The Shrinker

CHAPTER FIVE (PART-2)

Soon as the door closed, Jamie finally broke. Still on her knees she burst into a series of wailing sobs, her body shaking as if she were having a fit. She collapsed to the floor and covered her face with both hands, clawing her nails upon the sides of her head. She stayed like that almost an hour, despairingly crying, feeling utterly alone.

Any good feelings she'd had from her birthday, like making a new friend and attending Shelley's party, disappeared as if they were ancient memories. She felt completely pathetic, hopeless and worthless. Her uncle was right; there was nothing to celebrate about her life and nothing to look forward to. She'd never be able to accomplish anything and nobody would ever care about her, no matter how hard she tried.

One look at the mail told her that her mother had ignored her birthday again; there wasn't even a card from a mysterious long-last father. Neither ever cared and all she had for family was an uncle who despised her. Much of her fellow students and everyone else appeared inclined to dislike her.

Jamie felt certain Shelley would abandon her someday once she got into an Autistic social group; she wouldn't need her anymore. And she knew somehow she'd drive Meredith away; that she'd get ditched when her new friend learnt what a depressing inferior person Jamie was. Her uncle would never accept her, so she could never have a girlfriend. She could never become an attractive person to any girl anyway. There was nothing to live for.

I've never been loved and I never deserved to be. I'm just a horrible mistake...

Her stomach ached horribly as she got up, but this affected her nowhere near as much as the influx of negative emotions. Jamie stood before the sink and stared at the glass shards inside; the remains of the bottle.

The last time she'd attempted self harm was four months previously after her fight with Emilia and near-expulsion. She'd come home and tried to slash her wrists with a kitchen knife but its blunt blade left only white marks. She spied a large jagged piece in the shards that could do worse.

Her tears still falling, Jamie shakily grabbed the largest piece. Holding her left wrist over the sink, she poked it with the jagged point of the shard and began to press hard, determined to spill blood. The pain began but Jamie pressed harder, fighting against the instinct to self-preserve. It was a hard back-and-forth mental battle.

She hesitated a couple minutes before reminding herself she had nothing in life. The shard drew a spot of blood. Jamie grit her teeth as she slowly started to move it across, spreading the cut. The pain became intense and her wrist seemed to burn. Blood began to drip into the sink.

Suddenly her right hand began to get fully numb and tingle at the same time; she could feel the flow of her bloodstream within her fingers and hands. Then she was startled to see a faint blue glow start to emanate from them. As her cut reached five inches long and threatened to dig deeper, she suddenly heard a voice in her head. Not her own, but a monotone a-gender voice.

NO, STOP IT JAMIE. I CAN'T LET YOU DO THIS TO US. JUST STOP.

Jamie halted, tears freezing as her eyes flew wide and her mouth gaped open. Blood slid down the shard into the sink as she paused mid-movement. But the shock of the voice was nothing compared to what happened next.

The faint blue glow in her hands erupted into a startling flash of light which illuminated the room and burned into Jamie's eyes. But she clearly saw the glass shard she was holding shrink before her; in only a second it went from being the length of her hand to the size of a harmless miniature pin.

Jamie yelled in surprise and dropped it, taking a spooked step back from the sink. But she still watched as the shrunken glass fell among the other shards, causing another flash of light to erupt. Jamie gawped in total disbelief as everyone of the other shards shrank to the same miniature size, all at the same time. They were barely visible.