For some people, I'm sure aftercare scenes are extraneous. For me, however, they're the cherry on top that completes the presentation.
EPILOGUE:
The next couple of hours passed in a disjointed haze as Katie found herself unable to retain consciousness for more than a few minutes at a time. She was aware of someone releasing her bruised and bloodied wrists from the manacles, but she didn't know for how long afterward she lay on the ground. Long enough anyway for the crowd to disperse and the troopers to be long gone. She was aware of two people standing over her, there were voices, indistinct but vaguely familiar and then hands, the first kind hands to touch her in what felt like an eternity. They lifted her onto her feet and held her up as they left that terrible square. She knew they brought her inside a building, but couldn't tell which one. The next thing she remembered after that was slowly waking up indoors, a pungent antiseptic smell tickling her nose.
She didn't open her eyes right away, instead taking stock of her sensations. She lay on her stomach, on something soft and comfortable. She could feel that the prison shorts were gone, and a blanket was thrown over her bare legs. Her back remained open to the air. The pain was still very present, a throbbing burn, but no longer mounting. Just constant. She heard the voices again. Quite close by. Two voices, male and female. She recognized them. The male voice belonged to Aaron, and the other was Danielle. And then there was that smell. She opened her eyes.
She was back in her own room, in her apartment in the dorms. Her own bed, her own posters on the yellow-painted cinder block walls, her own clothes! She felt something like elation. Aaron paced anxiously on the other side of the room.
"Are you sure we can't bring her to a hospital?" Aaron asked. "She's in a really bad way."
Danielle sat next to Katie on the side of the bed. She was holding a jar of antiseptic cream: the source of the smell. She shook her head in response to Aaron.
"No chance," she said. "Hospitals are prohibited from treating state disciplinary injuries. Remember? We couldn't go either." Aaron glanced over at Katie's back, then crossed his arms and glared out the window.
"Bastards," he muttered.
Danielle scooped some of the cream onto her fingers and gently dabbed it onto one of Katie's welts. It stung badly, and Katie stirred, hissing. Danielle retracted her hand.
"Oh my god, Katie, you're awake!" said Danielle. "No, don't try to move too much! Take it easy, you're okay now." She watched Katie with deep concern in her kind brown eyes. With a great effort, Katie turned her head to face Danielle, wincing at the pain in her back. She looked at her friends with a watery hazel gaze.
"Thank you guys," she choked, her voice a raspy whisper, worn out from her screaming. "How do I look?"
Danielle grimaced, then leaned forward and took Katie's hand in hers.
"Like you'll get better," she said, and smiled a deeply pained smile. Katie returned her smile weakly.
"How do you feel?" asked Aaron. Katie winced.
"Like I have a lot of getting better to do," she rasped. Aaron frowned, then turned to look back out the window.
"You and everyone else," he said quietly.
Danielle held up the jar of cream.
"Can I...?" she asked. Katie closed her eyes.
"Go for it," she said. She buried her face back in the bedding and bit down on the pillow.
As Danielle resumed dabbing the cream onto Katie's welts, Katie slowly began to sink back into unconsciousness. When she heard a quiet tapping from across the room, she wasn't quite sure if she was dreaming or not. She forced her eyes open and looked towards the source of the noise. It came from the window, where outside on the ledge, a robin had landed and was tapping on the glass. Katie looked at the bird, and felt sure that it looked back at her. Then it began to sing. Katie smiled, and closed her eyes, and for the first time, felt the pain of the lashes beginning to slip away.
-sessnatz.