The Last Hope

03 - Nightmares

SONG FOR THIS CHAPTER - Sundara Karma, Flame. Linked above! If you enjoy the chapter please vote, it means a lot.

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"Miss Reid, lovely to see you, how are you today?" Counsellor Woodhouse asked, gesturing with a lanky arm for Mercy to take a seat across the desk from him.

James Woodhouse had a thick Boston accent and an unfettered penchant for gum. He wore chunky framed glasses on his thin nose, his eyes comically large beneath them. He sat sprawled in his desk chair, feet atop colourful leaflets, rumpling his fresh blazer jacket, which he wore over a checked shirt and tie. Inches from Mercy's face, his dirty shoes dropped a muddy puddle onto the veneer of his desk. Though it was sunny outside, so how on earth he'd found mud?

"Come on, Counsellor Woodhouse, you know I don't need to come here anymore. It was Cameron that climbed onto the roof! I just went up there to get her down. Coming here all the time is interfering with my classes."

James Woodhouse quirked a pale brow, smacking his gum, "how many times have you used that excuse now, Miss Reid?"

Mercy shrugged non-committally, unwilling to answer. James woodhouse flipped through his notes in front of him, Mercy's file, she realised with chagrin. "Twelve times, Miss Reid, you've used the excuse that twelve times. And do you know how many times I've checked your class schedule to see if it's true?" He paused waiting for her to answer. Mercy's heavy stare was unimpressed, "also twelve times. These little weekly sessions do not, and have never, interfered with your classes, so I advise you to come up with a different excuse."

Mercy huffed and looked around his dingy office space, yellowed paint was peeling off the walls in many places, and on the roof, the patch of damp grew bigger by the week. "So, Miss Reid, how are you feeling this week?"

Mercy ground her teeth together. These little counselling sessions had been ordered by Prescott, her college, after they'd found out about Cameron's antics one particularly crazy Saturday night, at Reggie's birthday party.

It was a stupid game of dares. Mercy closed her eyes as she remembered it now. Cameron had been flirting heavily with one of the guys. A guy that Mercy had wanted. And so, in a moment of absolute stupidity and jealousy, Mercy had dared Cameron to climb out of the window onto the roof. Mercy never expected Cameron to do it. She just thought she'd refuse, therefore appearing weak in front of the guys when Mercy did her next dare.

But no.

Cameron had drank more than all of the lacrosse players combined. And so out the window, she went. In stunned silence, they watched Cameron crawl out shakily of the window, and clamber up to the roof. The spell was broken when someone outside screamed. Mercy dashed to the window, to see the onlookers staring up in horror, as Cameron teetered dangerously close to the edge.

She'd screamed for Cameron to come back inside, but whether too drunk or too deafened by the raging wind, Cameron couldn't hear a word. Mercy had then screamed for one of the boys to go out and get her. To her frustration, they'd all refused, quickly dashing down the stairs. Mercy had ground her teeth in anger. And hung on tight to the window as she lowered herself to the edge. The screaming had gotten louder, but Mercy refused to let herself look down, or her whole body would've locked up. She was terrified, terrified of heights. But if Cameron fell, it would be all her fault. So, she pressed her back against the side of the building and shimmied her way across the ledge to the roof.

She remembered her heart trying to beat out of her chest, the way her hands had gotten clammy, making it impossible to grip onto the slate tiles and drag herself up. She remembered Cameron's inebriated smile and her slurred word, "and you thought I was a chicken." She remembered shaking so badly that the roof tiles had dislodged under her feet, and her screams of panic being echoed by the onlookers down below. But she'd grabbed Cameron around the waist and dragged her back against the wall of the building, crouching low so they were less likely to fall.