Continued from Chapter 81
Entering an empty high school classroom he had permission to be in, a brown bear named Justin Brown flicked the lights on, regarding the room. He took some chairs and carefully arranged them in a loose circle. He considered his handiwork, and adjusted a few of the chairs. Justin hoped that those he invited would show up, though he was fully prepared for this little event to be a no-show. He looked at his phone. Still fifteen minutes until it was supposed to start. He took a seat and waited. Still early evening, maybe they were finishing off their dinner.
Five minutes later, a young looking female snow leopard entered the room. Justin gave her a sad smile. She couldn't have been over twenty.
"Am I- am I at the right place?" she asked. "I'm the first one here?"
"Yes, and yes," Justin nodded. "Have a seat wherever you'd like. Wherever's most comfortable." She sat on the far end of the circle from the bear. Her body language was guarded, her petting of her arm told him that, somewhat shifty eyes. This wasn't going to be easy.
"Never done anything like this before, so-" the snow leopard admitted. Justin nodded quietly in understanding.
The minutes whittled down, and to Justin's relief, more animals began to show up. First an otter, then a polar bear. Following that, just before the appointed time, a melanistic jaguar entered, sitting down next to the otter. A tiger followed him in seconds later, sitting down solidly with an unreadable expression.
Justin regarded the various expressions in the room. Blank, worried, pensive. He sighed and swallowed. He looked at the watch.
"Let's give everyone a few minutes to get settled and see if anyone else shows up," Justin said.
"You gonna be leading this thing?" the tiger asked.
"If no one minds," Justin nodded. "As luck would have it, I'm a licensed therapist." A few looks slightly softened at that, causing Justin to smile gently. The brown bear waited five more minutes before standing up and clearing his throat.
"My name is Justin Brown," he said, standing up. "I'm a psychologist specializing in family therapy. Now, none of us may be related in any way tonight, but we-"
Justin interrupted himself when he saw a young timber wolf enter the room, guiltily rushing over to a seat.
"Sorry, sorry I'm late, sorry..." the timber wolf said, sitting between the snow leopard and the polar bear.
How interesting of the arctic animals to sit with one another, Justin thought briefly. An unconscious decision, perhaps? But Celestials above, he looked even younger than the snow leopard.
"I'll start again," Justin said warmly. "I'm Justin Brown, psychologist. And all of us in this room have at least one thing in common: we were targets of the Night Howler incident." There was some mumbling, nodding, and looking away from the speaker. "I thought it might be therapeutic for us to share our experiences; help each other through these times."
The tiger nodded. "I guess it might."
"Now, from what I've heard from the doctors," Justin went on, "none of us were conscious during this ordeal. However, that's not to say it hasn't affected us. I know it has; I can see it in your faces. All of us have various problems and fallout from this, but before we share anything, I'd like to state something. We were not in control of our actions. Anything we have done is not our fault."
That got several pained looks. Justin sighed. He knew it would be hard to disassociate the actions of their bodies from what was observed by their loved ones. That's why most of them were here, he figured.
"I was actually turned by one of my patients, I believe," Justin continued. "Thankfully, no one was hurt. I made a mess of my office; caused a traffic jam when I took to the streets. Fortunately, the cars I smashed were covered by large animal damage insurance." Justin gave a guilty smile. He sat down. "Would anyone else like to share?"
"Do we have to stand up?" the snow leopard asked, her head bowed, but her eyes looking at Justin.
"No, you don't have to do anything you don't want to," Justin shook his head. "Not even share your experience."
The snow leopard didn't stand. "I'm Kirsten. Kirsten Parter. I live Downtown. Last thing I remember before waking up in the hospital was just being on my balcony of my family's apartment." She rubbed her arm again. "They say uh- they say they managed to shut me in a room while I was hissing and yowling. I didn't break the door down but I did- did some damage to it. They haven't replaced the door yet; the marks are still there."
"How have things been going with your family?" Justin asked.
"Not the greatest," Kirsten admitted, biting her lip. "My brother and sister, we were so close before the attack but now... they seem more distant. They're always using kitten gloves around me, like they're afraid to make me mad." She looked indignant. "Like I could just go savage at random now or something, like it was a disease. Mom and dad talked to 'em, but..." She trailed off, her eyes seeming glassy.
"It's important for your parents to reiterate that you did nothing wrong to your siblings, and that they aren't in danger," Justin said. "I will say though that they had the misfortune to view you in that savage state, and those images might stick with them for awhile-"
Justin was interrupted again by the timber wolf, who began to loudly cry. Soft, pitiful whimpers turned to all-out crying, mixed with some mournful howling.
"Ss-sorry, it was your th-turn," the timber wolf hiccuped. The polar bear sitting next to him offered him a tissue, which he accepted and blew his nose.
"It's okay if you don't want to say anything," Justin tried to assure the crying wolf.
"Nh-no, I gotta say something," the wolf shook his head. "I need help; I just don't know what to do..." Justin looked at Kirsten, who looked concerned, but nodded.
"Go on," Justin encouraged softly.
"Name's Casey Treefell," he said, wiping his eyes. "Was just walking in Tundratown with my family when it happened. I... I was told I immediately attacked my mother." There were a few gasps, and Justin bowed his head and closed his eyes. "Ff-fortunately I didn't get her too bad, because my dad was there. He said he had to nn-knock me out before the authorities got there." Casey paused, shivering. He swallowed with great effort.
"Casey, that's truly awful," Justin said.
"And now it's like..." Casey grit his teeth. "It's like I messed everything up. I know you said it's not my fault, but both of my parents just... I scare my mom now every time I come around the corner, though she says its nothing. My dad can't look at me in the face, cause he said he'd never take his paw to one of his own pups but... but he had to do it y'know? To save mom. I feel like I'm just- just driving a wedge in my family... I wander around alone at nights. Dunno what to do..."
Justin sighed heavily. "Casey, I'd like to offer you and your family some free counseling."
"Really?" Casey blinked. "I mean, my family has money, we could pay-"
Justin shook his head. "We're all victims here, and though this one terrible thing has linked us, we can all help each other through it. This goes for any of you who'd like extra time to talk to me." Justin looked at those assembled. He saw Kirsten subtly nod. The polar bear had tears in his eyes.
Though the polar bear was easily the tallest in the room, he stood up.
"Casey, I know what you're going through," the polar bear said, his muzzle slightly crinkling in distress. "Oh, my name is Andrew Arctic. Call me Andy though, friends do. When I went savage, I mauled my lover... and it's- it's been hard at times to distance myself from that fact."
"You're blameless in this, Andy," Justin said.
"I know but... I know..." Andrew sighed. "My mate is so analytical, and I can't tell what he's feeling half the time. To know the paws Fortitude gave me hurt him... it's just hard. He always says he forgives me, and I can tell he's unafraid of me, but he- he has to walk with a cane now. I don't know if I forgive myself sometimes, you know?"
"I can appreciate that," Justin said. "It's going to be very hard for us and our loved ones to remove the 'us' from the actions we were not in control of." Andrew nodded and sat back down.
"I have had some success with that," the otter offered, standing up in his seat. "My name is Emmitt Otterton, florist. I went missing upwards of two weeks, and my family was concerned. My wife is a florist along with me, and they knew something was wrong when I didn't visit any of my usual haunts, like the Mystic Springs, where I practice nude yoga."
This caused some terse, nervous laughter as it broke the tense atmosphere somewhat. Emmitt displayed a somewhat guilty smile. "Anyhow, I did do some damage when I tried to tell some people who could make a difference about the situation." The otter looked at the black-colored jaguar, who had three neat scars over his intact right eye area. "I've apologized to the best of my ability."
"That flower arrangement was the loveliest I have ever seen," the jaguar smiled.
"The only issue is my family, my wife particularly," Emmitt looked down thoughtfully, pushing his glasses up. "She wakes up from nightmares where I'm still missing, or savage. She had the misfortune to know a lot about the issue, because of Officer Judy Hopps, who found me at her request."
"Ah, Judy Hopps, she blew the whole thing wide open," Andrew nodded.
"Yeah, eventually," the tiger folded his arms. "A good while after she started those riots that got most of Zootopia's predators persecuted."
"Let's not assign blame," Justin warned softly. "We've all done our best, even Officer Hopps. We do owe her some thanks."
"I guess," the tiger sucked at his teeth.
"Do you have anything about your experience you'd like to share?" Justin asked the tiger.
"Were you done?" the tiger asked Emmitt. Emmitt nodded and sat back down in his chair. The tiger grunted. "Anyway, it's nothin'. Can't really say anything about the incident."
"And why's that?" Justin asked.
"Cause no one saw me," the tiger said. "Oh right, names Ty. Ty Guarder. Was on a jog when I was hit. Don't remember a thing till I woke up in the hospital."
"But here you are," Justin led on. "So you must have some sort of unease with-"
"Yeah, it's cause I don't remember anything!" Ty rapidly poked himself on the forehead, leaning forward. "I can't- I can't take that! I don't know if I did anything. Did I kill someone? Did I eat someone? I just don't know. It'd been too long since I turned for the nurses to find anything. I just... I don't know."
"In some ways that's like a blessing," Justin said. "You're absolved of any wrongdoing, and the authorities cannot charge you for any 'crime' you may have committed during the ordeal."
"Yeah, well...!?" Ty stood up angrily, then winced and sat back down. "I've looked into the time-frame. At least half a dozen mammals went missing in Zootopia that weren't preds at the time. They still haven't showed up."
"You can't blame yourself!" Justin warned. "Even if the timetable lines up... mammals go missing for one reason or another all the time. Cutting ties or less pleasant things."
"Yeah but what if I did?" Ty growled. "A lot of comfort that gives to the families who are missing people!" He scoffed and turned his head. "I'm a tiger. I'm more than capable of tearing any mammal I see to shreds. I was apparently one of the last ones to be brought in, just before that jaguar over there." Ty nodded his head distractedly.
"Don't let the 'maybes' tear you apart, Ty," Justin said calmly. "Focus on what we know, and what we can help. Don't go looking for transgressions to pile onto yourself that you might have nothing to do with."
"I mean, easy for you to say, you know you didn't do anything bad," Ty said bitterly.
Justin smiled sadly. "Yes, but I still struck terror into the hearts of several innocents. Is it truly better that I didn't manage to kill anyone, or that I've left some mammals with perhaps permanent nightmarish memories of a bears claws swiping at them or jaws snapping inches from their fur?" Justin shrugged. "I've offered my help to those animals, but they don't want to see me. I can understand."
There was silence among the circle. Justin took a deep breath.
"Well, I hope this has helped even one of you at least a little," Justin said. "I think it's about time we adjourn. Would everyone like to do this again sometime?" There were some groans and grunts, but everyone seemed to nod, even the panther, who had said very little. "All right then. How about this time next month? We can see how we've been doing."
The mammals started to leave one by one, starting with Ty. Justin managed to stop Casey just with his eyes.
"I meant what I said, Casey," Justin said. "You have my information. Please don't hesitate."
Casey scrunched his muzzle up and his lips wobbled, but he nodded with effort, and left in a hurry. Kirsten was the last to leave.
"So you said that offer is open to all of us...?" Kirsten asked tentatively, rubbing her wrist with her other paw.
"Of course," Justin nodded. "I'd like to talk with your whole family if I can."
Kirsten nodded rapidly, then left, and Justin was alone again.
Slowly, he got up and started to stack up the chairs and put them where he'd found them. Though it was his job to be a healer of emotions, he also felt some weight of responsibility to his fellow Night Howler victims. He earnestly wished that he had helped them all, at least in some way. Some of their roads to recovery would be longer, he knew, and some might not heal fully. It was just the nature of these sorts of things.
Justin wasn't what you'd call a religious bear, but he did say a few words to Fortitude in his mind as he gave the classroom one last look, asking the Celestial rhinoceros to strengthen him. He turned off the lights and closed and locked the door to the classroom.
He hoped he would see all of his new "family" again next month.
Thanks to Roahm Mythril, my proofreader, for this prompt, which I found a fascinating idea.