ran into the room.

“My name, I remember my name…its Jason.”

To Be Continued ...