Standing before “the counsel,” I shake and shutter. They have laid out my past verbally and now they intend to show the scars of it. She comes up from behind me to rip off the only thing standing between my bare body and their eyes. Dropping to the cold floor, I instinctively try to cover myself. My heart is broken, and my being can do nothing but speak of it.
They scrutinize both subjectively and objectively. My skin burns under their laser beam gaze. Oh! that I could die right here. Then I could escape. Then they would be sorry. Then they would know what this has done to my heart and me.
I can’t take this anymore!
I grab the covering from her hand and run. Pulling it around myself as I flee from their presence. But not for long. The door to the hall closes before me. My body hits the door as a vain attempt to make the ancient gates budge. I’m still trapped in their examination room.
Their good intentions are to help. But there is no warmth in this room. No blood-filled hand reaches towards me in comfort. Icy fingers grip my arms, pulling me back to my starting position. Internally crushed, I choose not to fight them. Back in my original state, I lay bare in the middle of the cold floor, their unrelenting eyes setting my skin on fire.