Forgotten

Chapter 2: See Who I Am

The group therapy with doctor John Jones was a common affair every Tuesday afternoon. While Kara never spoke a word, she still had to attend and hear others describe their weekly struggles and what advice the doctor had to offer. Kara actually liked doctor Jones. He was perhaps - after Alex - the only other staff member she didn't really feel intimidated by. Unlike her psychiatrist doctor Lillian Luthor, who always made her feel far worse than she actually did.

On Tuesday that week, Kara sat in her usual chair in a ring in the common room, between Winn and Eve, as she listened to Nia telling them about her newest horrific nightmare. She became hysteric as she described the blazing fire that had consumed her at night, turning everything into ash. She always suffered from such disturbing dreams that robbed her of sleep almost every night. This time, however, she became specifically so unconsolable that Alex had to take her back to her room as she sobbed.

Doctor Jones then asked Brainiac if he had something to share and he spent the next five minutes describing the spaceship he was designing to travel across the galaxy while sputtering unknown math equations as he rocked back and forth in his chair. His real name was actually something else. Brainiac, or Brainy for short, was the nickname given to him for his unmatched intelligence. A brightness that had taken him well beyond the realm of normal human understanding, and as far as Kara knew, this was one of his better days.

Winn was next to speak. He was fidgeting uncontrollably with his hands and talked about his obsessive and compulsive urges.

Eve, on the other hand, had a completely different story to tell as usual, after Winn. One that didn't quite fit with the others. She was completely normal. She was brought to Cadmus asylum after her father forced her to marry a man much older than herself and she tried to take her own life as a last resort. She was just sad and abandoned, not insane, and certainly not deserving to be in this place.

The new patient was there in their group that day for the first time, Kara noticed, but he didn't seem even remotely interested and wasn't paying any attention to what was going on. His grey eyes were too far and lost. His appearance otherwise was tidier than before, his beard shaved off and his hair cut short per mandatory institute hygienic regulation for men. Kara thought he looked younger this way. Boyish even, was it not for the pale haunted look on his face.

"Kara? Would you like to say something today?" Doctor Jones softly asked her as always, even though she wouldn't speak a word and continued her role as a silent observer in every session. She shook her head again, passing yet another chance. In doing so, she saw the new patient looking at her intently instead of the crack on the floor that had been his focus for the past hour. His lingering stare was interrupted when the doctor spoke to him next.

"Mike, welcome to our group today. Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?"

Mike . His name was Mike, Kara reveled at learning his name at long last and at the same time felt as though something about it wasn't quite right. But she couldn't say why.

Until that day, Kara hadn't cared much about what other patients had to say and all of a sudden, she desperately wished to hear his story. She wondered how he sounded like, when not shouting in pain. To her disappointment, however, the man, Mike, copied Kara by shaking his head in rejection and his eyes fixated back on the tile between his flat shoes.

That night Kara had a vivid dream about walking through the field of green again, a field of serenity, swaying with a gentle summer breeze. But for the first time, she wasn't alone. Fingers softly caressed the length of her arm as a warm solid body materialized behind her. Just as she slowly turned to meet this novel presence in her dream, the routine wake-up call at 7:30 in the morning jolted her awake. Despite never seeing the face of this new person, a name now rang through her mind as if shouted into her ears.