Shrink Sense

Better Hallucinations

"Useless folly. These petty children won't leave me alone. Save us Alice! They say as if I'm in any state to save anyone, let alone myself..." The chair I was sitting in was almost as uncomfortable as the stare Dr. Bumby was giving me.

I shifted uneasily looking along the browning stripped wallpaper surrounding me.

His gaze made me hot and uncomfortable, almost like how my bed was in the fire. Smoke billowed up in grey giants and screams were as sharp as switchblades that night.

Shuddering, I looked up to Bumby. His hair neatly slicked back and brows furrowed downward leading to his thin dusty glasses. The wrinkles on his face were few but noticable. A sign of age I noted.

"Can I talk about the fire?" I asked softly scrunching up in my chair. "Were forgetting the fire not remembering it, dear Alice." He rubbed his palms against his forehead as if trying to relieve himself of a pain or ailment.

"It haunts my mind, and I doubt it will ever leave until I..." His fist slammed on the desk and I knew that was the sign to give up.

"How would you know what's best for you dear child? Leave your ailments to me. I am the doctor after all Alice." The light from the window outside bothered me. The color of it, blinding in an odd urgency. I felt violet seeping from the window sill and my eyes became devoid of any other color.

"What..?" I stood up and stumbled to the sill unaware of the anxious eyes trailing my movements. I rubbed my own eyes so much that I'm astonished they didn't bleed out.

On the edge of the window sill was a drawing, glowing in a heavy shade of violet. The purple painted a picture, of a small flame, which continued on to burn a tree, and a house...

I jumped back from the window rubbing my eyes once more. I opened them and nothing.

"Doctor, I need to get some rest, I think I might have just been hallucinating..." I quietly tucked a stray hair behind my ear before looking at the doctor.

Mysterious, was the only word I could use to describe his stature in that moment. "Sit Alice, let's talk about it." With his tone I knew there was no leaving him. I quickly sat back down in the patient chair in front of his desk and rubbed my head.

"Go on Alice." Bumby looked intensely at me, listening. "The image was almost like... my shrink sense in wonderland. The drawings were glowing purple on the window sill..!" I felt a little silly at the proposal of such a thing being real but Bumby didn't seem to be shocked.

I looked up nervously and the blinding purple on the wall was the only thing in eyesight. Rigid neon lines drew out a heart on the bookshelf right behind Bumby's desk. My eyes widened at the image and I stood up then staggered back.

"What is it Alice..?" The Doctor asked curiously. Badump, Badump. I gasped and rubbed my eyes making the horrific image evaporate.

I slumped quietly back in the chair. "I could have swore I saw a beating heart... right there beside you, on the bookshelf... But it must have been my imagination..." I trailed off looking first at Bumby, then to the floor.

He took a deep breath and ushered me out. "Get some rest dear Alice. You could use it."