Chapter 12

Trixie was never more careful as she moved away from the classroom. She waited hoping to avoid the freaks. Her mind was numb from all the events that were happening today. She turned a corner to see her mother standing on the opposite side. Talking with some man she had never seen. With only a shift from her left eyes, she departed from the conversation, "What are you doing?" Trixie looked at her mother unsure of how to answer which left her mother shaking her head. "You know what, I'm not even going to question it. Let's get going, your sisters are in the bathroom and then you have your therapy session."

She didn't even blink and followed her mother. At least with her mother around there was less of a chance of the event from earlier. Which one and in which order was lost on her. Her twin sister emerged as her mother led her on a tangent. "Hiya Trixie, this place is so huge." One of her sisters said, but she just kept quiet. With that the four of them left; her mother once again tried to start a conversation but got nowhere. They drove to a rather small building. It was about the size of seven or so classrooms end to end put together. Outside was 'Dimmesdale Psychiatric Ward' which left her confused. With a shrug, she followed her mother and sisters.

They left the car and entered the building. Her feet echoed, "Relax Trixie. Your therapist told us to meet you here. She'll be back in her normal office next week." The tiles were shiny enough that her reflection danced with each step. They came up towards the entrance and a woman turned around with a smile, "Well...how's it been Elizabeth?"

"Fine," Trixie's mother said with a sigh. "Just the usual except I think my daughter's spending too much time in her room… Anyway, I'm taking the twins shopping, see you in an hour."

"Wait what?" Trixie asked, confused, but her mother turned around with the twins and left Trixie in the lobby. The other woman is her...therapist. Since when did she have a therapist? Was much taller than her mother towering over her by a quarter head or so. Her eyes were a deep brown and a warm smile was across her face. She wore a white shirt with a floral pattern on it. Jeans holding stacks of paper in folders, "Can this day get any worse? Who are you and why are we here?"

"Since when do you talk?" The woman was confused which normally Trixie would've replied, but she was too tired to care. "Well come on I have a few things to do before we are done. And we can talk along the way so how have you been?" Grumbling Trixie followed the woman staying mostly quiet with a few grumbles. Her only response was a mixture of grunts, grumbles, and mumbling. With that, they moved behind the institute down a long-winded hallway. Passing through open rooms which were filled with inhabitants. "No wonder your mom was panicking earlier. Are you feeling okay?"

"No," Trixie said. "I'm tired."

The woman smiled at her, "Well since we aren't doing this at our usual location. This session is free as this will be my last time working here at the 'Dimmesdale Institute'. I can't stand this place or the patients. Ya, the money is nice...but it's not worth it. So I'm moving solely to my private office after this…. Which means prices are going up. Don't worry about it, I like you, so your guy's rate will stay the same. Plus your mother's one of my closest friends."

"Okay?" Trixie said with a yawn. "What are we doing?"

The woman smiled, "Well I need to clean up the therapy room. My last patient is crazy and his spasms cause things to get out of hand. So I have to clean this place up and I'm out of here forever. So we just need to talk as I clean it up, also we're going into this room." With that, they entered into a room, and like she said it was a disaster. Papers, books were across the floor; holes were in the wall and the room's fixtures were scattered or shifted slightly. "It should only take an hour or so to get everything in order while I clean up the room. I'll just ask you questions and let you talk. Unless you want to help, things will go faster."

"Whatever," Trixie said. With that, her therapist would ask her a variety of questions. Which mostly left the ten-year-old rambling in her exhausted form. Most of it was completely incoherent. As the two of them cleaned up the office the woman was smirking and would occasionally write something on a notepad. After a while, Trixie just sat down in one of the chairs and closed her eyes. Only to doze off after a while as her therapist cleaned up the room.

"Come on Trixie," Trixie was slowly shaken awake by her mother. It took her a moment to come through and it only caused her to groan. Her mother was standing in front of her with the twins on her side. The therapist was on the other side and all four of them were looking at her. "You can sleep when we get home." Grumbling with that she stood up from the seat. "Serious today has been weird so how was she today? I'm assuming her normal self?"

"No," her therapist said. "Today she was talkative, I mean talkative. I'm not even sure what she was talking about. Honestly, it sounded like she was drunk...the girl needs some sleep. I'll text you the details later… look I think she just needs to change her environment for a little while. Go camping, fishing, hiking. Well, thanks for bringing her over." Her mother smiled, Trixie was being stared at by her little sisters.

"Well come on Trixie," her mother said. She grabbed her by her arm and dragged her out of the room. With that the four of them; Trixie, her mother, and twin sisters. It was a quiet drive home with Trixie who was constantly falling asleep only for her mother to shake her right. One of the two twins was chatting a lot, but it mostly fell to the background. After finally coming home; the exhausted ten-year-old just dropped herself on the couch. Drifting off to sleep...in her hazed mind, she had come to the only conclusion that this had to be a dream...