... They found me only an hour later. In a pool of blood, urine, semen, bleeding from the vagina. It seemed to me that I was seeing a terrible dream in which the pain grew exponentially. Unfamiliar voices sounded somewhere in the background. Some were vaguely familiar. And even Val's voice. But he was unsettling, and there was a merciless note in him. I wasn't safe.

And then the pain returned. This time she had many shades. Burning. Cold. Sharp jerks. Squeezing. I wanted only one thing: to be left alone and allowed to forget the desired dreamless sleep. But the dreams were especially vivid and strange, as if I...