A/N: Hello! Here's the next chapter! Enjoy reading! I'll try and keep up the postings for chapters, I know how painful it is to wait for stories, so I'll try not to make it so painful XD.
This chapter is a little longer than most, just as a warning!
Disclaimer: All of the characters are owned by a Ms. Kelley Armstrong
Dinner was a quiet affair. Tori had decided not to stay for long, saying that she'd rather skip dinner than eat with the likes of us. Liz had chattered for a few minutes, Simon joining in here and there, asking me questions about what school I was at and what my favorite subjects were, but soon gave up as soon as they realized that I wouldn't give them too much to work with. They instead turned to each other, Rae speaking up here and there to contribute. Derek never said a word, hardly looking up from the plate of food in front of him. I watched in quiet amazement as he managed to eat a family meal in under five minutes. He caught my gaze when he finished and scowled slightly. I flushed at getting caught, and looked down to eat my own food, before getting up and rinsing my dishes in the sink. I made my way to the stairs when Liz stopped me.
"Hey, some of us are going to be playing some games. Would you like to join?" She said, still smiling kindly. Liz was sweet. Throughout the day she would stop by wherever I was to check in with me, making sure my first day went well. I was really glad that she was my roommate rather than Tori. Rae had seemed cool so far, but I had hardly spoke to her yet.
Right as I was about to consider it, a flash of a shadow passed across the walls. I looked behind me real quick to see if anyone was behind us, but no one was there. I felt a slight chill down my spine. Looking back to Liz, I plastered on a quick smile and took a long calm breath.
"S-sorry, I think I'll skip for tonight. I'm just a bit tired. Thanks for the invite though." I said. She nodded in understanding.
"You must be really tired. It can be hard adjusting sometimes. My nana said that I've never had the same issue, she always called me her little battery. I hope you get some rest! I'll probably be up in an hour or two. The nurses don't like us staying up too late. Says rest is one of the major keys to healing."
After leaving Liz with the others, I made my way to the girls' hall and into my room, throwing myself onto the bed. Absentmindedly, I played with the bandages around my hands. Mrs. Talbot had replaced the bandages after I had peeled the potatoes, clucking her tongue.
"Such a shame to scar such beautiful hands…" I had looked down, wincing at how torn and mangled they had looked. Not deep enough for stitches, but certainly deep enough to scar.
"How long will I need to keep the bandages on?" I asked quietly, still staring at my hands.
"The doctors say for a couple more days, just to make sure that they don't reopen. I still say that they should've used stitches, but sadly I wasn't there to add my two cents." I smiled softly at her.
"How long have you been a nurse here?" I asked. My aunt had been a nurse since I'd been born, swearing even then to protect me with all she had.
Her face suddenly fell, her face and eyes suddenly showing her true age. She looked up at me, finishing with the bandages.
"Too long, dear. Way too long"
I sighed and turned in my bed. This place was strange, but I guess it fit. A strange place for strange children. Rubbing my eyes, I grunted in frustration. I hated to admit it, but I was nervous. This whole situation made me nervous. I tried so hard not to be put in a place for troubled children. Now here I was, trying my best to blend in and act normal. I had done it for most of my life, so how come it was getting so hard to do it now?
I woke up late that night, uncomfortable from sleeping in my jeans. Liz was already asleep in bed, snoring quietly with her sheets all tangled around her and the pillow, again, on the floor. I stifled a giggle as I quietly stood up and changed into my pj's. I walked into the hallway and to the bathroom to quickly brush my teeth and use the restroom. As I was washing my hands, a soft chill brushed past me.
"Girl…" It was so soft, so quiet that I barely heard it. I shut off the water and sighed quietly, looking at myself tiredly in the mirror.
"You hear….. I know….. Please…." I shook my head.
"I-I can't. I can't help you. I'm not able to leave to do what you want me to do."
"No, don't…. Not yet… basement…. Stories…." That piqued my interest. What was so important in the basement that this ghost couldn't move on?
"Here?" I asked quietly. But all of a sudden the feeling of the ghost was gone, and my body unconsciously relaxed. I shook my head and turned off the lights, heading back to my room. I settled into bed and closed my eyes. Maybe I was just more tired than I realized. Wouldn't be the first time I dreamed up a ghost.
The next morning at breakfast I was informed that I would have my first therapy session with Dr. Gill, and that after the meeting I would be given my first dose of prescription medication. The thought made me a little uneasy. The medication may work on someone who needed it, but I was healthy, so who knew what kind of effects it would have on me. I prefered being fully in control of my thoughts and actions, thank you.
After rinsing my plate and wishing Liz and the rest good luck on their classes, I made my way to the door. I knocked first, only opening the door when I heard a quiet "come in". The room was a little narrow, with a desk set in the center. In front, a couple comfy chairs sat, while behind the desk was two filing cabinets and a woman in a desk chair, typing away on a laptop. She was long and skinny, her hair pulled up in a bun and her glasses frames thin. She almost looked like a scarecrow. She looked up slightly from her screen, giving a small smile.
"You must be Ms. Chloe Saunders. Please," she gestured toward the comfy chairs, "take a seat. Make yourself comfortable." I nodded and did as she said. As soon as I sat, I felt as if the couch swallowed me, the seat melting down low and my legs barely touching the ground. I put my arms on the sides and tried to pull myself up a bit.
She shut the laptop and turned around to the filing cabinet, pulling out a file, before turning back and setting it down on the desk. Pulling out a piece of paper and a pen, she looked back up.
"I'm Dr. Gill, I'm sure you heard from the nurses that I'm the group's psychologist. I see everyone here, including - now - you. So please, don't be afraid to talk about anything that comes to mind. I'm here to help. Think of me as your diary. Anything you say to me will be kept completely quiet. The only things I'm required to report is any hostile behavior toward yourself or toward others." I nodded and hooked my hands together, looking at my twiddling thumbs. I had been through all of this before, when Mom died, so I wasn't unfamiliar.
She looked at me for a second, then continued. "How do you feel, coming to the Lyle House? Have you been adjusting adequately?"
I nodded. "Everyone seems… nice." I said quietly, deciding to participate a little. How could I convince them that I'm okay, if I don't even talk to them? "Liz has been very helpful. She's been checking in on me to make sure I'm okay."
She smiled. "Liz is certainly one of a kind. How about the others?"
"Simon and Rae seem nice too. The others I haven't really talked to. I haven't met Peter yet." I decided to skip over my… interesting encounter with Tori. I didn't want to step on any toes by already narking people out.
"That's good that you're getting along. Peter has been showing great progress, so he was sent home for a couple days, to see how well he adjusts back to normal life. If all goes well, he'll be able to graduate from here." She jotted down a couple things, then opened the file. "Let's start getting into the heart of things. It says here that during your third period, you had "started to shake, stood up abruptly, scraping your wrists and hands on a stray nail on your desk, then proceeded to run screaming down the hall, jumping out of a second story window." She looked back up at me, closing the file and folding her hands in front of her. "I've heard the onlookers versions' of this tale, but I haven't heard yours. Would you mind telling me what really happened?"
What really happened. I almost laughed. If only she could see what I could. I wouldn't be the only one sitting in therapy.
I quit that thought and took a deep breath. The best way to get out of therapy was to admit that you had a problem. So, telling the truth in the beginning was the best way to handle this. Then, after a few appointments and a few days of "taking" my medication, I would act like everything was getting better, and be sent home free. Hopefully.
"I-I was having a good day. My dad had told me that he had taken some time off for me." I stopped and slouched back into the chair. I felt my heart sink as I remembered. My dad had finally made time for me, and this is how we spent it. Apart, with me being put in a crazy home where he wasn't allowed to see me until I got better.
I'm so sorry, Dad.
"I understand that your dad was gone often. Did you ever get lonely?"
"Yes." I answered simply.
"Did you ever hate him for it?"
I shook my head. "No, he's only supporting me the only way he knows how. I could never hate him."
"That's very mature of you, Chloe. Not a lot of teenagers feel the same way." I thanked her and waited for her next question.
She wrote something down quickly and looked back up. "I know that the next few questions will be tough, so just say when you want to stop, alright?" I nodded, and she continued. "What happened during third period, Chloe? Your teacher mentioned that before what was reported, you had run to the bathroom, looking sick."
I nodded again. "I had just started my period. When I got back, I wasn't feeling much better, but figured it was due to that."
She nodded for me to continue.
"A-At first, I just saw black ooze dripping from the ceiling. I thought it might have been just a leak, but then it got underneath the teacher's shoes. I knew something was weird when she didn't say anything about it. I was about to say something when I h-h-heard something i-in the ceiling t-tiles."
I felt myself shaking slightly, reliving the memories. Dr. Gil looked up from her notes. "You heard this thing?"
I froze. I had. I had heard it moving. The thumping of it crawling across towards me. I had heard this thing's footsteps.
My mental red alarm started to go off. Not good. Not good. Not good.
"Y-y-yeah. I-I could e-even h-h-hear the d-dr-drops." Her eyes widened slightly as she scribbled down more. My shaking worsened.
If I can hear this thing and the dripping, how will I be able to tell the rest apart from the living?
"Chloe…? Chloe! Breath." I snapped my head up to her, and realized that my hands had gripped the edges of the chair for dear life. I was shaking badly.
"Chloe, I want you to breath in for five, then exhale for ten." She stood up and walked over to me, kneeling down and putting one of her hands on top of mine. I flinched for a second before relaxing a little. She started counting, motioning for me to breath in, then back out. Once I had started to calm down, she moved back to her seat, scribbling for a second before looking back again to me.
"Do you want to stop?" I thought for a second.
"N-no. Best to get it all out now." She gave another smile. "A big part of healing is learning how to talk about it. You're doing really well. You can continue whenever you wish, I have the whole day cleared for you."
I nodded, then, after a couple minutes, continued.
"Something had crawled out of the ceiling tile. Something… disgusting. It s-saw me and fell in front of me, crawling onto m-my desk."
"What did this thing look like, Chloe?"
"I-i-t was tall, skinny. Nothing but bones. I-it's skin was spread thin over it, and it's neck was too long. T-that thing had no n-nose o-or mouth. Just b-black for eyes, with wh-white lights in the center. T-t-t-the sk-sk-skin had r-r-ripped o-opened when it s-s-smiled." I shook my head quickly to try and get the image out of my head, trying instead to focus on Dr. Gil scribbling frantically on the paper. She seemed to circle something multiple times before looking back at me.
"Did it do anything, Chloe? Did it say anything?"
I nodded. "I-i-it said i-it could see me n-now."
At the end of the meeting, Dr. Gil had said that my diagnosis currently was mild schizophrenia. Mild, because I hadn't experienced anything before. She handed me a sheet of paper, describing the medication that she would be putting me on. The nurses were supposed to give it to me twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. As she walked me out of the office, I looked over to see what she had circled multiple times. I was able to barely make it out.
Shadow Person
I quickly turned my head back to Dr. Gil as she started speaking. "I'm going to request that we meet three times a week, if that's okay with you? I know you haven't started your classes, so we will discuss later whether or not you need more time for homework and chores." I nodded and turned to her.
"Thanks for listening, Dr. Gill. It does help to have someone listen and not automatically call you crazy." She nodded and smiled.
"We all have something about ourselves that we think is crazy, but it's never as crazy as it seems. It can all be traced down to nutrition, personal experiences, and chemical makeups in the brain. Not so crazy when put like that, is it?"
I smiled and nodded, saying goodbye and turning to the kitchen for lunch. She had a point. It really didn't sound so crazy when it was put that way.
