The bed had been trashed, and manic eyes greeted them as the fourteen-year-old girl stood bruised and bloody before them. They moved as they had practiced, one orderly diving and grabbing her legs while two others went for her arms. She fought and bit until the nurse was able to fit the muzzle over her face, and the Doctor injected her with a strong sedative. She said nothing, just growling and fighting until she fell limp to the floor. “Everyone all right,” Doc Thompson asked.
“She bit me,” one of the orderlies said as he looked at his forearm. Blood was dripping down his arm, and he was quickly taken by a nurse to have it cleaned. She was lifted and placed back on the bed, this time the straps were used to hold her down and the muzzle was left in place.
The Doctor checked her vitals and examined her for injuries. She would be in pain for a while, both shoulders were already showing bruising from trying to get out, and patches of hair were missing from where she tore it out. He covered her with a sheet, then sighed as he walked out the door to update his notes.
She was worse than he thought, and if he didn’t find the right drug therapy for her soon, she was going to hurt someone again.
Doctor Thompson greeted them and led them back to a conference room, where two of his colleagues were waiting. Mark felt his stomach drop when he saw their grim faces, and Dawn was gripping his hand tightly as they sat down. “How is Treasure doing,” she asked, “And when can we see her?”
Doctor Thompson turned on a television and looked at them, his eyes didn’t hold hope for them. “Treasure had to be sedated last night, she had another violent episode. I think you need to see this to understand what is going on with her right now.” He pressed a button on the remote, and a video started to play on the screen.
Dawn gasped and brought her free hand over her mouth as she saw her daughter in the small room, her eyes closed but not for long. Her hands went to her head, and she let out a scream as her head tossed side to side in agony. They watched in horror as she pulled her hair out, screamed into the pillow and banged her head against the wall. She tried to get up but ended up rolling off the bed to the floor and it looked like she was having a seizure. It went on for another ten seconds or so before her movement stopped.
When she got up, it was like someone else was in control. She turned to the bed, pulling the sheets off and tearing the pillow apart. She then turned to the door, finding it locked. Backing up a few steps, she ran forward and slammed her shoulder into the door. Mark flinched as he watched his daughter bounce off the padded steel. The thudding noise sounded like she was hurting herself, but she didn’t change her angry expression. She kept attacking the door, time after time without any sign of pain. “Oh God,” Dawn said as she looked at the crazed eyes of her baby.
The door pushed open after another bounce, and orderlies swarmed into the room and tackled her. She screamed and fought, biting a man, blood smearing her face until the drugs took effect and she collapsed to the floor. Doctor Thompson paused the video as the injured man looked at his bleeding arm. “As you can see, there is a complete psychotic break during this video. She has no sense of reality, she wasn’t feeling pain, and she acted with violence.”
Dawn leaped up from her chair, running to the door before she started to throw up in the garbage can. Mark was at her side, holding her hair back, then walked her out to the bathroom while Doc called maintenance to deal with the mess. “That may have been too much for them to see so quickly,” one doctor said.
“They needed to know how serious her condition is before we could do anything else,” Doctor Thompson said. The staff was unified on the treatment; the hold wasn’t enough, Treasure needed to be committed to the mental hospital and receive extensive therapy and drug treatments to get her schizophrenia under control.
It didn’t take long for her parents to agree, and the high school freshman became the newest long-term resident of the mental health ward.
Two Months Later
The Treasure they picked up from the hospital was nothing like the one that had started the school year. Gone was the bubbly and energetic athlete, star of the soccer team and straight-A student.
Her eyes no longer had the shine, instead they were clouded over like her brain.
Her body was soft, the fifteen pounds she had gained covering what before had been toned muscle.
Her long red hair was gone, the multiple seizures causing enough to be torn out that they shaved her head in the first two weeks, making sure she couldn’t grab it and pull it out again.
Mark hid his emotions as he watched the nurse push her wheelchair out to the waiting car. Dawn was walking alongside her, trying to make her feel that things were all right, that coming home would be the end of her troubles.
It was all a lie, he knew in his heart. Their troubles were just beginning.
He got out and helped her into the back, then walked Dawn around and opened the back seat for her. Dawn was already stroking her short hair as she leaned on her for support, the tears starting to flow even before he had buckled his seatbelt. Surprisingly, she hadn’t raged against them for leaving her in the hospital, she was glad. It had been three weeks since she had heard the voice, and five since she had one of her psychotic breaks. Finding the right drug therapy to control her condition had taken weeks, and along the way she had been participating in counseling.
She wouldn’t forgive herself if someone got hurt again.
The ride home was quiet, and there was no party to welcome her. Their extended family had been told to stay away, to give her time to adjust. The disappointment on her face when the door opened to an empty house and the slump of her shoulders told them they had miscalculated. Treasure turned back to them, tears forming in her eyes. “Grandma?”
“We asked her not to come yet, Treasure. We wanted to make sure you were ready.”
“I can call her if you want,” Dawn said. “We could invite her for lunch.”
“I’d like that,” she said. “I’m tired, I’m just going to go to my room for a bit and take a real shower.” They watched her move slowly down the hall to her room and when she closed the door, Dawn broke down.
“I don’t know what to do here, I don’t know who she is anymore,” she cried into his chest.
“It will get better, Doc told us the drugs would affect her energy and personality. It’s going to get better. The important thing is she is getting the help she needs.”
“It has to, she’s barely living now.”