Strange

Disclaimer: I don't own Hey Arnold!

Late September: First Month of 8th Grade Ending Soon

Winter was nearing, but you wouldn't know it since it felt like a summer heat wave the past few days.

Helga's inner 'evil' voice hasn't been heard since it last spoke to her, which was before school started. She was glad it didn't return, but it did worry her at times if it would ever come back. She didn't want to hear it at all making false assumptions that Arnold wouldn't love her back. It was just a crazy thing happening. Helga knew Arnold at least likes her, but not in a 'like you like you' way yet. He considered her a friend even though she bullied him. And he couldn't hate her since he couldn't hate anyone at all. He was just too nice.

October: First Day

"Stop it just stop it" Helga banged her head against the wall of her room "Just get out of my head! What do you want from me? I just want peace and quiet. It's all I ask for, really."

Helga was home alone at the time. It was Saturday night, so her parents were out doing whatever. Probably getting dinner or something. The voice that she dreaded returned and it was worse than before. She didn't know why it came, she just couldn't understand. Was it something that she ate that made it come or was it something completely else? Helga wanted to do something, but what? If she told her parents they might she was crazy, literally! They might send her to the funny farm and never see her again.

She decided to make an emergency appointment with Dr. Bliss tomorrow morning to figure out what was wrong with her. Helga could trust Dr. Bliss since they were practically friends. She still did sessions with the child psychiatrist, but only about once a month instead of weekly Tuesday and Thursday meetings like she had in 4th grade. Helga hoped Dr. Bliss could help her, it seemed to be her only option left even though she didn't have many to begin with.

It was getting late in the evening and Helga's parents haven't came home yet. She felt like not waiting for them to come back from wherever they were and decided to at least try to get some sleep. It was going to be hard though since the voice hasn't left her mind all night. She tried to black out most of what it was saying, but some of what the voice said really hurt her and really upset her as well.

Before getting ready for bed, Helga changed out from what she was wearing earlier and put on her pajamas. After brushing her teeth, she went out of the bathroom and down into the kitchen for a quick glass of water. Before she could even react, Helga slipped on something and fell to the floor with the back of her head hitting it hard. Her eyesight became blurry and dizzy. Before she knew it, darkness settled over her and she was knocked out cold.

…

She was outside near a playground. It looked eerily similar to P.S.118. Her suspicions were confirmed as she saw Gerald, Stinky, Phoebe, the others and of course, Arnold. They looked as if they were in their 9 year old forms. They seemed to be all having a good time. Helga decided to make her way over and say 'hello' to her best friend and the rest of the gang.

As Helga made her way over, one by one, each kid stopped what they were doing and turned to look as if she was an unwanted guest. Their happy faces became glares and scowls. She felt each pair of eyes on her making her uncomfortable. Still though, she made her way over to Phoebe who had a scowl on her face with her arms crossed.

"Hey Pheebs, what's up with you and the others?" she laughed "Do I have something on my face or something?

"Pheebs?" she yelled "My name is Phoebe! Get it through your thick skull pigtails! I never liked that nickname at all, I hated it!"

"You're screwing with me, right Pheebs?" she said, astounded by her best friends remarks. "C'mon Pheebs, don't play around with me, it's all just some joke right... right?"

"I told you," she picked up Helga by her shirt collar with one hand "I am Phoebe!" She threw Helga back on the ground causing her to fall. Helga couldn't believe it. Her best friend was being mean to her. The one friend she trusted changed. As she was on the ground, the other kids started pointing and laughing at her. Helga wanted out, but she was surrounded by them

.

"Hey that looks like fun, lets do what Phoebe did!" Harold shouted while laughing still. Helga was in the fetal postion eyes closed hoping she would wake up from this horrible dream. But she didn't. Harold's hand grabbed her shirt collar from the back and lifted her up off the ground with no problem. She was dropped again. Rhonda appeared to be the next person to grab Helga, she to picked her up with no sweat and dropped her on the ground, only this time a little harder. One by one each kid followed through, even her beloved, Arnold. She was literally a ragdoll. Helga couldn't escape.

"You know what would be fun?" An all too familiar voice returned. The voice that haunted her earlier in the night. The only problem though was that this voice was coming from Arnold. Helga was really freaked out now. Tears silently rolled down her face awaiting to what he was going to say. "Let's beat the shit out of her! What do you guys say! Who's with me? For all the problems she caused to us and especially me, she deserves a good beating!" The other kids agreed in unison.

She gulped, she couldn't believe what was going to happen next. Her own classmates beating her up to a pulp most likely. Helga closed her eyes tightly shut, prayed and waited.

She felt the first blow, which was a kick to her jaw, causing her to yell out in pain. A second blow that hit her on the back causing the blonde to yell out in pain some more. With her eyes still shut, she felt two hands grab her right hand twisting it, causing the bones in her wrist to crack. The pain was intense, she cried now. She wanted to wake up, badly.

"What's the matter Helga?" Gerald said, "not so tough are you now?"

Another kick to the jaw came, causing the young girl to cough out blood and some teeth this time. Over the course of the next minute she felt punches and kicks all throughout her body. Bruises and scars appeared all over the place. Her own blood was seeping out of the harder hits, especially from her mouth. Her golden hair pigtails were undone and became messy and dirty. Someone took her sacred bow and ripped it to shreds.

After a couple of seconds, the kicking and punching seceded. Was it over? Slowly, Helga opened one of her eyes to see. She looked up to see someone standing above her, but she couldn't picture who it was. Whoever it was, the figure leaned down and grabbed Helga by the neck and started choking her. She could now see who it was that was choking her, Arnold. He had an evil smile to his face as if he was enjoying it a lot. With her left hand still useable she used all her might to pry Arnold's hands off her neck, but it was no use, he was much stronger. Helga could only mouth 'why?' Her breathing started to become shallow.

"Do you honestly think I would ever love you back?" he said "I mean, why would I love something that just tortures and calls you names all day long? It doesn't make any sense to me. But with the hell with it. I wouldn't love you now since you're bloodied and bruised. Good thing I'm ending you now goat ears. At least you won't be torturing me or my friends anymore."

With that final say, Helga blacked out and her breathing ceased.

…

Helga quickly woke up from wherever she was with her heart pounding very hard against her chest. She leaned up with her hand to her chest to calm herself down. "Calm down Helga 'ol girl, it was only a nighttmare. It was just a figment of my imagination I hope. Just a crazy dream that meant nothing at all." She was still on the kitchen floor. Everything seemed to be how it was before she blacked out. She looked at the clock on the oven and it read 11p.m. She was only out for about 10 minutes. It felt like hours in her nighttmare though. "Criminy, I really need to see Dr. Bliss first thing tomorrow morning." With that said, Helga got up from where she was and went upstairs to her bedroom. It still appeared that her parents weren't home yet still. She didn't care though, she wanted a good night's rest, without anymore nighttmares.

October: Second Day

A warm sunny day was in store for Sunday. Not too cold or hot, just right. It was around 10 a.m, and Helga was getting ready for her emergency appointment with Dr. Bliss at the Hillwood Medical Center. With her trademark pink dress, bow and white tennis shoes, she was ready to see the shrink.

Helga made her way downstairs and into the kitchen, luckily she was able to find something to eat even though it was only cereal. She got used to cereal since it was the only thing in the house to eat on most days. As she was munching away, Miriam appeared in the doorway.

"Goodmorning sweetie" she drowsly said, "how are you this morning?"

"Just peachy, Miriam" she continued eating, "how are you?"

"Oh I'm just fine, but I can't seem to find my purse anywhere. I've looked all over the place, but I just can't seem to find it" she rubbed her head.

"Have you tried checking the oven?" Helga said with a mouthful of cereal.

Miriam made her way over to the oven and opened it. Lo and behold her white purse was in there. "Oh here it is, thank you Helga!"

Helga just rubbed the temple of her head and sighed.

After finishing her breakfast, Helga made her way outside and to the direction of Hillwood Medical Center.

'Going to try to get some help, huh? This won't solve anything. Fool.' "Oh for Pete's sake, just get the hell out of here!" With a scowl on her face, she continued walking to the medical center.

Helga entered through the front doors and asked the receptionist for Dr. Bliss. The receptionist gave her the all clear and the blonde made her way to Dr. Bliss' office. With a couple of knocks to her door, Dr. Bliss opened the door and let Helga into her office.

"Hello Helga, how are you this morning?" she walked over to her chair.

"Hey Kathy, I'm doing fine right now, at least" Helga walked and sat on the couch.

"So, you needed to see me badly. Is it something with Arnold or your family perhaps? Good or bad? You can tell me." she had a notebook and pen in hand.

"Well you see," she twidled her thumbs, "there's this crazy thing that's been happening to me lately and I'm not sure what it is. It's been bothering me since last month. It just came out of the blue."

"Uh huh, and could to tell me what it is?" she jotted down something.

"Umm, well, there's this voice in-inside me and it-it ke-keeps telling me to... no wait, I think it's implying something but I don't know." Helga laid down on the couch and stared at the ceiling, she continued on. "Anyways, it's just saying weird things, like it's the other part of me that I don't know about. It keeps saying 'you're going to be re-rejected' or like 'what's the point, he's just going to say no and it'll be the end for you! I'm a little startled Kathy, I'm not sure what to do or how to block it out. It's hard. Do you know what it is or where it could be coming from?"

"Hmm," Kathy looked up from her notebook to Helga. "I don't know how to say this, but it appears you could have and I stress this you could have a mild case of schizophrenia." Helga turned her head, looking scared. "But don't worry Helga, it's most likely not that, it could be just coming from your inner conscious voice. We all have one. Most of the time it's good, but there are cases where people have negativity in their inner voice and usually with a couple of hours a day for a few weeks of challenging your inner voice, you can get rid of it and everything should go back to normal." She took a drink of water. "Now, you said your inner voice is telling you that 'you're going to be rejected' and 'he's going to say no and it'll be the end for you'?"

"Yeah, it's talking about Arnold," Helga relaxed. "I'm not sure why though. Maybe because I'm still not with the guy. I still occasionally bully him, but not as much lately. I've been trying to tone it down, but old habits die hard as they always say hehe. Maybe it's trying to tell me I won't find anyone to love if he rejects me." A frown formed on her face.

"I see," she wrote down something, "well Helga, it could be that or could be several other things, though I'm not sure someone as young as you would like to hear it. If you want to Helga, I could tell you, but only if you're strong enough and want to hear it. So I'll ask you, do you want to hear what your inner voice could be meaning?"

Helga pondered for what felt like minutes, she wasn't sure she wanted to hear what other possibilities it could be. "I... I don't think should. Maybe if it gets worse... then sure."

"Alright Helga, I can understand," she looked at Helga, "Now, is there anything else bothering you or is that it? We could still talk about anything else if you would like as well. Like your family or what's been going on in school. We still have about a half hour left in our session."

Helga wasn't sure what to do now. Should she tell Dr. Bliss about her nighttmare? Oh Helga ol' girl, just tell her about it, she's here to help you. She won't bite. We're practically friends for cripe's sake!

With a heavy sigh, she opened her mouth. "There is something else. I fell down in my kitchen last night and blacked out. I was fine though, but what happened between made me want to cry." she sniffed. "Anyways, I must of went into a dream or something, it seemed so real. I was in my 9 year old form out in the school playground of P.S.118. There I saw my best friend and the other kids having a good time talking to each other." Helga got up from where she was at and aimlessly walked around the room. "I decided to walk over to them and then everything went bad. They gave me mean faces as if they didn't want me there. Still though, I went to my best friend and she just chewed my head off to not call her 'Pheebs' anymore. Then she picked me up by my shirt and threw me down, so the other kids joined in as well and did the same thing." she began tearing up.

Dr. Bliss was quickly jotting down what Helga was saying and then looked toward her. "Oh my, Helga. You can take a break if you want to, there's some tissues on the table over here by me if you need any."

"Thanks," she mumbled as she grabbed a couple of tissues from a tissue box. "It's gonna hard to say this next part... but... here goes nothing." she sat back down on the couch. "So after they decided to stop there ragdoll game with me, someone decided it was a fun idea to be-beat me up..." Helga took a tissue to wipe her watery eyes. "a-and it was Arnold who decided it, but it wasn't his voice..." she trailed off.

"Arnold?" Dr. Bliss said surprised. "but it wasn't his voice? Do you know who it sounded like?"

"I-it was my inner voice as you said, it sounded deep and nasty." she laid down on the couch again.

"Oh my" she took a drink of water. "Continue on if you can."

Staring at the ceiling, Helga was silent. Having to speak about what happened in her dream made her shudder and on the verge of crying. But she had to do it. Kathy Bliss was there to help her.

With a big sigh, Helga continued on. "So there I am, on the floor with my eyes shut. I get kicked in the jaw. Then someone breaks my wrist, I yell out in pain. Then I get kicked again in the jaw and I cough out blood and teeth." she began tearing up again. "Then they all start punching and kicking me at once. Suddenly they stopped, I thought I woken up from my nighttmare. But nope, I'm still in it as I slowly open my eyes. I-I see someone standing above me and lean over and start choking me. My vision came to me and it-it was Arnold who was ch-choking me to death." The waterworks were now flowing from Helga's eyes, but she continued on. "He told me that 'he wouldn't love me anymore' and that he would 'end me since I'm bloodied and bruised and wouldn't torture him or his friends no more'." Helga dabbed her eyes with tissues.

"Goodness Helga, that's terrible." Dr. Bliss said, concered. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. No one young as you should have to dream about something like that." she stood up and walked over to Helga who was now sitting up from where she was laying down and gave her a tight hug. "Everything will be okay, it was only a nighttmare and I'm sure nothing like that would happen again. But, if it were to happen again Helga," she let her go and looked at her blue eyes. "If it were to happen again, you could tell me and we can try to figure out something to prevent those dreams. Okay? And if anything else happens, you tell me. I'm here for you."

'Th-thank you Dr. Bliss. You're the best person ever and I appreciate it so much.' Helga hugged Kathy back and then stood up. "Well, I'm glad I had this session, if anything else happens, I'll let you know." Helga walked towards the door with Dr. Bliss and stopped again. "Thank you again, I'll see you later."

"I'll see you later as well Helga, good luck!" she waved at Helga before she disappeared into an elevator.

Helga felt relived as she made her way home and into room.

She thought about what Dr. Bliss said. Mild case of schizophrenia? Helga shuddered at the thought. She knew she was a little bit eccentric with her stalking of a certain football headed kid, writing volumes of poetry about him and making closet shrines from his used gum. Man oh man, to think it could be something like that just- oh I need to stop thinking about it. She said it was a small chance, it's probrably just nothing! Gahhhh!

The rest of Sunday was uneventful, Big Bob Pataki was mostly watching his football games as Miriam was passed out on the couch in her usual spot with a bottle of hard liquor in her hand.