The Day The Sun Fell From The Sky Read Online Free Page B

am refusing to look at the screen. “This is the real you. Not many people get to see themselves in such an intimate way. You think you know who you really are but you don’t. People like to give themselves narratives so that they can pretend to have some sort of purpose. Then they act out the part that they play in whatever narrative they think that they happen to be in.”
    On the screen, the girl is doing something that I haven’t done in a long time. She’s crying. No longer having the energy or the voice to scream, she pleads with her eyes.
    “Here you are with nothing to hide behind. There’s no cause to follow. No family to protect. No history to conceal. It’s just you. This video reveals who you are deep down. The core you. The person that you hope no one else will ever see. You can learn a lot about yourself from this footage. I think you should really thank us.” The supervising soldier continues to mutter in my ear.
    “What you’re showing me happened in the past. It’s already been done. Making me watch it doesn’t hurt me in the present.” Actually that’s a lie but I’ll go with it. “All it does is to show me that I was hurt in the past. I don’t need to see the video to know that I was hurt. I have scars on me to prove that.”
    “You might like to add to those scars.” He says softly.
    Before I can fully make sense of what that sentence means, the muscles on my back in my shoulder begin to spasm involuntarily causing a painful yelp to escape my lips.
    “We’re not even half way through the footage yet. I’d hate to have to pause every five minutes just because you’re not paying attention.” He shows me the dial in his hand.
    “Looks painful.” Vinn is taunting me in the video.
    “You have… daughters and nieces too.” My screen self tells them , earning a loud round of laughter from all the soldiers.
    “Which is why we wouldn’t want your wounds to become infected.” Vinn says after the laughter has died down.
    Another soldier steps onto the screen and I recognize him as the soldier supervising my “education”.
    “This is Kov.” Says Vinn. “Padd’s second in command.”
    In the real world, Kov is smoking, just like his video self.
    “The Captain wants to disinfect you.” He says to me in the video. “I would not have been so kind.”
    Then he digs his cigarette into an open wound on my chest.
    The girl’s screams pierce through me as the footage and the cigarette smoke in the room trigger my real memory of the incident. For the first time, my reactions match my memory and I flinch with real pain.
    “Please turn it off.” I tell Kov, trying to keep the panic out of my voice.
    “It’s coming back to you, isn’t it?” He laughs.
    I don’t answer because the girl in the video is screaming again and I have to close my eyes. My shoulders explode with pain again causing my affirmative answer to be much louder than I had intended.
    “See? Now it wasn’t that hard to answer my question, was it?” He asks me.
    “No.” I whisper.
    In the video, the girl’s screams become more pitiful. “Please!”
    “If I had shot you instead of that stupid girl, Padd would still be alive.” His voice is seeping with hatred in the video.
    “You… shot Ath.” I gasp in the video.
    “Is that what her name was?” He says with distain.
    I’m locked in a room with a man who set a girl on fire and feels no remorse over her death. I’ve never had homicidal thoughts before but I know that if I was in a position to kill, this Kov guy would be at the top of my list.
    “You liked watching your friend die, didn’t you?” He speaks into my ear again.
    That is not a question that I am ever going to answer so I brace myself because I know the shock is going to come. Then I let him electrocute me until I pass out.

Rehabilitation
    Once again I awaken to water being poured across my face. How many more blackouts do I have to go through before it becomes permanent? I don’t want to