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Beep… beep… beep... the sound of rhythmic ticks droned on with short pauses in between. It was some time after her accident that the girl awoke from her coma, groggy and confused while she lay in a hospital bed. She looked to both corners of her teary eyes, taking in the rather plain aesthetics of her surroundings. Her thoughts were disorganized and erratic through the process of arousal, doing nothing more than paying mind to them as she was lost in her own little world. That is, until a soft voice had caught chimed from the side, causing her head to slowly turn towards the source. Within her gaze was an unimposing man dressed in scrubs. Staring at him for a few moments, she let out a low chirp, failing to form a word. It didn’t matter to the man though as he seemed a bit relieved she was even awake. Hurriedly, he walks over to the side of her bed.

“Joycelin?” The voice asked. “Joycelin, can you speak?” The man looked to the monitor to ensure her vitals were within acceptable levels, then turned his attention back to her. She tried to fix her eyes upon his, finding it a bit troublesome in the groggy state that plagued her. This time however, she managed to let out more than a chirp.

“Y.. yes…?” She wanted to say more but found it quite difficult to will out the words. It was as though her throat was parched and such a feeling made communication difficult. Hearing her speak a word the nurse stood up and smiled. He walked around to the foot of her bed and picked up a clipboard. He didn’t say much else as he gave her a little nod and left the room. Being alone again, she tended back to her scattered thoughts. Trying to make sense of the encounter, feeling as though hours had passed without any legible explanation for her own mind. After what was really only a few minutes she heard what sounded like two different voices in the distance. They were low and hard to hear, but she had a feeling it was something of her.

“Good morning Joycelin.” A different male voice sounded out. This time, it seemed a bit rougher to her than that of the first male. She turned her head to the side and saw a rather plump older man. He was smiling too, but it seemed to be less assuring to her, as though he didn’t seem as concerned. She spoke again, only able to let out yet another single word.

“Mo-morning?”

The older man looked to the nurse beside him and then back to her.

“Now Joycelin, since you’re awake I’m going to need you to move your left arm. Can you do that?” He lifted up his own left arm and made a light swinging motion to illustrate the action he asked of her. It took her a few moments to register the command before beginning an attempt at executing it. Her trunk would shift a bit from side to side and her left shoulder would twitch. She paused after a few twitches, then attempted it again. This time she felt her arm shift a bit. The older man could be seen writing down something on the clipboard he held, pausing to look back at her and then back to the clipboard. After several minutes of trying she was eventually able to lift her left arm ever so slightly off the ground for a second before it plopped back to her side.

“Very good Joycelin!” The older man smiled. She returned something akin to a smirk to him, feeling exhausted after the ordeal. Letting out a weak sigh she then closed her eyes, taking only a few minutes to slip into sleep.

---

Joycelin awoke to the sound of a metallic clang outside her room. It had been three weeks since her initial waking from the coma. Slowly throughout that time she began to regain her bearings. Unfortunately, even with such recovery she was still unable to recall anything from before the coma. From what she was told by the male nurse that had tended to her, she had suffered brain damage after falling through multiple stories of an abandoned hotel and suffered not only blunt trauma, but also damage due to oxygen deprivation at the time of the accident. She was told that she had damage to the posterior parietal cortex alongside damage to the hippocampus, which contributes to her lack of memory. Though she was a bit tired after being roused so suddenly, the morning light shining through the windows saw her perk up a bit and prepared her for the day ahead. She gazed at the clock which hung on the wall, humming to pass the time until breakfast arrived.

Knock knock, the door to her room opened as the male nurse walked in, tray in hand.

“Good morning Ms. Joycelin.” He chimed with a cheery smile. “I’ve brought you your breakfast. Today’s a bit of porridge with mixed berries, some toast and a kiwi.” He rested the tray upon the table beside her bed. “You’ve been improving at an incredible rate and I’ve been told that you’ll start your rehabilitation today.”

Joycelin took the tray from the table and sat it down upon her lap and begun eating. Her mind was wandering a bit during the meal. She felt a bit of confusion while thinking of the nurse. Why was he the only one that would tend to her? Sure, there were practitioners, but he was the only nurse to ever see her. The wandering lasted only a short while as she had finished the meal rather quick, not even realizing how fast it had gone down. She sighed a bit, realizing that she likely had gotten more food on herself than in her mouth. She then Sat in silence with an empty tray, waiting patiently for him to return.

After about thirty minutes there’s a knock on her door again. This time, the nurse emerges from behind it with a wheelchair in tow.

“Its been quite a while since you’ve walked on your own so I’ve brought a wheelchair to ensure we don’t have any problems along the way.” He didn’t seem to really make mention of the food over her hospital gown but rather, while he waited for her to get into the chair he made sure to secure the intravenous bag on a little perch protruding from one of the arms.

Meanwhile, Joycelin made sure to steady herself and take each action slowly, wanting to see how far she could make it before requiring his help. Staring at one of the footpads on the chair she tried to line up one of her own feet and place it down, missing each little thrust she put. Annoyed, she huffed and stuck out an arm, prompting the man to help her into the chair. With the external help it was a quick couple minutes getting her into the chair where she made herself comfy. However, before they left the room the nurse pulled out a syringe capped and began injecting a clear fluid down the IV line.

“Don’t worry about this.” He said with a reassuring smile. “It’s just a mild painkiller. It’s a precautionary procedure we do for patients who begin walking as we often hear complaints of aches and pains.” She felt a bit uneasy about it, but when he smiled she felt herself relax a bit and they had begun their trip to the rehabilitation room.

“So what can I expect from this rehabilitation?” She asked as she was wheeled around.

“We’ll start you off with simple exercises first, such as standing and sitting, then walking short distances while holding onto support bars. Don’t worry though, there’ll definitely be breaks in between.” She nodded and hummed to herself for the rest of the trip.

Upon entering the rehab centre Joycelin noticed it seemed rather empty. She was expecting maybe to see other people through various processes or even some more advanced gadgets to aide in walking. Rather, all she saw was a little strip of two rails with enough space to walk between and a… bed? She blinked a couple of times then turned her head back to look at the nurse.

“Why is there a bed in here?” She had an eyebrow cocked and an inquisitive look about her face

He stammered a bit. “W-well, sometimes patients find it easiest to use a bed for sitting and standing. It has better elevation for them you see.” He wheeled her to the start of the test strip, tapping the handles of the chair and remaining silent until another man walked into the room. With that the nurse let go of the chair and motioned towards the other man. With a nod he walked over to Joycelin and spoke.

“Good morning Joycelin, I’ll be looking after your rehabilitation. Now then, first thing’s first. I’d like you to try and stand up.” He leaned over and held out his arms in a way that would catch her should she fall. Though, to her surprise, she found it a bit easy to stand and sit. A little wobbly while doing so, but otherwise it seemed fine. It made her question why it was such a big deal in the first place if. Her questioning was cut short though when the doctor spoke again.

“You seem to have little trouble with the first portion of the exercise which is good news. With that said, I need you now to grasp each railing.” She lashed out a hand towards a railing and missed it completely, overshooting the trajectory. With grunt she tried again, this time undershooting it. She felt herself getting irritated with the inability of doing such a simple thing and quickly thrusted her arm towards the railing nearly causing her to topple over, but was saved thanks to the doctor’s readiness. Standing up straight the doctor guided her hands to both rails and instructed her some more.

“Make sure you grasp them tightly. You’re going to need to start walking forward, one step at it time. It’s not a race so you can stop if you need to catch your breath.” Looking ahead, she placed a foot clumsily in front of her, then repeated the action with the other foot. Her progress was slow but she was able to take a couple of steps forward, bumping into the rail each time. With her third step forward however, she felt her hands beginning to shake. Another step forward and her body was starting to shake. It didn’t feel right to her.

“Why am I shaking?” She thought. “This doesn’t feel right. I don’t feel tired, so why is my body shaking?” She felt herself beginning to panic as the shaking of her body progressed to sharper tremors. Turning her head, the two men saw the frightened expression upon her face. She wanted to shout out help, to tell them that something wasn’t right, but found it greatly difficult. Slowly, the shaking was subsiding and in its stead, was what felt like paralysis. She couldn’t move her hands as they locked up. Soon after her arms began to lock up as well and she fell to the floor. Unable to move her body or even speak her anxiety spiked as she lay there helpless, fully aware of what was going on around her. A shrill laugh echoed in her ears as her body was picked up and laid out upon the bed, her back feeling the cold air of the room as her gown is thrown open and an antiseptic is washed over an area of her spine.

“Well doctor.” Said the male nurse. “I believe she’s ready for testing.” His voice dripped with malevolence

“Very well. She is portraying signs of Parkinson’s disease. It seems that the metabolization of the MPTP has worked quite quickly. I’ll leave the tap to you.” He had begun making his way out the door. “When you’re done please refer her to the Pathologist. We’ll need “autopsies” done on her.” And with that the door to the room was slammed shut.

The nurse seemed to take his time, talking to her in such a light and calming tone while his face was wrought with malicious glee.

“It’s alright. It’ll be over all before you know it. Soon you’ll be free!” He tapped her nose. Her heart was pounding wildly and she wanted to scream out loud for help, but she was still frozen; joints locked and muscles stiff.

“Now, you may feel a little discomfort” He says as he shows her a long needle. Such needle, when taken aware from her gaze was jammed into her spine. No local anesthetic to dull the pain or the burning feeling of such a thing. He jiggled it around a bit, hearing a whimper from her and looking at the needle, realizing no fluid was coming out.

“Hmm, it seems we’ll have to try for another spot!” He quickly the needle out and jams in into her spine again, this time a bit deeper. Her eyes began to tear and fluid had begun to drip from the needle. With the samples collected he firmly pressed cotton swabs over the needle sites and tapped them down. Setting the samples into a tray he then picked a blindfold up and slid it over her eyes.

“Now I and the doctor know you’re still alive but, well, we don’t want the pathologist knowing about this.” He snickered a bit and wheeled her out of the room on the bed. Her final destination, the autopsy.