***16 March 2005 – Dying
“Good morning Aaricia.”
The girl opened one of her eyes and when she realized where she was, realized that everything that felt like a bad dream had in fact really happened, she started feeling very scared.
She stared with big scared eyes into those of Vernant.
“It’s ok Aaricia. You won’t be hurt, now come.”, he comforted her, but this only made her feel more frightened.
She remembered what happened yesterday.. the first stage of the brainwash. She remembered how they had drugged her and then projected some sort of brainwaves on her. She remembered how thoughts had entered her mind, how she had tried to fight them, those pro-Imperial thoughts that weren’t hers.. but they had taken control over her.. she remembered how they asked her to yell how much she hated the Rebellion, and her family. The scariest thing was that at one point she had actually believed these things.
She had believed that her family
had been terrorist traitors and therefore were killed, that Jason, Lolita, mum
and dad were evil people who deserved this and that they had ‘poisoned’
Aaricia’s mind and this way forced her into the Rebellion. She had believed
that she was lucky that the good Empire had saved her from this evil terrorist
family and now was curing her poor ‘abused’ mind. She had believed that
she was in fact sick and they were curing her..
NO! She had to get out of here!
“Come Aaricia.”
He entered the other part of the laboratory. Aaricia
stared left of her, at the door, guarded by stormtroopers that were staring at
her from behind their masks. Guarding so that she couldn’t escape..
“It’s ok Aaricia. I’m only helping you. Now come, sit on
the bed.”, he said with a soft, calm voice and he showed her a smile.
“No.”, she said to him with a scared voice, “I don’t want
this, I’M NOT SICK!”
“You have no other choice, you cannot
escape.”, he said to her calmly, “Now come, don’t make it hard on yourself.
Soon this will be over.”
“I will die.”, she said and tears formed in her
eyes.
Vernant grabbed her with force, she started kicking him but he
pinned an injection into one of her arms. After a few seconds Aaricia felt very
dizzy and weak, he carried her onto the bed and strapped her limbs.
“You are killing me!”, she shouted in panic, “You know
that! You are killing a friend of yours you $#^@*!!”
Then she saw the Imperial officer, standing left of her,
staring at her.
They used her as a guinea pig.. and soon she would even
appreciate this! No this.. this couldn’t happen.. but it was happening..
“She is resistant today.”, Vernant said to the Imperial with a
clinical voice, and she saw him grabbing some medication, looked the same as
yesterday.
“Increased dosage, same treatment.”, he explained.
“I will die.. I am dying!”, Aaricia cried with a voice
filled of terror.
The Imperial raised an eyebrow at her, she shivered. For
him she was probably just an object, an animal, a guinea pig, a test subject..
“The subject, why is it talking about dying?”, the
Imperial officer asked him with an emotionless voice.
“She keeps saying that if I change her mind, that she will
be killed.”, Vernant answered.
He started injecting several medicines into her, she yelled
when he put a thick needle into her spine.
“Ok the brainwaves..”
Like yesterday she felt very light headed, she started
breathing slowly.
Have to calm myself down.. have to fight this
treatment..
She thought of Val-Tane and cried. Would she ever see him
again, would she ever recognize the leader of Task Force Banshee as a friend of
her? She had mentioned his name to the Imperials, she had told them that he was
just a private. She hoped that they wouldn’t be looking very hard for him..
She got lifted from the bed and carried into the little
cell. She stared at the bars as Vernant closed them, stared at the projector
that was aimed at her. Then he pulled a lever..
“Nooooooooooo!!”, she screamed in terror and pain.