Linda
Claiborne paused in the doorway. She
looked around the padded, windowless room and wondered why they kept
putting her in here. “Life will slowly show you the dark side of
everything, every time you think you’ve made it.”
The
thought came unbidden, unwanted. Were they afraid of her? Afraid of what they thought she knew? A slow smile lifted the corners of her mouth—or just afraid?
“Please,
sit down , Ms. Claiborne.” Dr. Hester
gestured toward the chair, her voice
coarse and hard.
Linda
stared disdainfully at the psychiatrist.
She hated her. Hated the
shellaced hairdo. The red, red lips as
if she had just devoured another soul. She smiled softly again.
Because she knew. Opening her
mouth she spoke for the first time in three years. She spoke the words she’d always wanted to
say.
"You
think I’m crazy?" Linda hissed. Her
gazed traveled around the room again,
her eyes blazing with the contempt she felt.
“Don’t trust your sense of security. Don’t trust your profession. Don’t trust anything. It’s there; it’s waiting; it’s ready.”
She watched as Dr.
Hester scratched the area that long ago
had housed a set of prominent balls.
Funny how it was much harder to break the scratching habit than it had
been to get rid of those useless appendages
“Sit down, Ms. Claiborne.”
“Sit down, Ms. Claiborne.”
Linda
turned around so she wouldn’t have to look at the
psychiatrist’s haughty face another moment.
She studied the remnants of a stain on the padded floor, wondering what
tortured soul had left it there and why
that section of the padding hadn’t been replaced.
“Several
years ago I was just like everyone else.
Young, pretty, my whole life ahead of me. I had it all.”
~ ~ ~
Dr.
Hester sat, carefully watching as she listened to Linda. She knew it. She knew eventually she’d break
the bitch down. Get inside her
head. And yet her words were the same as all those before
her. Wondering what had happened to
them. “It wasn’t long ago I was carefree and happy.”
~ ~ ~
Linda
continued talking, ignoring the smirk on Dr. Hester’s face. Her eyes took on a dreamy far away look.
“You
want to know what happened to me?” Linda
turned back to the psychiatrist, her hands clenched tightly at her side. “It can happen to you too, you know. You think you’re so smug. So smart. But you don’t know what’s out
there. You think it lurks in the
dark. It doesn’t." Linda paused, wiping the drool from her chin, “It’s coming. It’s coming for you.”
Dr. Hester laughed. “Please, Ms. Claiborne,
surely after three years of silence you can say something more profound than
this dribble.”
“Remember
the dark. Notice it around you. Be aware of everything. Don’t brush off those little things that
bother you; those are your warnings.”
Dr.
Hester yawned, clicking long nails against the desk. “Three years.
I’ve waited three years to get
inside your head, and this is all there is.
How boring."
Linda
turned her back to the psychiatrist and closed her eyes. Closed out the ugly vision.
“And
the funny thing is, Doctor,” Linda spat the word doctor out like a four letter
word, “you will never see it coming. I
can promise you that. You will think
she’s your friend. Oh, if I didn’t hate
you so much, I would actually feel sorry for you.”
“You
can go now, Ms. Claiborne. I’ll see you
in group tomorrow. “
Linda
smiled, her voice soft, gentle. “I’ll
grant your wish, Dr. Hester.”
“And
what wish would that be, Ms. Claiborne?” Dr. Hester scoffed, shuffling the
paper work on her desk.
Linda
didn’t answer, but opened the door,
quickly leaving the room. Soon. It would be soon. Her lips curved into a smile. “ I’ll
let you inside my mind.”
Had a lot of fun with this one. Perhaps tomorrow I'll do the light side.
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