Doctor of horrors

"Ouch, I've just hurt myself" I was climbing a stepladder to reach
the top of the window but I was too heavy for it and it wobbled and
tilted. I just wobbled and fell. Landing awkwardly I didn't know
whether to laugh or to cry. Knowing that no one would come and comfort
me I laughed. Well I laughed until I tried to get up then I cried out
in pain. I'd hurt my ankle. I managed to crawl down the stairs to the
phone and rang my friend, but she wasn't in. I wasn't sure about what
to do, it didn't seem bad enough to call an ambulance but it needed to
be looked at. In the end I phoned for an ambulance. They were great,
they got my coat and my keys to the house and then took me to the
hospital, going in by ambulance gave me priority over all the other
people waiting there. I felt rather guilty about it but as I couldn't
walk there was no other way I could get there. The doc looked at my
ankle and sent me for an x-ray. It turned out that I'd broken my ankle
in two places, the doctor decided that it would be better if I stayed
in hospital and they would plate my ankle, rather than just put it into
a plaster cast. So for just over a week I stayed in hospital. It was
like having a holiday I didn't have to cook or clean, I loved it. The
doctor who was looking after me was so good-looking; all the other
women in the ward wanted to know what I'd done to get such a dishy
doctor. His name was Mark and he was about the same age as me. He would
come to see me several times a day and we would make one another laugh
when I could walk using crutches I was allowed to go home. I felt so
lonely there b
ut I did have to go back to have my stitches taken out so at least I
had that to look forward to.
Going back to the hospital was strange, I saw Mark but only to say
"hello" to, I'm not sure that he recognised me. The stitches came out
and I was told that I could now try out some elbow crutches so that I
gradually got used to walking again. While I was making my appointment
for my check up I was given an envelope. I thought it was my
appointment card but the receptionist said that my appointment would be
sent in the post. Feeling rather puzzled I went into the foyer of the
hospital and bought a cup of coffee. I sat down and read the
note.
Dear Josie,
I'm afraid that I'm about to break the rules. Would you like to go out
to dinner with me on Friday night?
Mark Wilson

He gave a phone number, which I rang when I got back home.
Friday was great, it had been a long time since I'd been out and to be
out having dinner with a good-looking man was something I'd never done
before. He took me home and kissed my hand. "Such good manners" I
thought. Well things just progressed from there. We would meet once a
week and sometimes we would go out but sometimes we would stay in and
talk. Then one night just before he left he said,
" Would you like to go on holiday with me? I'm going to Belgium,
nowhere grand it's just somewhere to get away to. It's a small cottage
near Brugges."
" I'll have to get a passport first."
" So you'll come?"
"Yes please. I've never been abroad before it will be exciting."
" Hey, it's only Belgium, nowhere exotic."
"It may be only Belgium to you but I've never been there so it will be
exciting."
He kissed me and laughed,
"Ok apply for your passport and we'll go. I thought that we could go at
the end of May."
After he'd left me I stood in the hall and hugged myself, he must love
me to want to take me on holiday with him.
I applied for my passport in person, as I didn't want it not to arrive
in time. I had heard of people waiting over 3 months before getting
one.
The end of May came so quickly! And then I was on the ferry taking us
to Zeebrugge. I'd never been on any kind of boat before, never mind a
ferry. I loved it on the open deck with the wind blowing sea spray into
my face. And then we were driving to the cottage. It wasn't my idea of
a small cottage but we were not going to share it with any one. It was
set well back from the road in a secluded garden, which was surrounded
by a large stone wall. In side the cottage it was warm, and there was
food in the kitchen. Seeing my look of surprise Mark sad,
" I have a woman come in here to keep it clean and warm, I asked her to
leave us some food for tonight. I thought that you might be
hungry."
" Not at the moment, but don't let that stop you."
He walked over to a wine rack, " Can I tempt you with some wine?"
" You can tempt with yourself" I thought but didn't say. I took the
wine and Mark led me into the sitting room, this was a t the back of
the cottage and had a big French window that looked out onto the
heavily wooded garden.
"You could hide a lot of bodies in there." I joked but Mark wasn't
amused.
The wine was going to my head; perhaps I should have eaten first after
all. I felt very drowsy; in fact I must have passed out, as what
happened next is rather confused. I remember Mark coming over to me and
lifting my eyelids and saying "Good". Then another man, one I'd never
seen before lifted me and carried me to a bed. He strapped me into this
bed and loomed over me. I tried to struggle but I didn't seem to be
able to shake the drowsiness off. I drifted in and out of awareness. I
know that sometimes I was given injections, but I really don't remember
much about it. I suppose that I was being sedated. I had vivid dreams
about sex, vaginal sex, oral sex and anal sex, In my dreams I was doing
things and having things done to me that I'd never experienced in real
life. What was being done to me was the kind of thing I'd seen in books
or on television when I'd been at a friends' house and they'd had the
porn channel on. I'd never had dreams like them before.
I remember feeling exhausted by the sex. But I never really saw who my
partner was. I wasn't dreaming about Mark, it wasn't romantic
lovemaking, it was just sex. Once I even dreamed that I woke up and saw
a huge figure of a man opening his trousers and exposing his huge penis
but before he could come into my vision so that I could see him clearly
I dreamt that I'd gone to sleep again. In one of my times of being more
aware Mark came into the room,
" How are you feeling?"
" Am I ill?"
"You collapsed, don't you remember?"
"I remember feeling very tired."
" You collapsed, I've been looking after you."
" What about that other man?"
"There is no other man here, you must have been dreaming."
I wasn't sure. I ached in places I'd never ached before. I was
beginning to think that perhaps the sex wasn't a dream. Perhaps I was
being held prisoner for some person to have sex with. But that didn't
make sense, why would anyone do that?
" Why am I strapped down?"
"You were very disturbed, thrashing about. I thought for your own
safety it might be better to secure you."
"And now? Will you unsecure me?"
"Of course." He moved towards me and loosened the straps. I sat up. I
was just about to get out of the bed when he pushed me back.
" Not yet. I don't think that you're ready to leave just yet."
He pushed me down and gave me another injection. But this time I
struggled and I don't think it all went into my arm. I lay there
pretending to be asleep, when this huge man came into the room. He saw
that I wasn't strapped down any more and his eyes lit up. Lifting me
from the bed he took me outside, into the wooded garden. He gently laid
me down and started to remove his trousers. I was horrified and I
kicked him. As he doubled over in pain I got up and stumbled to the
gate of the garden. I was walking along the road when the police picked
me up and took me to the police station.
" Please can you help me? All of my things are in that cottage, my
clothes, my passport, everything. I don't want to go back there" I
asked the inspector who interviewed me. I didn't want to go back even
though all I was wearing was a torn night-dress.
"I'm afraid, madam, that you will have to come back with us. We can't
arrest just anyone who might be there. After you have been checked by
the local doctor we will take you back there."
Despite my protests the police wouldn't go to the cottage without me.
So I sat in the police station, dressed in a large, heavy coat and
waited for the local doctor to come to me.
Imagine my horror when Mark walked into the station. The policeman at
the desk asked
"Can I help you sir?"
"I was going to report that a patient of mine had escaped, but I see
that she is here. I'll just take her back shall I?"
He moved towards me and I tried to move away from him.
The inspector came into the waiting room and saw us.
"Would you come into my room please madam? And would you please wait
here sir? Thank you"
In the inspector's room I sat down
"Now, madam, this is the man you accuse?"
"He's the one I accuse of keeping me sedated for no good reason."
"But you knew this man before he made you a prisoner?"
"He was my doctor in Britain. I'd fallen and hurt my ankle; he was one
of the doctors I saw when I was in the hospital. You can phone them and
ask. His name is Mark Wilson. We became friends and he invited me here
for a holiday."
" Are you lovers?"
"No, I thought that he might become my lover. I've never had a lover
before."
He looked thoughtful and paced across his room. Then spoke on the phone
in Flemish. Replacing the phone he said,
" The doctor is on her way. I've arranged a place for her to examine
you. I'm afraid that it might be unpleasant for you."
He took me through another door to a small room where a female doctor
was waiting for me.
The doctor examined me and took several sample swabs from my vagina and
anus, the inspector had been right it wasn't pleasant. The doctor had
also brought in some clothes for me,
"The inspector told me that you needed some clothes, he thought that
you were about the same size as my mother."
"Thank you it's very kind of you both."
" My mother is dead so they are not needed. Where are you staying
madam?"
" I don't know, if I can get my bag back then if there's a small hotel
then I'll book into there."
"Most of the hotels are booked up, but you are welcome to stay with me.
I have spare rooms ever since my mother died."
" I can't ask you to do that."
"You are not asking, I'm offering. I'm Lucille Henry," she said
offering her hand.
" Josie Wells. And thank you you're very kind. I'd like to say with
you."
She went to see the inspector who agreed that I could stay with her.
For the first time in a long while I felt safe when I arrived at her
house.
That night Lucille sat down to talk to me, she asked me about Mark and
I told her what I could remember.
"What about this other man? What do you remember about him?"
" I'm not even sure that he's real. He was very big, very tall and
built like an ox. He had very short hair that looked as if he had cut
it himself. I never heard him speak, he just grunted when he was
carrying me into the wood."
" Did you ever see the woman the doctor said cleaned for him?"
"No .Why?"
" I'm interested in what happens in that house, that's where my mother
died, or so I think. We never found her body. She used to clean there;
for pocket money. Then one day she didn't come back, but she had told
me that there had been a very big man lurking in the woods while she
was in the house cleaning. And although the owner didn't live all the
time someone obviously did."
" Does the inspector know this?"
" Yes, of course, he investigated my mother's disappearance but he
couldn't get any proof of any ill-doing. It's one of the reasons that
he didn't let that man take you back."
"Mark is going to tell him that I'm ill, that I am his patient and am
under treatment. He will try to get me back."
"I'm sure that he won't succeed. Don't worry you're safe here."
I went to bed that night and slept. I must have slept because I was
woken by nightmares several times. I dreamt that the man was there,
having sex with me, I screamed and woke myself not only myself but also
Lucille. She came running in and put her arms around me to comfort
me,
"What's wrong Josie?"
"I dreamt about that man, perhaps it was all a dream after all."
"No, I don't think so. There was physical damage, too much from normal
sex. I think that you will take time to recover from this experience."
She left me and I tried to sleep again but every time I closed my eyes
I could see the man, standing there before me taking down his trousers.
The morning came as a blessed relief.
I went back to the police station to see the inspector again.
" Doctor Henry tells me that the samples she took show that there was
semen present, madam. Are you sure that this is not just a love affair
that has gone wrong?"
"I'm sure. If semen was there then I'm going to need some form of
after-sex pill."
" You are not using a contraceptive?"
" No, I told you I've never had a lover. I was a virgin. I had no need
for any contraceptives."
"You'll have to ask the doctor. Meanwhile I'd like you to come back to
the cottage"
"Is Mark still there? I'd have thought that he would have left."
"We will have to find out"
We went back to the cottage and Mark came out to meet us.
"Hello inspector, you've brought my patient back."
" Yes, sir, I'm sorry it took so long."
" That's alright. Now she's back I'll look after her better."
I was horrified and turned to run away but Mark was faster than I was
and he grabbed my arm and pulled me into the house.
Pushing me down onto the sofa he looked at me.
"That was a stupid thing to do Josie, just as we were getting somewhere
with your treatment." He leant over and stuck a hypodermic syringe into
my arm and the room grew darker.
The next thing I remember was the big man, he was slobbering on my neck
as he pumped his sperm into me. I tried to squirm away from him, to get
him out of me but he was stronger than I was. I screamed for help but
he increased his attempts. I lay there helpless as he turned me over
and buggered me. Again I screamed, this time with pain but he didn't
stop. I heard the door open and Mark's voice, saying
" Mattie, you're just too much, I don't know how you can manage it so
many times." I screamed again and he came over to me.
" So you don't appreciate my brother? I'll have to make sure that
you're in a deeper sleep next time."
I felt sick at the thought of this monster being anywhere near me,
never mind doing anything else to me. I started to cry and Mark stuck
the needle in me again.
The next time I woke up I was in a different room and Lucille was
there. Used to being betrayed I thought that she too had connived with
Mark but she sat there soothing my forehead.
"I'm so sorry Josie. I never thought that the inspector would bring you
back here. I went to my uncle, he's a lawyer, and I got him to get a
permit to remove you. He got in touch with the chief of police and he
sent in two men to arrest the doctor. The inspector was also arrested.
Apparently the doctor had some kind of blackmail against him, which is
why he returned you to Mark. I don't think that you were the first one
to be taken there. My mother had told me that she thought that several
young women had been there. She went to the inspector to tell him but
nothing came of it; then she vanished.
I'm taking you to a hospital where you will be safe. There will be no
men allowed there."
I squeezed her hand in gratitude and let her arrange my transfer.
I was in the hospital, which was run by nuns, for three weeks. My
physical injuries had healed, but I was still having the nightmares and
I was pregnant. I was thinking of going back to my home and getting an
abortion but as Lucille said that I would always regret it and there
was no reason why the baby would be a monster I decided to keep it. She
asked me to stay with her again while the legal case was sorted out.
Her uncle had had the inspector removed and the new one had arrested
Mark. Following allegations made by several people in the village;
including Lucille's they dug up the woods and found five bodies, all
female. But the big man, Mattie had vanished.
We found out that the inspector had been a heroin addict and Mark had
helped him out, not to kick the habit but he gave him the drugs in
return for his co-operation.
I had the baby and he's perfectly normal. He's a beautiful child with
nothing about him that reminds me of his father. Andre is nearly two
now and it's taken me this long to be able to talk about what happened.
He loves living here with Lucille and me. We have had to be strong for
one another; one of the bodies was her mother's. We live everyday
trying to put the past behind us, but every so often the nightmares
return and I turn to Lucille for the comfort of her arms.